10:00 a.m. 8 miles incl 2 miles hill climb at moderate effort. A bit of a non-workout. Too windy to get in any real quality. Feel like I should do some fartlek or something tonight, but I'll leave it and just do a steady run.
I stopped the hill climb at 2 miles and if I'm honest my mind was more on the subject of doubles and singles from Jake's blog, which was about the book 'Waterlogged', at least it was until I popped up.
Jason D raised an interesting point about conflicting views on when to introduce doubles. A lot of the 'main men' talk about doing doubles after you've hit 70-75mpw but I don't agree. I know the benefits of running longer etc but I think when you're building, doubles work much better. They don't stress the musculoskeletal system as much, which lessens the likelihood of injury and therefore increases the chances of improving fitness.
Take me as an example (this isn't me giving the big chat about how great I am - I'm all for taking the hand out of myself and I don't mind others ripping me either).
11 months back I was smoking 40 a-day and had been for 12 years, drinking 1-1.5 bottles of wine a night and had been for longer than I can remember, my diet was appalling, my cholesterol and blood pressure were high and my weight was whale-like. Now I'm a lean, mean running machine:).
I've managed to increase my weekly mileage to 100+ in 11 months through doing doubles and building every 3-4 weeks. Along the way, as the weight slipped off and the musculoskeletal system developed, I got faster. Now I haven't raced yet, so I don't know how quick I am, but I think I can go sub 17 for 5k and sub 35.30 for 10k. They're not great times, especially for somebody running 100+ mpw but from where I started, that's not bad. There are many contributing factors for this improvement, but I know that the key has been doubles and keeping the majority of my runs under an hour.
I will, soon, increase some of my runs to75 mins and 90 mins respectively, but only when I think that my musculoskeletal system is ready for it and, more importantly, when the kids are back at school - so I don't have to go running at 4:00 a.m.
Another point on the theme of improvement. Speed. I think too many people spend too much time plodding out miles and not getting stuck into the business end. Speed-work is where it's at. If you run 8 min miles, you can't run 5 min miles in races - unless you're Jake. Simple.
Now, interval sessions hurt like hell. 4x1 mile off 90 secs isn't as nice as say an easy 8. Yes, the easy 8 has a role (don't know how to put the thingymajig over the 'o'). But if you want to get faster, you need to have at least one weekly workout. Yep, you've got to get the base in first so that the musculoskeletal system can cope with the speed-work. But once you have a base, you have it; you don't need to keep going back and saying, 'Oh mister man, I'm building a base'.
Yes, keep building (we're always building), but keep at least one workout in there and do some alactic work. Think about it: if I want to run 2:20 for a marathon, I need to pretty much be able to run 10k in 30 mins. Will I do this running 15 miles at 8 min pace everyday? No. I've got to get out there and feel the pain, the gut churning pain of speed. I need to make 5:20 pace feel like it's 7 min pace. Anyway, I'm off for a shower and then I'm going to have a Bam-bar.
I'm back! 'Oh no,' I hear you scream. 'Will he ever shut up?'
The speed thing. I believe that most people have got it wrong when it comes to the marathon and that's why, more often than not, they don't hit their goals.
Most people go out there and bang out the miles and then do some tempo stuff and some intervals closer to race - to sharpen; don't start me on this sharpening malarkey. Wrong! Absolutely the wrong way to go about it, and even though I haven't even raced over 5k, I know this is the wrong method. Ok, you might have a decent(ish) time, but imagine what you could do if you were training properly...
Think about it. What is the marathon asking of you? To run hard for 26 miles. It's not asking you to run 10 miles at predicted marathon pace, it's not asking you to run 18 miles at pmp, it's demanding you run your stones* off for 26 miles. So how do you do it? How come I know more than the great coaches? Well, I'll tell you, but not until I'm good and ready:)
* Thanks Kam, for increasing the power of my vocabulary.
6:00 p.m. 8 miles steady in some savage wind and rain.
Right, I think I've managed to formulate my thoughts and ideas about training for the marathon. Tomorrow I'll post them and clarify some of the somewhat rant sounding things I've posted today - some of which, I already disagree with; can you imagine living in my bampot head? | 