Patience, the NEW Endurance Sport!

sounds like a good experiment to me! I'll be checking in for the results :) I love the new picture.

Finally seeing your new pic. You look like a Hawaiian doll holding a sweet bundle! LOVE IT!!!

K, don't go over analyzing this running thing. Keep it simple. To me there are three key runs: speed, tempo, long. On speed day, run your speed intervals at 90% effort, like you would race a 5K. On tempo day, run the middle miles at a somewhat uncomfortable but steady pace, 80% effort. On long runs and easy/recovery day let your body dictates the pace where you can converse, generally 60-90 seconds slower than marathon pace, say 65-70% effort.

Obviously you can't run lazy on speed and tempo runs. There are alot of wiggle rooms for the other runs: if you're recovering, if the temp is extreme, if you're feeling the groove. Listen to your body and get the feel of what the 10mm pace feel like. If it feels easy, then you know you're improving.

Your experimenting with different pace is certainly a good thing!

Merri- Thanks :) It should be interesting as usual.

Smooth- Have I told you lately that I love you?? :) You are right. I have not been consistent with my tempo work, or speed work. My body is ALWAYS saying GO SLOW! My body wants to run at a snails pace ALL OF THE TIME, which is why I am trying to impose a "faster" easy pace. The only time I notice that it is hard is mile 2 and 3. Miles after three, at faster paces, feel the same as the super slow warm up pace. does that make sense? ie- mile one at 13+ mm feels the same effort as mile 4 & 5 at 11-11:30 mm. Mile 2 and 3 are the hardest for me, 2 being the worst and 3 settling in and feeling less "super hard" ;) Today for example, I should have run for 2 more miles. One more mile at 11 mm and then one cool down jog. I think I am a SUPER slow warmer upper ;)

oh girl, you make this seem so hard! Enjoy yourself runner girl!!! I think you are doing great!

I think sometimes our bodies are ready to go faster and our minds are used to going slow. Sometimes we just need to realize that we can go a little faster and give it a try. I don't know if that's the place you're at right now, but if you are, your experiment will show it.

Carolyn- that is EXACTLY what I was thinking is going on in my brain ;) You are a mind reader ;) I am glad that your calf is feeling better :)

Les- I am having fun! Life is only fun if I have a dilemma ;) oh, and a fish taco :)

I think that Smooth offers some great advice. A good mix of speed, tempo, and distance. The rest of the week, easy running. I don't really believe in junk miles, if you're doing those three things plus keeping the long run at 1/3rd your total weekly mileage and increasing mileage week to week at 10% max. Good hill workouts can and should take the place of speed workouts. You'll do fine and you're already doing great. Keep it up.

I have such a hard time keeping everything straight, this is why I LOVE my BBK's - they plan it all for me and I just have to try and keep up :) The biggest thing for me was running hills (speed work in disguise) and losing weight. I'm definitely no running expert, but I think that's what did the most for me. I'd love to see how your experiment turns out though...I'm staying tuned!

Arti- Thanks :) I love your advice :) I have been doing a lot of "junk" miles and feeling like I have no purpose. The failed tempo last week has me a bit shaken, so a bit of introspective evaluation was bound to happen ;)

Rachel- you hit the nail on the head- NY WEIGHT! I am having such a hard time getting myself motivated to lose more. I want to, but I really am happy where I am. Golly gee! Your tips for more protein have helped me a ton. I am down almost 10 lbs from last year :)

I think the thing I said that you are referring to is that Sasha believes in running 6 days a week. He has always taught me to run what I can every day only if I feel like I can repeat at least that every other day of the week. Did that make sense..That doesn't mean I don't eventually add in some speed work but I try and keep my daily runs at a consistent level that I can handle every day..not too much not too little.

As far as trying to get faster I feel your pain in this area..I do I do. Sasha has recently told me that if I run sub 10 as much as I can on my runs that that is the magic pace that will help me improve. This is a brisk pace for me and I can keep it up for about half my run. I think he is right about this pace for me and I suspect that it is probably a good brisk pace for a lot of us. I would make it your goal to work towards a 10 min mile pace for most of your run..hoping of course that that is a pace that you can maintain without getting an injury. The beauty of the 6 day a week plan is that if you are consistent the injuries happen a lot less..I feel this is probably one of the best of Sasha's theories.

Phew..was that too much?

One last thing..I think you are beautiful and inspiring and I hope you reach your new goals. One thing that helps me a lot is having someone who is a tiny bit faster than me making me keep the pace day after day. Good luck sweetie!

