Thursday, March 27, 2008

Too Slow

Most runners have workouts that they can handle very well, and others where they are struggling. I’d say my strength is the long run, and especially the quick recovery afterwards. On the other hand, speed workouts just do not agree with me. Maybe I’ll improve with more practise, which may be put to the test after the ultra, but that remains to be seen.

I didn’t feel very good on Wednesday morning, my stomach made it pretty clear it didn’t feel up to running, but there are no excuses for skipping a 6 mile recovery run – I should be able to do that any time I like. I ran slowly over the first three miles until the turnaround point, but gradually increased the pace on the way home. A call of nature made me rather desperate to get home sooner rather than later. I’ll spare you the details, but it wasn’t pleasant. I was just glad I had made it home in time.

I still felt rather iffy today, but went out to do Pfitz’s traditional 3x1600 10 days before race day. In contrast to the 400s I did on Sunday I made damn sure I wasn’t starting too fast. Unfortunately I turned the dial too much in the other direction – halfway through the first mile I glanced at my Garmin, and the average pace was slower than 7:00. I did speed up a bit, but it was a bit late already. The second mile went better; it was around the pace I expected. The third one was crap again, and I haven’t got any excuses. This wasn’t quite the workout I had in mind, but I’ll try and forget about it as soon as I can. I intend to run 39 miles at much slower pace 10 days from now, and that’s something I’m better at than running mile repeats, so there. And the stomach will surely have recovered by then.

26 Mar
6 miles, 50:30, 8:25 pace, HR 137
27 Mar
7.5 miles, 59:21, 7:55 pace, HR 148
including 3x1mile @ 6:42, 6:29. 6:39

9 comments:

  1. You've nothing to worry about! Didn't you have your speed for Ballycotton?! I think I start Connemara every year doing 9 minute miles, so you'll be flying! Just think of the first 13 as a warm up to a marathon, sure they're virtually downhill... ;-)

    Seriously I'm not trying to give you advice, you've probably more experience than me. Just trying to reassure you that a not so speedy session is nothing to worry about. Enjoy the taper!

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  2. I wouldn't worry about the mile repeats. The're so far removed from what your coming up against at the end of next week and anyway you had a dodgy gut.

    Looking forward to the tale of the long struggle in Connemara.

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  3. must be the cycle the moon is in. i did my speed today and had stomach issues as well! at least at home you don't have the cfo sitting in the only men's stall w/ a copy of newsweek for 30min and then leave the stall with an empty roll of toilet paper.

    as soon as i typed that i realized who i'm commenting to. your wee ones probably present much more horrific bathroom situations than our cfo could ever present.

    forget i said anything. ;)

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  4. your slow training runs are my race pace dream!!

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  5. "...speed workouts just do not agree with me..."

    Is it me or does that sound funny coming from speedy Thomas?

    Actually I have the same problem with speed runs, although we are totally on different scales. It took me longer to recover from my fast pace (your recovery pace) run on Wednesday night than my three hour run the week before.

    Looking forward to hear how you do in Connemara, I'm sure you'll smoke the course.

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  6. Hey, you gotta go with what you're good at..and you are damn good at running long.

    Was listening to Altan in the car today...it was a struggle to keep on the right hand side of the road.

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  7. Thomas, your speed is more than adequate for 39 miles!

    You're right about practise though ... if you practise the speed side of your running, that will improve, just as endurance improves by running long.

    All the best for the weekend.

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  8. You still do those 3x1 mile repeat for the ultra? I wouldn't worry about missing a recovery run, chalk it up as extra recovery/sleep in my books.

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  9. Mile repeats were always a hard thing for me, simply because the pace was too fast for me to handle. It's good to hear you're more of a distance runner..

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