SwStudio said:Greetings, rec.runners!
This marks the third time I have had the pleasure to post the
season-ending Training Year thread. As always, thanks to
everyone who takes part in both this and the weekly verson.
Thanks for posting it. I was almost going to wait for the end of
the year to post here, but it's near enough...
First, something that's not in the list. The most interesting experience was
marathon recovery, and finding out how it worked. I'd seen teammates enjoy a
"post marathon bounce" before, but these were guys who overtrained going in.
Post-marathon, I was doing 60 miles of junk (compared to 70 with 2/week speed
work before). In hindsight, a week off before resumption of 60 miles junk
might have helped, though probably not that much. I was uninjured, and not
carrying anything resembling an injury.
A 10k race a month out turned out to be a big disappointment. My
group speedwork sessions had consisted of short easy reps -- much like doing a
bunch of strides. Which is fine in that there's no point training really hard
just after the marathon, but my endurance suffered. My legs would turn over
just fine -- for about 400m, and then they would turn to lead. I realised
that I was out of shape a little before the 10k race, and also knew there was
nothing I could do about it -- I just wasn't ready for hard training.
But the 10k race was a hard enough slap in the face that it kicked me into
gear. After that, I was physically ready to train, and the bitter taste of
defeat (more about that later) inspired me to train hard again. So it was
back to doubles, 70mpw, with two 4x1200 speed sessions. The first week, I
went slightly overboard with 4 tempo runs, a 4x1200, and an easy hill session.
The 4x1200 was barely OK, avg 4:15. About 10 seconds off my best. The first
of the tempos was mediocre, but they got better. Finished that week with 69
miles, and more importantly, was back in the doubles rhythm.
Second week I did the first 4x1200 on an odd track, avg was 4:11 which seemed
like an improvement, though hard to interpret because it's a wonky track (I
think it's 400m, but it has turns and grades). The next 4x1200 on a proper
track was a mess, because I had DOMS from a weights workout, but I plodded on.
Did another tempo. What was important to me was that I didn't feel any urge
to bomb out on the 4x1200 workouts. I'd just do them from start to finish, and
not feel too trashed at the end. Mentally, I was great even when the workout
bombed.
Third week (this one), the first 4x1200 was interrupted by snow. So I
guestimated a route that was about the right length (a subset of a .9 mile
loop) and did each of the 4 reps faster than the last. The snow cleared for
the second workout (today), and I finished the workout at an avg of 4:04.9,
about half a second off my best. So nearly 2 months out, I'm in good shape
again. What I learned is that post-marathon recovery seems like forever, even
though it's around 8 weeks or so (for me).
Quoted message said:1. How many miles/kilometres did you run this year?
3161 miles + whatever I do tomorrow
Quoted message said:2. What were your highest and lowest mileage weeks?
Highest and lowest for any training week: 79 and 40 (miles)
Highest and lowest for *any* 7 day window: 88 and 21 (miles)
Quoted message said:3. What was your longest run?
26.2 miles
Quoted message said:4. How many (if at all) races did you enter?
27
Distances:
400m: 1 (track, 62)
800m: 2 (track, both slow)
1M: 3 (track, 5:06, 4:52, 4:51)
2M: 1 (DNF)
5k: 6 (XC: 18:32/18:26. Roads: 17:30,17:45,17:52)
4M: 4 (XC: 25:22, roads: 23:19, 22:38, 23:45)
5M: 2 (28:27, 29:34)
10k: 3 (37:22, 39:30, 36:53)
10M: 1 (64:03)
HM: 3 (81:57,82:46,79:40)
Mar: 1 (2:58:31)
Quoted message said:5. What were your best and worst race performances?
best:
mile: 4:52 indoors
4M: 22:38
5M: 28:27
HM: 79:40
worst: DNF for 2 mile
biggest disappointment: the DNF and the slow 10k. The time they assigned me,
39:30, was off by a whole minute, and the course was probably wrong.
On the DNF, I was just mentally burned out from too much racing, and the
pressure got to me -- I wanted to hit each lap in 1:20 and it wasn't going to
happen. To make things worse, it was hot and I was nervous. The funny thing
is, if I hung in there, I would have got through in about 10:45 -- still very
close to goal.
Quoted message said:6. Do you have a favorite, memorable run that you did this year?
Too many to remember (-;
(1) The 22:38 4 mile. This was the start of several strong performances. I went
on to do the fast mile 2 weeks later.
(2) My indoor 4:52 mile in April. I was shooting for sub 5, so ended up with
a big negative split and very strong finish.
Quoted message said:7. What was the craziest weather you endured while running?
Well, there's the usual single-digit cold in Jan, and there were the Dec
blizzards.
But the craziest part was when I went on one of my routes in a park, to find
that the path was covered in 1 foot of snow. So I remember doing 2 miles or
so in a foot of snow, thinking, "WTF am I doing ? This isn't running". It was
more like cross country skiing, in running shoes.
Quoted message said:8. What were your goals for 2004? Did you achieve them?
Didn't have any specific goals. Some of the things I wanted to do -- break
70% WAVA, score for my team, stay uninjured, I achieved. In fact I achieved
these by a fairly good margin -- I went up to 75.3% WAVA, and was a consistent
(if low-end) scorer for my team. I wanted to break 37 for 10k. I did this by
a narrow margin.
I would have liked a sub 36, but it didn't happen. I just didn't prepare well
for any 10k races.
The marathon was very much spur-of-the-moment. I had the miles, and I had put
in the entry, so I figured, why not ? I wouldn't have minded a faster time,
but sub 3 on first try is acceptable.
Quoted message said:9. What are your goals for 2004?
Faster 10k. Don't run any marathons for a while (-;
Quoted message said:10. Do you have a favorite running-related quote to share?
It's a good time to quote the late great coach, Lydiard.
"Champions are everywhere, all you have to do is train them properly"
"It is important that you can see your feet".
"Who do you think you are, Snell?" (a heckler hararssing Lydiard and Snell
while they were out running in New York)
"Americans eat too large of portions"
"Run every day" (advice for young runners)
"Well I suppose some moderate stretches might help, but I never saw a race
horse stretching!!"
"They say beer dehydrates you but it doesn't if you drink enough of it."
"I have the most expensive urine in New Zealand but I am bloody well going to
keep taking my vitamins."
"Miles make champions."
"
How far?
To the next tree.
How fast?
Your best effort.
How many?
Until you get tired!"
Cheers,
--
Donovan Rebbechi
http://pegasus.rutgers.edu/~elflord/
