Slowly Getting Faster

Today was a tough one.  I think my double session yesterday was overkill for my fitness level at this point. I would love to be one of those hard-asses that can do doubles but I need to get my volume up first.  I only did 17+ miles last week, which is pathetic. So here I am Sunday, new week and a new start. We'll see if I can get somewhere closer to 40 miles in this week. 

 At any rate.  I think this run was more difficult not only because I killed myself yesterday, but because it was on a trail, which is different terrain, and because there was 950+ feet of elevation gain.  I usually only get somewhere between 300 and 500 so that extra 400-600 feet was difficult.  Add to that the fact that it was on loose dirt and voila, the run is more difficult. the trail was close to my house so I think I need to run it more often, get my legs in the kind of shape they need to be in.   

I am also not so sure about these shoes.  I have Brooks Cascadias which I have worn for a while on trail runs and up to this point have liked.  But I have been doing a lot of my training in my zero drop Altras and have grown accustomed to my foot being able to do what it is meant to do.  I could really feel the 4mm drop in these Cascadias today, and the cramped toe box was more noticeable as well.  (not that the toe box is any more cramped than any other running shoe I've ever worn, it's just not as open as the Altra toe box). It might be time for me to invest in the Altra trial shoe.  

This run was not good. I felt very tired. Am I doning something wrong? Too much maybe? I have done 6 3 days in a row and both yesterday and today were tough. I think I'm going to rest tomorrow and see where that gets me.

The rest was the key I think. I felt great this morning. I did 6 miles consisting of 1 mile warmup, 1 mile cooldown, and 4 miles of alternating sprint and medium effort jog every 1/2 mile. The medium effort jog was at 9 min mile or faster and the sprint was as fast as I could go and sustain my speed for the whole 1/2 mile.

When I finished I felt great. In fact, I felt great the whole time. And, I finished 6 miles in 8:15 per mile, which is as fast as I have ever done it I think. I've heard of resting runs but I must not have the technique down. Until I figure it out I guess I'll just take a day off.

I started this run not intending to push for marathon pace miles, and in fact most of my miles are a bit sower than I would like my marathon pace to be, but on the whole this was a great run.  I felt so good I decided to turn my slow rest jog into an actual workout.  I ended up running the 6.71 in 8:22 per mile. Again, not as fast as I want my marathon pace to be but I've still got 11 months to get that time down. 

This run was very difficult for 2 reasons, I think.  First, I did 2 6 mile speed workouts last week and I was still fatigued from that.  Lesson learned, do not kill myself with speed work. Second, I haven't run this far since August 13th. The body will adapt to what you throw at it, but if I never give it a challenge longer than 7 miles, it will never adapt to a longer distance.