Pain Needs To Be Practiced

I’m experimenting with twice-a-day running. My main purpose in running twice a day on some days rather than once is to raise my overall mileage, but I’m convinced there are merits of running twice a day, even if the overall mileage is the same.

Some coaches and physiologists believe that running twice a day will make you a "stronger" runner, while running the same distance once a day carries purely aerobic benefits not gotten in a pair of shorter runs. They feel that distributing a given number of miles among more runs reduces the likelihood of injuries, since most running injuries befall runners toward the end of their runs.

The marathon training plan I’m following suggests several optional recovery runs of 20-60 minutes as a second workout 3-4 times a week. I’m beginning cautiously, so I've added a pair of easy three-mile runs for a few weeks, then I’ll progress to three of them, building on the length and frequency as much as my time and energy allow.

I ran twice on Monday and Thursday this week. As the training plan suggested, I did each of these runs as a second workout. What I found was that in each of these runs, I felt like the earlier running in the day had somehow primed me to perform better, and I had to force myself to maintain “recovery” pace. This has left me wondering if I shouldn’t try running the easy three-milers in the morning, followed by a harder workout at the end of the day. In fact, this is what I will try.

AM:  

Fartlek Run: Dynamic Stretch Warm up. UNCA loop from YWCA with  6 x 30 seconds at 7:00 pace "sprinkled in"

PM

2 easy miles on trail.

I’ve set my sights on Charlotte’s Thunder Road Marathon on December 12. I chose Thunder Road for a couple of reasons. First, it’s close by – it’s just a 2 hour drive. Second, I’ve run this marathon before, which feels like an advantage somehow. Finally, but not of least importance, is the fact they offer pace groups.

As for my training, the general framework is not much different than the training I did for the Buffalo Marathon. For Buffalo, I used the Level 2 Marathon Plan from Matt Fitzgerald’s book, “Brain Training For Runners”. For that race, my weekly mileage peaked at about 70. This time, I’m using the Level 3 Plan from the same book, and my weekly mileage will peak at about 85-95 miles.

Higher mileage means increased risk of injury. To help offset this risk, I’ve set two process goals. First, I plan to run 20-30% of my weekly mileage on softer surfaces, such as trails. I’m hoping that in addition to offering the softer surface, trail running, with it’s uneven surfaces, will also strengthen the smaller muscles of the lower leg, ankle, and foot. Secondly, I plan to average 8 hours of sleep a night.

I would characterize my training approach as minimalist generally. I want to spend as little time training as necessary to achieve my goal, mainly because I have a husband that I would like to keep. As for my weekly workout schedule, I plan to run 8 times per week (twice a day on Mondays and Thursdays), with Sundays as a complete rest day. Three of my weekly runs will be challenging: intervals one day, tempo-type stuff another day and a long run on Saturday. The remaining five runs will be base runs or recovery runs. Two of the base runs will be followed with resistance training. Mondays base run is always followed by running drills.

I plan to do several races as part of my marathon training to make the hard work fun.

Hill Workout today.

• Dynamic Stretch warm up.
• 2 miles @ recovery pace.
• 6 x 30 seconds relaxed sprint (6:45 pace) w/ 2 minute active recovery.
• 2 miles cool down @ recovery pace.

6:00 PM/ 79 degrees.

Easy 3.75 miles with Leopold (3 laps around Lake Powatan on Homestead Trail). I love trail running. In fact, I would go as far as to say that in addition to National Running Day, they should have National Trail Running Day. Word.

7:15 AM/ 66 degrees.

I feel so lethargic after laying around doing nothing (but over eating) all day yesterday. Ran the "Riverside Drive to Hill St. Loop" from the YWCA. Ended up running at Recovery pace instead of Base pace, which made for a much more enjoyable time on an otherwise crappy running day.

Today is the perfect example of a day where when you finish running, all you can be happy about is that you are done for the day. I guess that's enough:-).

Drills: 2 x 20 seconds High Knees/ 2 x 20 seconds Bounding.

BONUS: Found out I won my age group in the race Saturday.