Skip to main content

Carmel Marathon 2013 Training; Phase 1

The first phase of training for the Carmel 2013 Marathon is complete. This phase is called the endurance phase and lead me through a build up in mileage from running 55 to 80 miles in a week. I am now in the last few days of a recovery week where my mileage and intensity is purposefully cut so that my body can respond to the stimulus provided and make the adaptations needed to allow me to run more with less fatigue. This will be valuable in the next phase as I will increase the intensity of running while maintaining and even increasing the distance in order to teach my body run further, faster.

In looking back at this period of training which began on 12/23/2012 I have logged about 350 miles at an average pace of 7:41 / mile for a total of over 41 hours of running. My average distance is about 8 miles per run with the longest run being 21.1 miles. The average of 8 miles per run doesn't really tell the story though as the runs tend to be either 12 - 15 miles or 5 miles. About once a week the distance is bumped up over 15 to somewhere between 16 and 22 and on occasion I throw in a shorter run of 1-3 miles.

A couple of things that I began doing and will carry forward into the rest of the training are easier easy runs and longer long runs. First, easier easy runs. I really do not like running slow. I mean I really don't like it. I would describe slow running as something that sucks the life out of me. But I am really starting to see the value of the slow/easy runs in the additional mileage it allows me to run without increasing my fatigue debt. In other words, these miles still cause my body to make adaptations that make me a better runner but they do not increase my over all level of fatigue. This allows me to maximize my efforts during the next hard workout. I think that I finally get it and am willing to accept that a couple of days a week I need to run like this in order to get the most out of the time that I put into training.

The longer long runs are what I blogged about before. Running further than the plan calls for and hopefully longer than the actual marathon distance a few times. But doing it slowly and with several walk breaks in order to ensure that I do not incur any need for additional recovery that would interfere with the rest of the training schedule. The purpose is to develop the muscular skeletal strength that will allow me to finish the marathon without feeling like my legs are "coming undone."

So phase 1 is in the books and the goal fatigue has been achieved. At the end of this recovery week my legs really feel like they are coming back to life and I am excited to get started on the next phase; The lactate threshold phase. This phase will focus on increasing what my body can tolerate before it produces more lactic acid than it can clear. This in turn will allow me to run further, faster.

 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A Man Full of Leprosy

In the Gospel reading for Mass today, LK 5:12-16 we read Now there was a man full of leprosy in one of the towns where he was; and when he saw Jesus, he fell prostrate, pleaded with him, and said, “Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.” LK 5:12 The weather this morning forced me into the gym and onto the treadmill. So as I was runningandpraying on the treadmill I kept coming back to this first verse of today's Gospel. This verse I think addresses 2 profound yet prevalent misconceptions about Christianity. On one hand, there is a notion that Christians believe they are perfect and don't sin and don't need to be made clean. But that is just not true. We are all like this leper, full of sin that is eating away our life. That doesn't mean we cannot approach our Lord. Rather, it means that we must approach Him because He is the one who can make us clean. On the other hand, a lot of people have the idea that Christians think they merely need to say "Jesus i...

2013 BeeBumble 10k: Race Report

This has quickly become one of my favorite races of the year and I am not alone because there was a record 575 participants across the different events this year. I like the small town atmosphere, I like the course that is an out and back on a country road, and the timing makes it a perfect tune up race for the fall season. After my performance here the last two years I am also really beginning to appreciate it for the confidence booster it is and it's ability to add a breath of fresh air to the end of the training cycle for the 2013 Indianapolis Monumental Marathon. For this race I added an early morning shake out run to get my body primed for running. This was just a short and easy 20 minute run very first thing out of bed. Nearly all of my running is first thing in the morning but  I've never done it as a shakeout for a race. I liked it and think I'll keep it. The last 5k I ran I didn't do a warm up and I learned my lesson because it cost me a very slow fi...

Running Goals or Running Goal; What is it That I Want?

The other day I got all caught up in setting running goals for myself for the rest of the year. After the goals were set, I found myself starting to worry about how I was going to reach them. Wondering if there would be time to sufficiently prepare for them all. My goals were to run a 5k in under 20 minutes, to run a half marathon in 1:25 minutes and qualify for and run in the Boston marathon in 2014. At first, I thought that setting and meeting these goals would make me a more serious runner. In fact, I thought that to be the "serious" runner I want to be that I needed these goals. However, while I was running the other morning I realized that first of all, I was thinking about how to shift my training to meet my 5k goal. Then I began thinking about the right approach to a 1:25 half while training to qualify for Boston in a full marathon a month later. That is when I realized that the ancillary goals were starting to consume my focus and quite possibly i...