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Date: 21 Jun 2006 02:48:20
From: GRW
Subject: When speed work doesn't work
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Just to prove that even after years of experience, we all make
mistakes....
I had a really good Summer season (S.Hemisphere) posting some category
(50+) wins including a Provincial silver medal in the half marathon
championships (84mins).
Then winter set in and my milage dropped to about 30km/week! The net
result being that every time I ran, I felt obliged to turn it into some
form of speed session.
Anyway, the experienced guys will know that without a base or enough
recovery runs, this is not sustainable. And guess what...they are
right!
About 3 weeks ago I realised that I was going backwards. I was just
not recovering.
So I decided to get back to 60km/week of just easy running for a few
weeks (NB remember MY circumstances...I'm not suggesting everyone
doubles their mileage!!).
Last night I did a 5km warm up and then 6 x hill-sprints (300m). I
felt great afterwards!
But tonight I will do a 10km jog and make sure I keep my base around
60km/week for rest of winter. From next week, I'll go back to 2
quality sessions.
...you're never too old to learn!
Garry
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Date: 21 Jun 2006 08:51:33
From: Charlie Pendejo
Subject: Re: When speed work doesn't work
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GRW wrote:
> Last night I did a 5km warm up and then 6 x hill-sprints (300m).
> I felt great afterwards!
> But tonight I will do a 10km jog and make sure I keep my base
> around 60km/week for rest of winter.
Glad to hear you're already feeling so much better for having bumped up
the base. Your point about maintaining the base if you want to do any
fast running is well-taken.
This last winter I spent a couple months at about half mileage. Wasn't
so much intentional; mostly I was a bit beat up and burned out after
the training for, and unsuccessful racing of, a fall marathon and just
had less appetite for it.
Once the running got revved up again, that downtime has proven itself
one of the most productive periods in my 3+ years of training to date:
I found myself physically and mentally recharged and eager to increase
training quantity and quality, and throughout the spring nearly every
race - even early on as I was just started to ramp the mileage back up
- has resulted in a new PR.
So I'm now a believer in seasons and breaks; but I certainly also
believe that, as you suggest, halving mileage then running it all fast
is poor training, and a poor break as well.
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Date: 21 Jun 2006 05:34:03
From: Ed Prochak
Subject: Re: When speed work doesn't work
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GRW wrote:
> Just to prove that even after years of experience, we all make
> mistakes....
>
> I had a really good Summer season (S.Hemisphere) posting some category
> (50+) wins including a Provincial silver medal in the half marathon
> championships (84mins).
>
> Then winter set in and my milage dropped to about 30km/week! The net
> result being that every time I ran, I felt obliged to turn it into some
> form of speed session.
>
> Anyway, the experienced guys will know that without a base or enough
> recovery runs, this is not sustainable. And guess what...they are
> right!
>
> About 3 weeks ago I realised that I was going backwards. I was just
> not recovering.
>
> So I decided to get back to 60km/week of just easy running for a few
> weeks (NB remember MY circumstances...I'm not suggesting everyone
> doubles their mileage!!).
>
> Last night I did a 5km warm up and then 6 x hill-sprints (300m). I
> felt great afterwards!
> But tonight I will do a 10km jog and make sure I keep my base around
> 60km/week for rest of winter. From next week, I'll go back to 2
> quality sessions.
>
> ...you're never too old to learn!
>
> Garry
Thanks for the good example. You're never too young to learn either.
Ed
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