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Events:Stone Cat 50 Mile Trail Race November 6, 2010 Middlesex Fells Trail Race December 4, 2010 AMC Mountaineering Committee Ice Program Winter 2011 AMC Mountaineering Committee Rock Program Spring 2011 Pictures:AlbumRunning Data:20102009 2008 |
Wed, 19 May 2010For a variety of reasons, I've ditched the idea of running miles simply for the purpose of building weekly mileage. First, my running frequently and for a long time is really inconvenient for my family. But it also doesn't serve any great training purpose. Training doesn't improve a runner; recovery from training does. So the new centerpiece of my training program is multiple rest days. That's right; I'm going to train to run 100 miles by sleeping and eating a lot. Besides, at 42 or 43 I figure I'm half-way to dead. I don't have so much time left that I can afford to spend it filling log books. It should go without saying that I'm also feeling a little lazy. So my new plan is to run two or three times a week. One will be long and slow on trails or a mix of trails and roads to simulate the Vermont course. I'll practice eating, using lights, moving through aid stations briskly, etc. I'll do this on weekend mornings or nights for four to nine hours at a time. The others will be either speed work: tempo runs or intervals, or alternatively, hills. My tempo run theory is that I can be less disruptive of family life if I run for a fixed time, an hour. Improvement will mean beating my last best distance. This is what I did today. My previous best hour was 7 miles for a pace of 8:37 minutes per mile. Today I covered 7.6 miles in the same hour for an average pace of 7:55 minutes per mile. I know for many of you out there this is not very fast. But or me it's incredible. My 10K split was 48:29. I did not maintain negative splits, slowing slightly but not much, from mile to mile. Strangely, my average heart rate was 177 beats per minute. My tests last year and my age suggest that I should not be able to maintain that heart rate for anywhere near an hour. I feel great; the legs are tired but not sore. And now it's time for a couple of days of serious rest. |
