Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Sandwiching

Training continues to be good, my paces are still dropping, the achilles seems to improve and I'm feeling great. It's probably time something would knock me back a rung or two, but until then I'll continue to feel great.

Monday was a fairly unremarkable 11 mile run. Last week this was an extremely slow run, I still had Sunday's pace effort in the legs and needed a solid recovery effort. In comparison, yesterday was great, I managed some decent pace without straining and it still felt like a recovery run. The weather has improved by several magnitudes, there is no more rain and the wind is definitely manageable. The sky is clear, but that has also brought a drop in temperature, though compared to anything they have to put up in Canada, it's nothing, The temperatures in the morning are just below freezing, nothing I can't handle.

Actually, those temperatures did cause a problem today. There are several sections of the Caragh Lake road that are usually covered by a small trickle of water. Normally you hardly notice it, but today they were frozen solid, and the ice was extremely slippery (as well as hard to see). Twice I started slipping and sliding and very nearly fell, then I wised up a bit and brought the tempo down a notch whenever I encountered one of these patches. On a different day I probably would have been more careful to start with, but on my tempo days I usually try to focus on my pace and forget everything else.

I will make one change to my training starting this week. As Mike pointed out several weeks ago, ultra training usually involves running two long runs back-to-back, something apparently called a sandwich. Up to now I have been doing standard marathon training, but from this week I'll switch Wednesday and Thursday around, which will mean two 60-minute runs on Tuesday and Wednesday, followed by two long runs Thursday and Friday. As a side effect this will cut down the number of tempo efforts from three to two, because Wednesday's effort will be slow. I don't think it would be too clever to run two back-to-back tempo runs immediately followed by two back-to-back long runs. This week I'll keep my mileage at the same level as in the standard training plan, meaning 15 miles on Thursday and 20 miles on Friday, but I hope to gradually increase Thursday's mileage until I end up with two 20 milers back-to-back. I will see how that goes. I had initially planned on doing that sandwich last week, but decided to wait one more week because I wanted to get a solid 22-miler under my belt first. I expect Friday's long run to be tough, but that's the whole point of it, isn't it?

On a completely different note, Andrew had mentioned something he called parrot predictor a few weeks back. It's something I've heard several times before. Some people say your true marathon time is the fastest 26.2 miles you run in your normal training week. For a lot of runners this is an amazingly accurate predictor. Well, I calculated my times based on my recent training; two weeks ago the predictor came up with 3:08:55, and last week that dropped down to 3:05:05. Wow. Unfortunately, I don't think I would be able to run a 3:05 marathon at the moment. Why? Because I haven't done any long MP pace runs, and I think those are vital to develop your stamina to the level required to sustain your pace for the whole distance. Of course I'm not even training for a marathon at the moment, so it's a rather pointless exercise. I still like those figures though.

For the first time this winter the weather forecast is benign. The next few days are all supposed to be dry, if a bit cold (that's relatively speaking. Don't laugh there in Maine, Canada, Minnesota, North Dakota, ... and even Tucson). I might even have a few moonlit runs under the stars. That would be really nice.

22 Jan: 11 miles, 1:31, 8:16 pace, avg. HR 144
23 Jan: 8.5 miles, 59:11, 6:57 pace, avg. HR 157

7 comments:

  1. I don't know how I manage to be the first on your comments so often. I work, I really do!

    Here's wishing you calm and starry runs for the next few days!

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  2. Go with Thomas you are doing outstanding!!

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  3. I normally like sandwiches, but the one you describe does not sound very tasty. You have been doing great with improving your times and I would not doubt that the Parrot Predictor is close to your marathon time.

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  4. Your pace just continues to improve Thomas. In no time, you'll be complaing about slow 7:00/mi recovery runs. Your progress since Dublin has been nothing short of remarkable.

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  5. Congratulations on your continued fitness, I’m looking forward to following your progress.

    Regarding the “sandwich” technique, I’ve had good results (although be very aware of your body while training). I ran the White River 50 miler in the US a few years back on just long singles and wasn’t entirely satisfied (see Runner’s World Complete Guide to Trail Running), although being injured “may” have had more to do with it.

    In 2005, I ran what I would describe as the hardest 50-k trail race in North America, the
    Knee Knackering North Shore Trail Run (Canada). Although only 50-km and not 80-km, I decided to do long doubles and followed a similar format described in Hal Higdon’s unltramarathon schedule (I varied the times to fit my pace and given my race was shorter) and had a good result.

    http://www.halhigdon.com/ultramarathon/schedule.html

    My two cents...

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  6. Bag the ultra and shoot for a 3:0X marathon this spring.

    Sorry, I just couldn't hold it in much longer.

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  7. Doubles for sure, no questions. yes, there are many who don't do it, as well as many who almost don't train. With your speed you want to be comfartably RACING, not finishing. Doubles. And one run you may want to do on the other side of 20M.

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