Patience; the new endurance sport.

December 24, 2024

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Location:

UT,

Member Since:

Dec 31, 2007

Gender:

Female

Goal Type:

Marathon Finish

Running Accomplishments:

I ran my first marathon as a teenager in 1981 with my Dad (The Coronado Marathon). Since then I've run St, George (3x) Utah Valley (3x) Ogden (1 full, 2 halves) Park City (1 x) Boston Marathon (1x) Washington DC (1x) Moab Half Marathon (6x) ,Ye Old Freedom Festival 5 & 10K (a million x) and many others.

But I'm all done with that now.  I'm officially a jogger.

Short-Term Running Goals:

My running goal is to keep on keepin' on.

 

Long-Term Running Goals:

Jog into the sunset.

Personal:

I like being outside.

Favorite Blogs:

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Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 0.00
Saucony ProGrid V Lifetime Miles: 479.51
Saucony Ride Lifetime Miles: 841.34
Saucony Tangent Lifetime Miles: 150.93
Saucony Ride Lifetime Miles: 307.50
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
16.002.0018.00

8:30/8:46/9:12/9:50/9:44/9:32/9:53/9:14/9:48/9:49/9:49/9:21/9:27/9:32/10:04/9:45/9:52/9:50

It's dumb to record all those splits since I wasn't going for speed. I had to run a few before Catherine showed up, and met Sasha & Jeff on the trail who came from behind asking 'how my legs were.' My legs felt fine (in that moment)  it was my lungs I was still warming up.  They invited me to run 6:40 for a quarter mile.  I wasn't expecting that and wanted to be game, but all I could think about was the other 18 miles I needed to run with my bronchitis lungs.  I made it almost the quarter, but I was really trying to get in some air toward the end and wouldn't (not couldn't) maintain it for the last 100 feet.  They continued running and I just behind them for about another mile, then I had to turn around to meet Cathetrine at 7:30.  The reason I put the splits in there was because I need to remind myself how much a (single!) fast quarter mile improves your over all time .  If I can run fast only 1/4 of the time I could sustain a 8:30/8:40 pretty easily.  This is what I practiced in my speedwork last Fall and it worked.  But I've not had the lung capacity or energy to do my speed play for two weeks and I'm paying for it now. I've run strong, but it's not the same as pushing aerobic capacity.   But for today I did get 18 under my belt with Catherine and pushed hard.  The average pace was 9:37 (thanks to those 2 faster miles to begin with).   But I have to say--I'm beat.  I went from 50 miles/week to 30 back to 50.  I just hope when I get over all this crud I'll be able to push my legs/lungs to do what I know has to be done.  If not, I'd just comfortably go slower and slower.  I don't mind running the Utah Valley marathon in 4:25, but I want to finish Boston in under 4 hours.  We'll see.  I really dug deep today just to get that mileage, but I felt way stronger than Thursday.  That felt like progress.

Comments
From RAD on Sat, Mar 06, 2010 at 22:40:31 from 67.172.229.125

Nice run Luz, that is one fast 1/4 mile!! You did great keeping up while your lungs would let you - it probably was best to save them.

I'm glad you had Catherine to help you push through and dig deep - she's amazing, just like you!

From Sasha Pachev on Wed, Mar 17, 2010 at 17:21:02 from 192.168.1.1

Luz - I watched you during the fast quarter, and got an idea. The reason 6:40 pace is hard for you is that your internal contract-relax clock is not used to this short of a cycle.

When you run let's say 8:00 your muscles need to relax let's say for 0.4 s (a rough guess). Now at 6:40 they get to relax for only 0.3s (again a rough guess, but you get the idea). But being under this kind of constraint they do not relax very much or at all.

The fix is something like this. Do 100 meter pickups at around that pace plus or minus 20 seconds per mile. How fast exactly is not as important as learning to coast through it at a good pace (27 seconds or faster) while minimizing the mental strain. The goal is to teach the muscles how to cat-nap, so to speak. When you do it right you will really enjoy that pickup. Do maybe 4 of those every other day or so. Adjust based on how you feel.

From LuzyLew on Wed, Mar 17, 2010 at 17:38:56 from 208.187.197.42

Part of my problem that particular morning was aerobic. I have been really struggling to get over a lingering case of bronchits. But you did say I needed to be smoother--which is true. I did feel like I was flailing my arms, the stride was not efficient, and I was gasping for breath. You're right about my interal contract-relax cycle. theory and the 100 meter pick ups. On the days I say I do "speed work" which right now is T/Th I use those triangles on the trial (is that about 100M?) and I just go fast as I comfortably can every other one, or go fast, faster, fastest, then relax for 2. Then down where there are no markers by the lake, I count 30 fence posts and run every other 30 fast as I can. Doing just a few pick ups last fall about 3-4 weeks before St. George made a tremendous difference in my race pace. I think I know what you mean by mimimizing the mental strain and teaching my muscles to cat namp-- but I'm still waiting to 'enjoy' the pick up. Besides which, I find running fast and the ensuring pain scary. I get scared.

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