Baby Steps
Yesterday I did my first double since I can't even remember when. It was definitely prior to the marathon, and it was probably prior to the taper as well. I knew I had to kind of force myself into doing it, since I'm a little weak in the self motivation department right now, so I parked my car, eight miles away from work and ran the rest of the way in. After work, I had no choice but to run the eight miles again to go get the car. Whatever works. This also marked the only two times I have run outside since the marathon as well.
The rest of the week consisted of daily 6 mile runs on the treadmill during lunch. Nothing really to note here, other than I am feeling fairly comfortable at 9.5 MPH on the treadmill. Last winter I did most of my easyish runs at 9.0 MPH, so perhaps some progress is being made. During this base phase, which I guess you could say I'm about to re-enter, I'm going to try and spend as much time as possible at a speeds just below my tempo pace. What this basically means is that during most of my runs I hope to spend some portion of it in the 6:00-6:15 range. With no real workouts planned during this phase, that should be manageable this time around. Last year, I was still acclimating myself to the higher mileage, so I was really just surviving a lot of these runs. This time, hopefully, I will be able to run them a little faster to increase the benefits.
Today's run consisted of 3 miles at a 6 min/mile pace. I was a little stiff from yesterday's double starting out, but once I started moving things started to fall into place. I see no reason why I can't keep a schedule like this in place for at least a few more weeks. While I know I probably should get back to doing some longer runs, I just don't have the motivation to do that right now, so I'm giving myself a pass on them, for at least a little while longer. Eventually, the time will come when I'll just naturally want to get back out there. It always does. For now, I'm happy to just do what I'm doing.
posted by Greg @ 12:57 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
I like the idea of faster paces since you've shown you can run them, and I'm sold on the whole progression thing for nearly every run which suits this kind of training. I'm still contemplating the whole cost/benefit analysis of regular doubles though. It's a hard thing to get used to from an organizational/family standpoint for me, and the fact that they make me feel tired probably doesn't help with the motivation.
I'm trying to incorporate doubles into my winter training and it does put a new fatigue factor into play.
I've been thinking about the double lately, too. I really only have one block of time a day for the minimum two hour routine that every run seems to involve. However, it seems like everyone who is running sub 2:30 is running doubles, so it's hard to argue with. Although, I don't know of anyone who is running three or four 20 mile plus singles a week. Maybe that is a comparable replacement. That would induce some additional fatigue, but also require some durability (luck).
With my schedule, I don't know if I'll ever be able to do regular doubles, so I have to figure something out. More miles is good though, however they are run.
When is that new baby coming, Greg?
The baby is due Dec. 3rd, but really, we're ready for it any day now.
As for doubles, I usually do mine in the morning and then at lunch, which allows me to be completely done with running when I get home from work. Doing it this way, only gives me about a 4 hour break between runs, but it works.
I don't think I could ever do more than 3 days of doubles though. That would just leave me too tired for the real meat of the schedule, which is really self-defeating. Anyway, right now I'm just running. Whenever I feel like it. If that happens twice in the same day, so be it.
It's quite liberating.
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