"There's only one hard and fast rule in running: sometimes you have to run one hard and fast."








Friday, February 17, 2012

More planning than running

In the past 4 days, I've run every day, for a total of 6 miles. The weather's good, I feel fine, I start off thinking "this is the day!" and after a mile, I feel overwhelming fatigue and have to stop. If anyone has an idea what's wrong, let me know. It's getting on my nerves.

Nic asked me if I'd coach him as he trains for a sub-3 marathon and sub-4 trail 50K. In a bunch of old files, I found this untried weekly plan to run a sub-3:

Monday: 9 miles hills (1400 feet of climb) in 90 minutes
Tuesday: 11 in 90 with 4-10x800m in 2:56 with 3 minute recoveries
Wednesday: 4 in 30-32
Thursday: 4 in 30-32
Friday: 4 in 30-32
Saturday: 12-13 in 90 with 7-10 @ marathon pace (48-68.5 minutes)
Sunday: 20-22 in 2:45-3:00 with 6-9 x 1 mile in 6:30 (1 mile recoveries)
Total: 65-67 miles in 8.5-9 hours

Looking at it with fresh eyes, the Sunday run looks like a killer after the Saturday run, but I think that was the idea, as it dealt with what gave me problems. The mileage looks surprisingly reasonable, but that's because there's three very easy days to make up for 4 tough ones in a row. If I were in that kind of shape, I might give it a try.

3 comments:

pensive pumpkin said...

I don't know what's wrong with you personally, but my wall appears to be at a mile and a half. So maybe you've caught whatever lazy virus I have.

Of course, if you keep going it gets better. Assuming you have the lazy virus.

Colin said...

Two suggestions:
(1) See a doctor
(2) If there's nothing (new) wrong, maybe try Gallowalking for a while?

I can't imagine that program working for me without re-ordering the days; those four hard days in a row would kill me. But good luck to Nic or anybody else who wants to give it a try -- I suspect if you could build up to hit all those workouts then you would indeed be in shape for sub-3.

SteveQ said...

The problem turned out to be asthma. Running with a heart rate monitor, I was hitting maximum, because my heart was trying to make up for lack of oxygen with each breath.