Total Miles For Week (Year): 102 (1749)
Long Run: 28
In general I feel good for where I'm at right now, but I'm worried about carrying my fitness all the way to October. Looking at the Daniel's plan it calls for an 18 week build up. That seems a little long for me. Over the last few years I've generally raced a marathon or longer in June, taken some downtime in July, started seriously building in August, gotten sharp in Sept, and raced pretty well in October. My fear is if I start too early I'll be coming into TCM on fumes. Of course, that summer/early fall schedule hasn't produced a 2:22, so using history as a guide may be inappropriate. Maybe the length of the buildup isn't the problem at all. Maybe I need to schedule more down weeks, fewer consecutive high volume weeks. That could allow me to ultimately run faster. So many variables.
Then there is the thought that my ultimate goal at TCM is to get a Oly Trials qualifier, but the Trials are a scant 4 weeks later. How will my body respond to that? I would assume the ultra-training of the past couple years would help. But then that is putting the cart ahead of the horse, cross that bridge when we come to it, and any other cliche you can think of.
4 comments:
Patrick,
I say go for it and place your faith in good old JD! Think about how many Olympians the guy ahs coached and how much research he has churned out in the last 45 years!
Now,who am I to give you advice, but I have to beleive the less is more cliche for you on this one. Your mileage is bigger than 99% of folks out there, you have been at this a long time, and now with ultras and LONG runs in your legs & mind, you have a huge advantage.
So what is holding you back from popping a big one? Probably not enough rest / not enough focus on ONE event. Think about someone like Deena K. you are faster in terms of pure speed, you run higher mileage, you have more testosterone, and your body is conditioned to think 26.2 is NOT a long run.
You should be kicking her ass!
Easy days easy man, the beauty of the JD workouts/coaching is no more stress than is absolutely neccessary to stimulate the optimal physiological training response. Any more stress than that is a waste and is harmful.
Good luck, I'll be following your progress if you Keep blogging!
Wow, some good comments above me here. It's hard to think of anything to add, but that's never stopped me before!
You do have a long time to get comfortable running 5:20's for the distance, and it will be interesting to see how you tackle it. I like Daniels' focus on tempo efforts, and also his scheduling of race pace bouts. It seems you don't have much of a problem staying motivated, and I think being able to hold back, especially during the first half of training, could be a way to keep the body as motivated as the mind.
Thanks again for the tips on TCM, I booked the flight today.
PR-
I've known you a long time, and one thing for sure is you can train like no other...having said that, I like what loomdog said. Give JD a try and follow his plan as close as possible. The one thing I can't stress enough is hit the trails on your easy days and leave the watch in the car. You know how long most of the loops are so just get in the time and run slow. You will make the time standard this time around, have faith in the program son...
G
Good advice everyone. It reinforces what I've been feeling in my gut lately.
G-Rob - I've wanted to try leaving the watch off, but haven't mustered the courage up to this point. I think I'm ready to give it a try on the easy days.
Loomdog- you kind of kicked started something in my brain. Looking at Daniels I was starting to think I needed to add another workout (shorter speed) because I wanted to run some PRs at shorter distances. Now I feel like I really just need to worry about TCM and take my rest as it is scheduled.
Mike - I liked your recent blog post about Mystery Coach's plan/theory. I like it. It seemed to work for Eric didn't it? Very illuminating.
I am getting more confident everyday that I'm going to get it right this time.
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