Thanks Sarah- and that was just perfect :) I have always had the inner instinct to run 6 days a week, even when I was just starting. For the marathon, I changed that plan to keep the injuries at bay, but running less than 6 days a week created other problems for me (mainly mental, emotional and attitude). Now that I am healed from the marathon, I am SO back and fully committed to 6 days a week. My main problem now, as it is for many moms with young children, is getting up early ;p Running is SO important to me, but my family has to come first. This makes it so I have to get up much earlier than I would like to get the runs in that I crave/need. blah blah blah.... sorry about the lamenting ;)

I would LOVE someone to run with. My best running partner's kids are all in school, and so she likes to go late, too late for me. All of the other runners down around these parts, that go everyday, are TOO fast for me. I just need to suck it up, quit crying when the alarm goes off at 5:30 and GET A GRIP! The good news is that for the few days that I have been doing this experiment, my body seems to settle in at 11:30's :) I really think that I was having a mental block and just needed a push.

Thanks again Sarah! I hope I made sense. My brain is a bit fogged today after a battle this morning with my inner devil, that I somewhat lost :(

Sarah- the post of yours that I was referring to was Thu, Jul 16, 2009. It triggered the memory of my initial goal's when I started to run. :)

Just to add evidence of what Sarah said (Sasha said) about running 6 days/week and injury prevention, I was fine when I was putting in 50-60 miles/week running 6 days/week, but when I had a week of several missed days because of the cruise, then a couple of weeks of 6 days/week, then another week of several missed days because of trek, that's when I got injured.

Carolyn- very interesting. How is your calf feeling??

Marion- I'm so glad that my post inspired you. I don't know if everyone knows how much I was NOT a runner or a dedicated anything when Sasha and I first got married. I have seen myself change from couch potato to a "real runner" in a matter of a couple of years. Of course I did have personal training from Sasha every single blessed day for part of that. We put the kids in the stroller and ran my 4-5 miles together. If I was a swearing lady I'm sure I would have sworn at him daily...I am a screamer and got that out of my system every morning on our run together..I don't know what the neighbors thought of that! I would stop mid run and refuse to go any further if he kept demanding that I ran faster....but I did start running faster and I became a different person..truly. Now I am dedicated to running every day and I believe in it..truly I do..it does a body good. :)

You do inspire me SO much, Sarah. I hear you on the couch potato stuff. I was right there with you too :) I just get so impatient with myself and wish I was capable of change at a much faster pace :) I'd love to see a video of those screaming runs. I bet they looked pretty funny to the neighbors.

The earlier post was obviously from Sarah, not Jennifer. Good idea to read computer messages, it tells you right there above the login box who you are logged in as :-)

Marion - see the forum discussion at http://fastrunningblog.com/forum/index.php/topic,1129.0.html

I am beginning to wonder if the traditional approach of "train at a fixed percentage of your race pace" is valid when your race pace is slower than 9:00, and thus training pace slower than 10:00. I am wondering if in that situation you should train to maximize the mileage covered at 10:00 pace or faster, rather than maximize the distance while reducing the pace to whatever it takes. Which would mean reduced volume and higher intensity until you can run all of your miles under 10:00.

Obviously the concept is valid because there is a breakpoint past which we train to maximize the distance covered at a certain speed rather than the distance covered at any speed. If somebody cannot run (defined as both feet need to be off the ground for at least a small portion of the stride cycle) for even a quarter mile, we do not tell him to walk long distance to train endurance, we tell him to alternate running and walking with the goal to eliminate the walking and replace it with running. Why? Because walking is not very effective for aerobic fitness and weight control compared to running. He can walk all day long and that will not get him very far fitness-wise.

I wonder if there is a certain critical running speed that is fairly independent of the fitness level (that is how long you can maintain it for) that divides the training effect in a way similar to walking vs running. I suspect it is somewhere around 10:00/mile. At least what I see is that I cannot recall a blogger that trained at sub-10:00 and went from less than 30 miles a week to 45+ that did not improve in every distance 5K and up dramatically. Yet I have a hard time finding examples of such improvements for the bloggers that run the bulk of their mileage much slower than 10:00.

So if this is correct, what you should do is warm up, then run 10:00 pace until it does not feel good, jog to recover, and then try again. With the goal to do everything in your power to maximize the weekly mileage at 10:00 pace without overtraining or injury. Think of anything slower than 10:00 as a walking break. In fact, if a walking break makes it possible to run 10:00 again sooner and/or for longer, then take a walking break. Eventually, though, the goal is to get rid of those "walking" breaks completely.

Thanks Sasha :) I did gather that Jenny was not commenting on my blog pretty quickly, once I saw the length, and then of course read it, it was obvious Sarah was using a computer that Jenny had been logged into :)

My reasoning for starting out with the 30-40 sec increase in speed, is that last year, when I was doing too many "fast" miles, I got injured. I am thinking that increasing by 30-40 sec per mile every 3-4 weeks, will help me to make sure that I am not going to get injured. Much of that may be a mental reassurance, but it will suffice. I think you are on to something with the "slower than 10 mm" crowd. I have noticed that trend as well, in my year+ on the blog. As a personal note, there seems to be an invisible wall that really holds me at slower paces. Once I push through it, I am fine. As with so many other things, running is very mentally challenging :D