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ShanHas Journal (Read 499 times)


Oh Mighty Wing

    Ok so my marathon goal is a long way off. 2010 is currently my thought. And the reason is that I always get really excited build up all crazy like and then fall off. I am determined not to do that this time! A little bit of background: I've played sports all my school life until college - where I just kind of worked out. I ran off and on but never stuck with one activity long. Then FINALLY after college I decided it was time to make my dream of running marathons happen (yes many of them - in my head I'm gonna LOVE it!). So I started running consistently in June 2007. I ran my first 5K in August, a 10K in December, and a half in June 08. I had one injury right before my half. Wow I just realized I have NOT been running that long! Smile I decided after my half that I was going to train for and run the Monkey this November. So I build my mileage up to around 30mpw and then started a training plan. I got 2 weeks into the plan and fell apart. And not just a lilttle I mean 2 miles into a long run I'm sitting on the side of a path bawling my eyes out. Poor Pam (Rocken)! She was my Hero that day!! When she looked at my behavior she found a couple things 1) 1500 cal/day is NOT enough (as indicated by the 10lbs I lost in 1 month) and 2) I didn't have the base under me to train while streaking. This deterioration led to 1.5 months off. I couldn't even look at my running shoes. I knew I wanted to get back to running but my desire was gone. So I sat around like a fat ass - no replacement exercising no nothing. But then one day I woke up and couldn't WAIT to get to my run!!! It was like it just returned - back to the way it use to be!! And all of this has lead me to 2 conclusions: The first is that I love streaking!! I love running every day. I wake up excited every day knowing i'm going to run. I also know that for me 1 day off quickly becomes 2 days, a week, or even 2 weeks, so to stay consistent I need to do this every day. And the second conclusion is that I still WANT to run marathons. So I need a plan with nice intermittent goals to keep me motivated. I have 3 currently in the works. 1) the week leading up to the monkey I am going to 26.2 miles - 4 miles for 6 days and 2.2 on the 7th day which will be the day of the race. This will be in honor of the race that will forever have me listed as DNS. (Maybe next year will be my year!) 2) Run a 10K December 7th. I don't just want to run it I want to go under 1 hour. Last year I ran this race in 1:01:13. I'm not sure if this goal is reasonable, but it's still my goal! 3) Run a half in March. And not just finish it - I want to PR that distance. So I currently have made a plan that will help me to build up my mileage. I've only worked it out enough to get me to the 10K. My plan is to build to 5-6 mpd by the 10K. Race the 10K. Then hold my mileage in that 5-6 range through December. THEN start building my long run out. Does that seem like a reasonable plan so far?? I'm looking for input, but please realize I am hell bent on running every day so advice to not do that will not be helpful for me. **Disclaimer: we are currently trying to conceive, which means all of my plans could be shot to hell once that happens. **


    #2867

      Don't rush the marathon. It took me 8 years of running before I ran one, and then 3 years before I ran another one. It was only w/the 3rd and 4th before I ran more than 1 in a year. Build up a base, and get some race experience and have some fun with shorter races. This coaching group isn't just for marathoners; set any goal and go with it! I think that your goals sound good, but only if you are eating more than 1500 calories per day now. I can't see how you can eat that little plus run 5 or 6 miles per day and not die. (Obviously, you'd get injured and stop running first, so I shouldn't be melodramatic, but you see my point.) Especially if you are trying to conceive, you don't want to put your body in a state of complete depletion or else you won't have the nutrients to keep the baby alive long enough for it to become recognizable as such through ultrasound.

      Run to Win
      25 Marathons, 17 Ultras, 16 States (Full List)


      Oh Mighty Wing

        Blaine - thank you for your input. I mentioned the marathon only to give an idea of where I am heading. Right now my focus is the week of Monkey (week long for me anyway Smile) and the 10K. Yeah that whole eating thing hadn't gone so well. I'm probably closer to 2000/2200 now. I have much more energy. To be honest I haven't been paying attention to how much I've been eating. I eat every 2 hours, mostly healthy, sometimes not. I've been working on focusing on food as fuel and not something that will make me fat. So we'll see how it goes this time!


        #2867

          Yeah that whole eating thing hadn't gone so well. I'm probably closer to 2000/2200 now. I have much more energy. To be honest I haven't been paying attention to how much I've been eating. I eat every 2 hours, mostly healthy, sometimes not. I've been working on focusing on food as fuel and not something that will make me fat. So we'll see how it goes this time!
          That's a much healthier outlook on it. Just keep a bottle or glass of water to hand and drink from it regularly, and have good snacks always available. I usually bring apples, bananas, pretzels, carrot sticks, mixed nuts, granola bars, apple leather, and beef jerkey to work as snacks, although it's been a while since I've made jerkey. Now that it is cold out I'll be making it more again. Just find things you like that serve well as fuel, keep them handy and convenient, and your snacking will only help. Eating every 2 hours is much better for you than a few large meals a day anyway.

          Run to Win
          25 Marathons, 17 Ultras, 16 States (Full List)


          Oh Mighty Wing

            Ok so this week the plan was/is: Monday - Sunday: 2, 2, 3, 2, 3, 3, 3 = 18 I missed the first 3 miler and only got 1 in due to period cramping combined with the fact that I was helping students get ready for a test. Emotionally I was just crazy so after 1 mile I just had to be done. But today I rallied back with 3.6 so I'm only down 0.4 for the week. I feel really good everything is loose, which is nice. So far so good for week 1.


