Run Long...
I emailed Steve Walker at the end of last week, wanting to know more about his new marathon training plan, the “consistent, but moderate” plan. Steve was kind enough to email me back, and he emailed me a link to his podcast site. He did a podcast all about the new training plan back in December, and also included a link to an article in Running Times about this plan (“Marathoning the Hanson’s Way: Smashing the Myth of the 20-Miler”
http://www.runningtimes.com/rt/articles/?id=4447).
Steve’s podcast is called “Phedippidations” and can be found at
www.steverunner.com. I highly recommend listening to some of his podcasts, especially #77, the one discussing the Hansons’ marathon training plan.
I’m really, really intrigued by this plan. In my mind, it makes total sense. It’s not as drastic as I first thought—it’s not 10 miles a day, 6 days a week. There is some build-up in there, and some prescribed speed and strength work. But the key is that there are 3 days a week of 10 miles or more, and one day of doing a long-ish run (8 miles or so) at marathon pace.
Another concern that I had about this kind of schedule was that it was for experienced and faster marathoners—not beginners and slower people like me. But in the article in Running Times, the word beginner is mentioned, and there are even mileage adjustments for beginners. It’s as applicable to a 5-hour marathoner as it is to a 3:30 marathoner…and I’m eager to try it.
It’s too late in the Grandma’s game to begin a new training plan. Plus, I’d have to get Val, Steph and Deb on board, and I don’t see that happening. I know that one of Val’s major concerns is not having a 20+-mile run before race day. I, too, wonder how a plan like this could possibly work, but I’m willing to take a leap of faith, and try it—next year.
I do wonder if there is a way to adapt the plan for the TC 10 Mile race. I can already run 10 miles comfortably, so my key is going to be doing more runs at my race pace of 9:30-9:45. (My goal is to finish the TC 10 Mile in 100 minutes, giving me an average total pace of 10 minutes per mile.) I’ll also need to do more runs at my goal interval of 10:1s. I tried simply halving the mileage in the marathon plan, but it still doesn’t quite make sense to me. I think that I may email Steve for his advice.
If I am able to do another marathon next year, I will definitely be adopting the Hansons’ plan.
This past Sunday, we ran 14 miles. My knee flared up at the half-way point, so I stopped and stretched it, and it was ok on the way back. It hurt, but it definitely wasn’t debilitating pain. I took an Aleve before the run, and I think that that may have helped.
But overall, it was a great run. I was tired at the end, but not completely spent. I probably could’ve gone a couple more miles. I think a lot of the good feelings had to do with the weather—it was warm and sunny, and lots of people were out. But I also think that my fuel this time around played a big role. On our past long runs, I’ve brought my Fuel Belt with 4 flasks of Gatorade. For this run, I had that and a pack of ClifBloks. I had 2 flasks of Gatorade and maybe 2 Bloks on the way out, and then I re-filled the two empty flasks with water at the Super America (our halfway point). On the way back, I had the remaining 2 flasks of Gatorade, 2 flasks of water and 4 Bloks, and felt great the whole time. Poor Val bonked around mile 12 (which is where I usually do), but I was able to finish strong. I think it had a lot to do with that extra pack of Bloks. From now on, I am always bringing something more than Gatorade.
I also had a plate of pasta for dinner Saturday night. Nothing excessive, but dinner was definitely heavy on the carbs. I’m not a huge believer in carbo-loading, but I can’t but wonder (like Carrie Bradshaw) if that might have had something to do with it. Abe, is pasta every Saturday night ok with you? : )
Since my climbing dreams were dashed last week, I’ve been thinking more and more about triathlons. Problem—I don’t swim. I looked into taking one of the Total Immersion swimming clinics at the YWCA, and I started making all these grand plans. Then, while talking with Deb this weekend on the long run, I remembered why I gave up swimming in the first place—because I find it lonely and boring. Sure, swimming around in Lake Calhoun with Karen was a blast last summer, but once it came to doing laps 3 times a week at the YWCA, I hated it. I got so bored and so discouraged. A part of me feels that I need to do a triathlon because everyone else is doing triathlons. But I really don’t think they are for me. (And since when do I do something because everyone else is doing it?) I had a blast at the Iron Girl Duathlon—I absolutely loved the multi-sport challenge. But I don’t ever think I’ll be that keen on swimming to want to train for and complete a triathlon.
