Monday, July 6, 2009

5-6 weeks into training

So I just came back from my second run of the day, 8 miles at a pretty relaxed pace and effort. Probably about 7:10 per mile. I've come to realize that my pace fluctuates when running in Newton a lot since the majority of my runs have been on rolling hills.
Sometimes I'll be cruising at 6:45 pace, and other times I'll be "crawling" maybe 7:30 pace up a hill.

Either way, I like to think that I run at a pretty decent effort. Not too fast, not too relaxed. I like to make sure my breathing is in control, and I monitor my effort by how controlled my breathing is. In the past, I have found that my relaxed pace where my breathing is steady and relaxed is around 7:05-7:10 pace per mile when going anywhere between 5-15 miles. I'm sure that in the future this pace might become faster when I may become more fit.

I'd like to expand on something that Jon Waldron noted in his blog, that Good training, even smart training, is actually quite boring. It is training that requires running a similar distance day after day at a consistent pace.
Luckily for me, I actually enjoy running, even at at the same pace every day.
The key is consistency, and the ability to think about consistent training in the long term.

In anything you do, you may find that it's pretty easy to put off what you may want in the long term for what you want immediately. This can apply to anything; it's one of the lessons that I've learned through my experience with athletics.
This is one reason I find that many runners have a very strong sense of self, and respect for themselves and people in general. Because of this, I also believe that runners have a great deal of fidelity with many aspects of life.
My example; sure I may feel great one day and decide to run 8 miles at 6:30 pace. However, the next few days I'm going to dig myself into a hole and just feel like crap and probably crawl on some of my runs. Not very effective training.
To quote something (Coach) John Evans told me this year, "Just run 7 minute pace per mile on every single run. Don't worry about what others are doing, feel comfortable"

So,
After about 5 weeks of running, I'm finally starting to feel comfortable running. The first few weeks were pretty tough. I just felt like my legs weren't catching up with the rest of my body. I was struggling to adjust, but now I feel like I can run more miles comfortably.
I got up to 57 miles last week and I continue to build.

The training for the rest of the summer looks like this:
(Number of miles per week following this week)
65, 75, 80, 80, 60, 80, 85.
By the time I reach 85 it will be mid-august and time to return to school for Cross Country Pre-Season training.

If all goes as plans, I will run the most I've ever run in my life by August. My training has and will continue to go differently this summer. The past two falls (my freshman and sophomore years of Cross Country) I have come into the cross season feeling pretty tired and overworked, my races definitely showed that. A lot of that I attribute to trying to adjust to running more miles while running my runs with other guys a little bit to quick for my liking.

This summer, I have been running my runs to my own effort. I will continue to do that. When increasing your mileage, I think it's good to make sure your pace is a little bit slower just so that you can adjust easier. I don't think I did that in the past summers, I overworked myself.

Well, Cheers to Summer Training. One Goal: Make it into Fall feeling Fresh.