Notes
Legs were tired and a bit sore to begin with; yesterday's PCR run was a tough effort.
I drank Beta Fuel out of the flasks in the Ult Dir waist harness. The harness hurts my hips. The Beta Fuel seemed to work fine today. I had energy and my last 7 full miles were all sub-8:00 pace. I started slowly and could feel the tightness/soreness from the start, so it always surprises me that I end up running fairly fast by the half-way point.
The soreness in my legs felt like the onset of cramps today, especially in the last 2-3 miles. This is interesting -- I rarely get anything approaching cramps during training runs, usually just during a marathon itself. Q: Is it good to train right up to the point of cramping? Does this "push" out my ability to run without cramps for longer distances/durations? I'd like to think so. Next week will be my last back-to-back PCR/Long Run workouts, followed by the 4-week Coordination phase, so I'll run the PCR hard again, and see if I can go a bit farther on the Long Run (19 or 20 miles). Then, during the Coordination phase, the weekend routine will be Long O&B (13-16 @ near MP) / Long Jog (~12 @ 9:00-9:45 pace). Not sure if this will stimulate the same level of cramp onset. I will, however, keep the Long Jogs to a very easy effort level, something I haven't been careful about in past Lydiard cycles.