Liftoff

AM: 22 miles. The first of three related long workouts. All are 22 miles with 1 warmup/1 cooldown. For this one, the first 14 miles were MP + 1:00, final 6 miles at MP, targeting 6:55/5:55 averages.

The second version will be 12/8, final one 10/10.

I had Mike with me almost the entire time which really helped. Christina joined us for miles 6-14, during which our pace only dropped.

14 miles in 1:36:00 (6:51 avg), 6 miles in 35:18 (5:53 avg).

AM: 7 miles.

PM: 8 miles with Quint and Mike.

AM: 7.5 miles.

PM: 11 miles. Yesterday I was beat up, today I felt almost OK to go for it at track. I had already resolved to wait until Thursday for my next hard workout, and I stuck to it.

Our group's scheduled workout was a wave tempo. The variant we do is pretty close to what I've seen called an LT wave run - in our case we alternate MP and 10k pace every 1/2 mile. Distance is for 4-6 miles.

Lee and I opted to help pace Quint, who was targeting about 3:15 / 2:57 for his half mile splits. We did 4 miles together, and hit the splits he was looking for. Mike rolled by into his 5th mile and I ran the last 3/4 of a mile with him. He closed the workout down with a 2:36 1/2 mile split, very impressive.

There was another group alternating 4:00 / 3:30. I jumped in with them for two miles to wrap up.

I had a lot of fun today. Training is going well at the moment, but I will certainly go through valleys and burnout again. At times it's really good for me to step away from my personal goals and help other people. I don't think I have the temperament to be a coach, but maybe some day I could just help pace friends through workouts and races. Seeing people work hard, especially when they succeed, is an awesome feeling.

Anyway, I'm planning on doing this workout Thursday AM.

AM: 8.5 miles.

PM: 8 miles at lunch with Mike and Quint. Things actually started out dry, but once again we finished with a lightning storm rolling by.

AM: 8 miles, workout fail. Woke up exhausted, went through the motions of getting ready, did my warmup. I struggled through the file half-mile at MP and pulled the plug.

Always a bummer when that happens, but I've been on for awhile so I'm not too worried.

PM: Absolutely exhausted, no running.

Lunch: 8.5 miles with Mike, awesome conversation. I almost walked into my office without my shirt I was so wound up, had to run back to the parking garage.

So the month ended with a whimper, but I'm almost OK with that. I will probably never be totally good with less than optimal training.

I think the default understanding (at least mine) is that training progresses based on the way you mix up the variables (number of runs, total mileage, workouts, pace, etc). And it surely does.

But at the same time, I do believe it's also like riding a wave. There are times you will dial in the optimal ingredients and end up smashed on the ocean floor, and there are the opposites where I've eaten my own pizza and drank the beer and ran great the next day. It just doesn't always add up or conform.

That's not all to say there aren't good approaches to follow - there are - and I'm trying to set myself up as best I can for TCM. I do think it's helpful to keep that sine wave in mind, though - so one (me) doesn't freak out when a workout goes off the rails.

AM: 11.5 miles, felt snappy after a slacky week. Preparing for the onslaught of the inlaws.