            #2867

              Mixing up the mileage is better for you anyway.

              Run to Win
              25 Marathons, 17 Ultras, 16 States (Full List)


              Oh Mighty Wing

                Mixing up the mileage is better for you anyway.
                Big mixing or can it be 1 mile differences here and there?


                #2867

                  Big mixing or can it be 1 mile differences here and there?
                  That depends. At my mileage, a 1 mile difference is no difference, since a 12 mile mid-week run is really not much different than a 13 mile mid-week run. With a long run of 3 miles, though, 1 mile can make a big different. I like to think of it this way - how many training "units" you are going. So in your case, a training unit could be 1 or 1.5 miles; in my case it would be maybe 5-7 miles right now. So if you (roughly) planned out your week it might look like 2-1-2-1-2-1-3 - so your daily mileage would be something like: 3 - 1.5 - 3 - 1.5 - 3 - 1.5 - 4.5 = 18 miles That's just a rough suggestion, but as you add on miles you would add them first to your long run day, then to a mid-week workout, then eventually to other workouts. So a few months or a month later maybe you would be running something like this: 3 - 1.5 - 5 - 1.5 - 3 - 1.5 - 8.5 = 24 miles The actual numbers aren't important; the peaks and troughs in your training is where it comes into play. It forces your body to make adaptations faster by giving you an opportunity to rest and recover while still getting a good workload in. My 2 pence. (If you look at my training log, I've been doing a decent job of this during the current summary if you ignore the week I was sick and didn't run. Note that this morning's mileage only makes today look like yesterday; I'm doing a 4 mile trail race this evening so there'll be another 5 or 6 miles going up today probably, then a straight 15+ tomorrow morning.)

                  Run to Win
                  25 Marathons, 17 Ultras, 16 States (Full List)


                  Oh Mighty Wing

                    hmm I will have to think on this for a while. I guess my thought was get my easy mileage to where i wanted it to be then work on extending the long run and mid-week runs.


                    #2867

                      Running the same distance regularly isn't a bad thing, but your body has 1 priority that it is always worth considering. It only cares about 1 thing, and that is not dying... Your body wants to the absolute least that it can to stay alive. By running 3 miles per day every day, your body is going to get very efficient at running 3 miles per day. You'll adapt to that and be great, but then you won't be very good at running any other distances. By changing things around from day to day, your body has to work harder to adapt, and it has to cope with the fact that each day is going to have a slightly different stress. It won't get as efficient at doing just the one thing, which is a good thing because then you burn more calories and force more adaptations than you would by just running 3 miles, and you can improve faster and and get stronger. So when you aren't in shape, running 3 miles every day is a great way to force the initial adaptations to running. Once you hit your first plateau, though, you need to start changing things up if you want to keep improving in a timely fashion. To your body, muscle is a bad thing, fat is a good thing. Fat can easily be converted into calories to keep you alive, muscle not so much. Muscle takes energy to maintain. So, your body is going to keep your body with as little muscle as it possibly can get away with while maintain as much fat as possible so that if a famine comes you'll be more likely to survive. If you are regularly stressing it in such a way that it is in danger without the muscle, though, then it will grow that muscle so it can be more efficient at the stresses it encounters.

                      Run to Win
                      25 Marathons, 17 Ultras, 16 States (Full List)


                      Oh Mighty Wing

                        ok i see what you are saying. I guess I was thinking that since my goal right now is to do well at the 10K it would be best to increase all my runs to around that distance. Then I can smoke it!! That's at the beginning of december. And I was thinking that give me a really nice jumping off point for half training. The thing is that I never got to the point where 5 felt comfortable. And I thought it was because I didn't run them enough.


                        Oh Mighty Wing

                          So I didn't hit my weekly goal of 18 miles. I have no excuses - ok well I have lots of excuses, which is the problem. So this is I guess week 2. I am 5 weeks out from my target 10K. And at the rate I am going it is not going well. but it isn't going well because of my own laziness. So for this week I have 19 miles planned. The goal is to get most of my runs to 3 miles. I know that doesn't go with the stagger approach but I'm not sure that approach helps me get to my goals of increasing my daily minimum. I want to get to the point where the shortest distance I run is 3 miles. So for now i am going to go with my original plan of running the same distance multiple times a week. And we will see how it goes... (i'll probably be back sorry I didn't listen to Blaine, but i'm stubborn and seem to need to learn the hard way)


                          Bugs

                            Shan, I think you should staggered distance plan some more time. Two weeks is not enough. If you want to feel comfortable at running 5 miles, you've got to get up to running 7-9 miles.

                            Bugs


                            Oh Mighty Wing

                              i'm a big scared weeny. ok so i went back and read Blaine's thoughts and Bugs thoughts. so what you are saying is that it'd be better to stagger from the start and eventually my runs will all increase? i really need to stop being a runing weeny!


                              Future running partner.

                                I would seriously consider using the long/short approach Blaine had mentioned. I think you will find that increasing your mileage will come easier this way. You improve faster because you'll stress your body harder on the long days, but give yourself more rest time between the long days. During the rest time or short days, the adaptations to running longer take place. When running the same distance every day you won't cause as much physiological stress and you won't give yourself as much adequate recovery for your body to come back stronger. All of the top coaches, whether its for beginner runners or elite runners use this approach. Wink
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