Who knows? I’ll probably change my mind in the near future. But for now, I’m a 2 sport gal. Maybe someday they’ll create an Ironman Duathlon—bike 50 miles, run 26.2 and bike 50 more miles. FUN!
I’ve been able to get back with the yoga program, too, thanks to a big kick in the pants. Last night, I did one of my 20 minute DVDs, and it just about killed me. It is designed to keep your heart rate up, but mine was skyrocketing! From yoga!! And a lot of the poses presented quite a challenge. I could feel the stretch in many muscles that I have ignored. I have grown quite fond of one yoga DVD, because a lot of the poses are good for stretching your running muscles, but then I’m not necessarily strengthening my other groups. So, I’ve decided to mix it up a bit among my yoga DVDs, and not do the same DVD every morning. Heck, I’ve decided that I have to stop slacking off from the AM yoga and get up!! I’ve also thrown in some old Pilates moves, and discovered that the side-leg series from the Windsor Pilates DVDs really targets some of my weak leg muscles. Morning or night, my goal is to do yoga and some Pilates moves every day. I’m hoping that this will help keep my knee in working order until June 17th.
Also, last night we did Yassos, and they were tough, but amazingly effective. Yassos are named after Bart Yasso, who is the race services manager at RW Magazine. But his form of speedwork involves doing repeats of a half mile, and running those in the number of minutes of your marathon goal time. We want to do a 5 hour marathon, so we did our 1/2 mile repeats in 5 minutes. Last night, we did 4 repeats of this, maintaing a 10 minute/mile pace or better during the Yasso, and then walking/jogging for 5 minutes in between each repetition. The really amazing thing was that the Yassos made our goal pace of 11 min/mile feel slow and comfortable. Awesome! check out this article at runnersworld.com for more info:
http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-238-244-255-624-0,00.htmlSunday is 16 miles! Pasta on Saturday for dinner and plenty of fuel for the run are in order. Good times!
Running, running, running…no climbing!
So, I listened to this really cool podcast today by Jeff Cutler from “A Life of Play” (
http://www.jeffcutler.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=193844)
It’s a guy (Steve Walker) who has run 14 marathons, 2 per year, talking about marathon training. He talks about everything from shoes to watches to the actual training, and it’s all very interesting! One interesting thing about training that he mentioned was a new marathon training philosophy—rather than doing the typical training of building up to 20+ miles for long runs, he runs 6 times a week, 10 miles each time. Then, he’ll run 16 miles 3 times somewhere during the training period. His philosophy is that you are still getting the endurance workout, because you are running 10 miles every day, but you aren’t having to do the super duper long runs, from which it’s hard to recover. Interesting. Can’t say that I’ll adopt it now, but I might consider it next year. When would I find time to run 10 miles a day during the week?
Another interesting thing that this guy mentioned was that marathons are Mount Everest for mortals. I like that idea!! It’s a neat thought, and has re-inspired me to dig into training.
It’s also reassuring after my rock climbing debacle this week. : ) I went to VE with Dave and Audrey to give rock climbing another try. Lo and behold, I am still afraid of heights. I seem to have conveniently forgotten that fact in my armchair mountaineering. The fear really, really took me by surprise. Even though Audrey pointed out that “fear is part of the fun!”, I had a lot of trouble making it up routes. I am proud to say that I made it to the top of one route. I’ve made it to the top of two routes, now, so that’s a pretty good thing! But I’ve decided that rock climbing is not for me. So, there go all my dreams of moving to Colorado or Montana, climbing Denali and the other Seven Summits…but oh well. I’ll stick with marathons, and maybe someday run a marathon in Colorado or Montana. Maybe someday I’ll run an ultra-marathon! Maybe someday I’ll even learn to swim and do a triathlon.
