Hills for breakfast, hold the gnats

That's great that you bounced back from your long run so quickly. You should be good to go for CIM.

I'm sorry I can't answer your question about peaking, but I'm interested in the answer if someone else can supply it.

I thought I peaked in my early twenties, but then I got a crazy second wind between the ages 38 to 42...

Now that I'm running again, I feel another peak coming.

I know this doesn't answer your question, but I thought I would share anyway.

I wonder how long a peak should last...

Way to go!! that is so great that you are feeling so strong after your long run on Sunday.

Don't know anything about peaking, but I hope I can start soon :)

Lori

I guess we'll need Dale to chime in. He's the one who reminded me in his comment Sunday that I really don't know what it means.

I'm not a big believer in peaking. I think this has a lot to do with how one trains. If you train consistently and gradually increase mileage and maintain the higher mileage then I don't know if there would be a peak. However, I guess if one trains progressively harder and reaches a level of training that can't be maintained very long, followed by a taper and then the race then I suppose that is sort of a peak.

In the case of "Billy" the wood splitter I don't think he had "peaked" since he is not at a level of undue stress, he's just gotten better and better and should be able to maintain his new abilities.

At least that's my take on the subject, I could be missing something.

Do you have a HR monitor with your 405 unit? If so do you keep track of avg. or anything like that?

No, I do not have the HR monitor on mine. I chose the cheaper, non-HR model for several reasons. But the bottom line is that I don't believe I'd train any differently with HR info than I do with perceived exertion.

Oh great, now I've fooled folks into thinking I actually know something. I figured you'd all have caught on by now that I'm making it up as I go too!

First, I think everyone's definition of peaking is different. Most people think peak comes with taper which equals 3 weeks easy before a marathon. I see peaking as getting to the highest fitness level possible, boosted by some mileage reduction at the last minute which helps your body recover a bit more than it has been able to recently.

During your training cycle, you're basically trying to straddle the fine line between optimal and over training....as much as you can handle but not too much. The periodization theories say we can only take so much of this before we need a break....so we give ourselves mini-breaks every few weeks with a reduced mileage week (which I'm bad at and rarely do...full disclosure!) and bigger breaks after our peak race. So our fitness level becomes the mountain, and you're trying to climb the mountain (your training schedule) to arrive at the summit on race day. Just before you summit, you take a quick break at the high base camp to gather your strength for the final push (race day).

After it's over, you need a break. Mentally to give yourself some time away from what you've devoted yourself to the past 18-20-22-24+ weeks, and physical since the marathon is *so* rough on your body. I still have a tough time with this myself, honestly, and don't like backing off too much, but my coach is pretty insistent so I just try to follow "the plan" and hope not to lose too much before starting again.

So to bring it back full circle, if Billy had just about hit his breaking point in January as a wood-cutting machine, then perhaps he'd back off a bit in February but would still be much better at it than in November. And I can attest to the fact that splitting wood is hard work! I can only manage a couple of hours of it before my back and hamstrings are sore :).

Hope this made some sense. And feel free to disagree.....this is just my take on the various stuff I've found on peaking/tapering.

LOL, Dale, you're on the spot now! But thank you for explaining. It makes sense in terms of managing your intensity levels. I don't like the idea of taking a major rest from running (beyond recovery) after a race though. Yeah, if it was wood cutting, maybe.