Two days after the Flying Pig Marathon, I felt completely 100%. Speedy recoveries always amaze me. It's like I feel proud of my own body for bouncing back as quickly and as well as it does. By Tuesday evening, I felt strong and invincible. In retrospect, my slower pace for the marathon is what contributed to my
complete lack of injury. Because I was so much slower than my usual
pace, I was mostly just trudging along.
Usually after a race, a couple of miles the day or two after helps tremendously with recovery. I didn't feel like I needed it after Flying Pig, but I was going to get back out there and run a few miles on Wednesday anyway. Unfortunately, I pulled some kind of muscle in my neck on Wednesday and I was in all kinds of pain. My head only had about a 140 degree turn radius before I felt some kind of pain. So on Wednesday, I was back to remembering the fragility of my body. Running a marathon damaged nothing. Doing nothing hurt a neck muscle.
It's Friday and that pain has subsided. Now the neck just feels like I slept on it funny. I plan to go out there tomorrow and do a loop around the Arboretum. I signed up to run 20 miles next Saturday. Yes, it was kind of crazy when I had signed up to do it. I was thinking that I didn't want to let all my hard work training for the marathon just melt away. Barry had recommended that I at least wait until I got through Flying Pig, but I knew that a race was the best way to ensure that I wouldn't just sit on my butt for the next 5 weeks eating ice cream. Mmm, ice cream.
I'm thinking about my next marathon and have started looking into marathons in the fall. I'd like to run one sooner than that, but summers aren't kind to marathon runners. The only problem is I'm not sure where I'll be in the fall. Meanwhile though, my goal for the summer is a sub-2:00 half marathon. I'm signed up for the Madison Mini-Marathon, which I also ran and loved last year. I'm also eyeing the Fort Atkinson Half marathon in the middle of June. I'd like to start incorporating some quality runs into my training, i.e. tempo runs, interval training, hill climbs, etc and I kind of want to use the Fort Atkinson Half and the Madison Mini as comparisons for a before and after.
But who knows. I always feel a bit lazy after a goal race.
Showing posts with label recovery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label recovery. Show all posts
Friday, May 10, 2013
Friday, March 1, 2013
Long runs and walk breaks
Yesterday's 12 mile long run went okay. Lately, I've been doing all my runs at the SERF on their tiny little .10 mile track. I used to never have the patience to run more than 4 miles on the track, but with some earphones and streaming Pandora, it's now enjoyable and preferable in fact to the icy, snowy roads through the Arboretum. Snow, I'm SO over you.
What's also nice about the track at the Serf is that 9.5 laps is a mile, which gives me a nice way to pace through my shorter runs. A lap a minute makes for 9:30 min/miles. Looking back on my race results from last year, that's about the pace I ran Black Earth, and roughly the pace for the Madison Mini. It feels like the right pace for me. Of course, I have no hopes of actually keeping this pace for the full marathon. But one can dream.
Yesterday, I did the first 6 miles at roughly 9:30 min/mile, but the next 6 miles was much more of a struggle and my pace fell by the wayside. Clearly, I'm still not pacing as well as I need to be for the long runs. Also starting around mile 6, my big toe and little toe on the left foot was really REALLY bothering me. I was feeling blisters forming on both, and I start to limp a bit through my run. I thought about quitting early, but I soldiered on. Afterward, I examine the foot, and the little toe was actually blister free, but the big toe has a blister/callus. I think it's still deciding which it wants to be.
I'm supposed to do a 14 mile long run next week, but I'm a bit concerned at this point. My foot is telling me that I need some recovery time, and my body is starting to feel the fatigue. But I can't afford at this point to slow the training. So I started reading around online about training plans. One thing that struck me in particular is Jeff Galloway's style of training for a marathon, i.e. incorporating walk breaks into the long runs and on race day. He suggests lots of walk breaks early and at a ratio of about 3:1 for a a 10 minute pace. The theory is that the walk breaks paces you better early in the race/long runs, gives you recovery time during the run and lets you keep to a strong pace at the end. Some 3:30 marathoners swear by walk breaks.
A ratio of 3 minutes run to 1 minute of walking seems incredibly incredibly slow. But I don't know. I might try this for the 14 miler and see how it goes. Normally, I'd take the week off before a big race, but I don't have the luxury with the marathon, so I need a better and faster way to recover. I'm thinking that I might not stick to the 3:1 ratio, but do more of a 4:1 ratio.
What's also nice about the track at the Serf is that 9.5 laps is a mile, which gives me a nice way to pace through my shorter runs. A lap a minute makes for 9:30 min/miles. Looking back on my race results from last year, that's about the pace I ran Black Earth, and roughly the pace for the Madison Mini. It feels like the right pace for me. Of course, I have no hopes of actually keeping this pace for the full marathon. But one can dream.
Yesterday, I did the first 6 miles at roughly 9:30 min/mile, but the next 6 miles was much more of a struggle and my pace fell by the wayside. Clearly, I'm still not pacing as well as I need to be for the long runs. Also starting around mile 6, my big toe and little toe on the left foot was really REALLY bothering me. I was feeling blisters forming on both, and I start to limp a bit through my run. I thought about quitting early, but I soldiered on. Afterward, I examine the foot, and the little toe was actually blister free, but the big toe has a blister/callus. I think it's still deciding which it wants to be.
I'm supposed to do a 14 mile long run next week, but I'm a bit concerned at this point. My foot is telling me that I need some recovery time, and my body is starting to feel the fatigue. But I can't afford at this point to slow the training. So I started reading around online about training plans. One thing that struck me in particular is Jeff Galloway's style of training for a marathon, i.e. incorporating walk breaks into the long runs and on race day. He suggests lots of walk breaks early and at a ratio of about 3:1 for a a 10 minute pace. The theory is that the walk breaks paces you better early in the race/long runs, gives you recovery time during the run and lets you keep to a strong pace at the end. Some 3:30 marathoners swear by walk breaks.
A ratio of 3 minutes run to 1 minute of walking seems incredibly incredibly slow. But I don't know. I might try this for the 14 miler and see how it goes. Normally, I'd take the week off before a big race, but I don't have the luxury with the marathon, so I need a better and faster way to recover. I'm thinking that I might not stick to the 3:1 ratio, but do more of a 4:1 ratio.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)