Back to the Basics: Training to my Strengths

            I know that I just posted a blog, but as I’m sitting here not racing on the weekend that I typically dedicate to the Bayshore half marathon, I’m more excited than ever to run and race. For the first time in quite some time, I set out with a moderately difficult training week and was actually able to complete it. Since my last post, I ran two workouts.

May 26^th-Thurs- 9 mile cut-down (6:22, 6:20, 6:04, 5:54, 5:46, 5:38, 5:26, 5:21, 5:06) 3 mile cool down

May 27^th-Fri- 2 mile warm up straight into 6 mile Marathon Goal Pace 31:09 (5:10, 5:13, 5:03, 5:14, 5:15, 5:14). I was shooting for 31:06, but my form broke down a little the last mile and a half. I probably could’ve struggled through some more miles or run the last one a little faster, but that wasn’t the point of the workout.

All in all, after today’s 10 mile run, I will hit 85 miles with my best workout week in quite some time. That being said, the workouts that I ran this week were all strength based which just so happens to be my strength. 2:16 for the marathon is a pretty lofty goal, but I have over 4 more months to train and I certainly didn’t go into my last marathon prepared or healthy to say the least (which was entirely my fault). My coach, Jim Robinson (the coach of Playmakers Racing), is there reminding me that I need to keep up on my ancillary work as well as incorporating strides. Speed is really my weakness, but I’m planning on primarily training to my strengths for this training cycle. I think this will allow for faster recovery which should also allow for me to get my mileage up down the road. I’ve never really consistently trained above 90-95 mpw so I’m hoping to train somewhere in the 95-105 mpw this summer. Over the years, I’ve found that my body responds better to quality over quantity, but continued slow progression in higher training volumes is needed to reach my goals. That being said, I do have 4 months to work toward my marathon goal, so I do need to not get carried away so that I can get to the start line healthy this year. While I’m highly anticipating my next race, I don’t know when my next focal race will actually be. I’ve really over raced my body the last couple years so I’m really resisting the temptation to race and backing off a little bit for now. While this is completely up in the air at this point, my speculative race schedule may be Bix 7, Hood to Coast, Twin Cities Marathon, but that being said, I may add a race or two into in the mix and I haven’t committed to a marathon yet. While the workouts that I’ve run to this point are not eye-popping, 2 weeks before Indy, I ran 2 x 3 mile in 15:31 and 15:56 which was a near all out if not all out effort for me at the time. Needless to say, I was pretty scared going into Indy, but couldn’t be more happy with the progression that I’ve made in the past month. In this past week’s workouts, I really have felt like I have more to give at the end of each workout if needed, and that’s a good sign that I’m not over doing it and that I should be able to continue to progress.