Celebrating a good run with some Mickey's!
Best Fan Ever: Abe Welle
Running weekend
I ran a lot over the weekend. Well, kind of a lot. 3 days in a row. But it felt like a lot, and it felt GOOD.
On Friday, I ran a quick 3.5 after work. Once again, I did 10:1s, thinking that it would force me to keep my pace a little slower. Once again, I was wrong. I ran 3.5 in 34:54, with an average pace of 10:02. Oops. : ) And then on Saturday was the Running Room’s St. Patty’s Day 5K/10K race—one loop or two around Lake Calhoun. They closed down the parkway around the lake super early, so Abe and I ended up parking in Uptown. Luckily, we parked near Val and John and were able to walk to the start line with them.
So, as we were walking halfway around the lake to the start line, we saw the pack start! We kept walking until we saw Steph, and then just jumped in. I had forgotten my race number at home, so it really didn’t matter. We just hopped in and started running.
We decided on the walk over to only do the 5K, since we were running 12 miles the next day. It seemed foolish to expend ourselves for a 10K race when the long run is what matters most, anyway. So, we only did the 5K. But because we never actually started at the start line, our 5K was a 2.6 mile race. It was still fun. Pictures to follow.
Sunday, we did our Bunny Run. It was a great run, and much better than the last time we did it. My knee started feeling twingey around mile 10, but I made it through. I had to slow my pace way down to 12 min/mile, but I managed to get it done. I’ll have to really baby it for the rest of this week, so that I can do 16 on Sunday!
So, good news. I got a B+ on my second bio exam. Ordinarily, I’d be really upset that I didn’t get an A, but I really thought that I was going to fail this exam. I’m happy with my B+. And I’m still getting an A in the class!
It’s very encouraging—lately, I’ve been getting a little frustrated with all the work that I’m having to put into this class. I really like science—so much so that I’m joining the Science Club at MCTC!—but it’s a lot of work. This past Sunday, Val, John and I did our long run, and then I had to high-tail it home to study for 4 hours. It was absolutely gorgeous outside, and I was stuck at my desk with my bio book and my study guide. It made me think that maybe I should just chuck this whole school thing and stay where I’m at. Climb the corporate ladder and all that jazz. Take the easy way out.
But who wants to take the easy way out? Well, I’m sure many people do, but I’m not one of them. (And would climbing the corporate ladded really be that easy? No.) I think about my good grades in science and how much I’m loving it, and I think about my little North Shore dream. I think about my shadowing experience. I think about all this and more, and remember how much I want to do this. And that keeps me going.
And at least next week is spring break. I can catch up on some textbook reading.
I could use some inspiration for marathon training. It just doesn’t seem like our schedule is holding together as well as last year. It could be because we don’t have an official coach, and it’s really up to me and Val to keep ourselves to the mileage. We haven’t done the best job of that this year. It’s been hard with the crazy weather we’ve been having, but you can only use that as an excuse for so long. I wonder if it’s because *we’re* the ones in charge this year. We’re not listening to a coach who tells what to do and when to do it. We’ve got to make our decisions, and we’ve got to hold ourselves accountable. We’ve got to work hard to maintain the pace, not follow the person ahead of us. It hasn’t been easy. I’m honestly not sure that we can finish in 5 hours or less. I’m not sure that we can maintain the 11 min/mile run pace that we need to. But maintaining a total pace of 12 min/mile puts us at 5 hours and 14 minutes, which is still almost an hour off my time last year. I won’t turn my nose up at that. Creating our own training schedule and being responsible for our training has thus far been an enlightening experience. I felt like I learned a lot of lessons during the race last year that I wanted to implement this year. This year, I’ve learned a lot about constructing a training regimen…I think that next year, I will more closely follow Hal Higdon’s “Beginner 2” training schedule.
