Week 5 - Marathon Training
Such days are inevitable. You spend a few weeks training, accumulating a list of solid workouts with confident performances, then step on the line when the performance “counts” for something, and the body gives in to fatigue.
Some people refer to these as “bad” races. I am not a believer in bad races. All races make sense. The result may not be what you expect or hope to achieve, but given the amount of hard running I have been doing these past few weeks, and the improper recovery I gave myself in the week leading up to the race, it’s no wonder that I had a bit of a bonk.
Week 5 — Training Record
Monday - 7.5 mi Easy Run
Tuesday - 8.1 mi w/ 40 min Fartlek Run
Wednesday - 6.6 mi Recovery Run
Thursday - 7.1 mi w/ 30-min Marathon Pace
Friday - 6.1 mi Recovery Run
Saturday - 10.4 mi w/ 10k Race
Total - 45.8 miles
But I am keeping my attention focused on the long-term project, which is to prepare for a 26.2-mile race in April. I’m still building a base fitness. As much as I like racing, the problem with races during the base-building phase is the need to run fast and the need to build volume counteract each other. I have two more 10k races scheduled over the next ten weeks, and in January I will train more specifically for those events.
Coming into this week, I suspected that recovery would be difficult. I had the Kent Christmas Rush 10k on my calendar, but even with that in mind I assigned myself the strongest workout of my training schedule last Saturday when I ran nine miles at 7:29 pace.
That was problem number one. Experience has informed me that it takes two weeks to recover from a hard run like that—even more when it is in the midst of a hard training schedule. The recovery advisor on my Garmin watch suggested a rest of 72 hours following that workout. I ran again 48 hours later. Each day this past week the recovery advisor suggested at least 48 hours of rest, and each day I ran 24 hours later. I came into the race over-fatigued.
Problem number two was poor race management. Normally, I spend at least thirty minutes planning out a race. I study the course map, identify where the hills are (up and down) and design a plan for how I want to pace myself through the race. I believe in the power of running even splits—or even better, negative splits. But to do that the trick is to NOT GO OUT TOO FAST. Well, guess what. I let the field dictate the pace of my first mile rather than my effort. What I should have done was run the first mile at 7:25. What I did was run the first mile at 7:04.
Consider my splits:
Mile 1 – 7:04
Mile 2 – 7:15
Mile 3 – 7:07
Mile 4 – 7:20
Mile 5 – 7:53
Mile 6 – 7:24
Total time - 45:52. Two minutes off my PR from a year ago.
Week 6 - Training Plan
Monday - Recovery
Tuesday - Easy
Wednesday - 400m Tempo w/ 20-sec jogs
Thursday - Easy
Friday - Easy w/ 8 x strides
Saturday - Long Run
Target - 40-42 miles
I was a mess, all over the place with my effort level. I got past mile four and recognized the agony of being in survival mode. On fresh and recovered legs, I think I could have sustained the 7:04 pace. But on a fatigued body during a week when I increased mileage to 45.8 miles and ran a 10k race, well, it makes sense that I suffered a bonk. My next 10k is on the weekend of January 5. I will certainly reduce volume going into that race.
As for next week, I will take Monday and Tuesday to run very lightly and get a full recovery before running a light tempo workout on Wednesday, followed by three more easy runs on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. I don’t like recovery weeks, but they are necessary if it is what the body needs.
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