The other thing I think about a lot lately is the Seven Summits. I wonder what it would take the climb the Seven Summits—financially, emotionally, fitness-wise, time-wise. It seems a lot more feasible to consider climbing Mt. Rainier or even Denali. I’ve considered both, and looked into climbing Rainier recently. To really try something like the Seven Summits would necessitate a move to the mountains, though, wouldn’t it? So that I could really train and get used to altitude. I would love that, but would have to sacrifice time with family and friends. And at what cost to my relationship with Abe? Of course he’d be supportive, but I’d be away a lot and consumed with training most of the time. And at what cost to other dreams, like living and working on the North Shore? If I had to choose, which one would it be? Just thinking about it...
I also had ideas to look for marathons in other states. There’s a marathon in Montana in September called the Two Bear Marathon. (
http://www.twobearmarathon.org/) Based on the brochure, it looks like an amazing experience—elevation, wooded dirt trails, roads, lakes, bears, all of it!! I don’t think it’s possible to do it this year, what with saving vacation time for the North Shore. It’s probably not even feasible to do it next year, with school. But it’s something to think about.
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately.
No blog entries lately…been so busy with work, school, running and trying to have a life!
The first few weeks of marathon training have been extremely difficult. Due to typical Minnesota weather, we’ve had to cancel runs, or cut them short, which has seriously set us back.
I don’t mind running in snow, and while I *do* mind running in cold, I’ll still do it. But I don’t like running in blizzards with 2 inches of ice beneath the snow, and a temperature of 13 degrees below zero (not counting the windchill). That’s what the past few weeks have been, and it has been so frustrating!!!
But we’ve stuck to the schedule, which, with 20/20 hindsight was not the best idea. This past Sunday, we were slated for a 12-mile run, so that’s what we did. (According to the GPS, it was actually 11.56, so we were a little short). It was one of the hardest runs I’ve had in a long time. Most of the difficulty was the distance—we had run 10 miles 2 weeks earlier and that was it—but a lot of the difficulty was also due to the condition of the paths. We did an “out-and-back” to the Bunny, and the paths were completely packed with snow. In some places, it was quite treacherous, but in most, it was just difficulty to push off and land with stability. I was completely and utterly wiped out at the end of the run. We all felt like we had run about 16 miles, not 11.5.
So, Val and I have revised the schedule, particularly the long runs. It still doesn’t seem quite right, but I can’t quite articulate why. I almost feel like we are doing enough, or too much…?? I don’t know. On one hand, it seems like we’re not spending enough time at the high end of the mileage chart (18 miles or so), but then again, we’re not supposed to run 20 miles every weekend, right? Maybe I’ll email Cory and ask her what she thinks…it seems like we are just jumping around a lot with the mileage, not building up. I wonder what the official RR schedule is. Although they are only going up to 20 miles…
The other thing about marathon training this year is that I’m not as obsessed with it this year as I was last year. It could be due to all the weather issues we’ve had, maybe it’s due to school? No matter the reason, I find it to be an interesting observation. I’ve already broken my “no alcohol during marathon training” vow, too. At first it was just two Grainbelt Premiums, which wasn’t really breaking the vow. But then I had a White Russian, and then the next day I had a Finnegan’s, so yeah, I’ve officially broken it.
I felt really bad about it, until Abe gave me a little talking-to. He said, “do you really think not drinking at all will affect your time at Grandma’s?” I said, “no,” and he said, “Well get over it then.” (Abe, that was a summation of the conversation.) He’s right—the only reason I decided not to drink alcohol during training was because I did it last year, and it seemed to fit with the deprivation/sacrifice mindset that I had last year. I don’t have that mindset this year, and honestly, it kind of worries me. I don’t think I’m less committed, but my attitude is a little different. Maybe the fear is gone? I was pretty afraid of this whole marathon thing last year…I don’t know. I just have a different perspective this year, and that includes a beer on Sundays with pizza.
