Homecoming (Training 2/24-3/2)

While my undergrad experience was a mixed bag, I will always remember this hallway with great fondness. I started meeting here for runs before classes even started (I think).

Monday

am - 4.8 miles at 9:14 pace

The extra time off helped reduce the muscular soreness I was experiencing. Still feel sluggish.

pm - 9.85 miles at 7:06 pace

Good night for a run. Hands were cold, but, you know, that's to be expected. Did secret speed: 8 x 30 seconds starting every 1:30 after I turned around.

Tuesday

am - 9.22 miles at 7:35 pace

Met up with Saxon for a run. Ran my bag to work then Saxon and I ran to Belmont on the path. 3 x pick ups after turning around.

Good training density! Mileage and a little sprinkle of secret speed.

Wednesday

pm - 13.5 miles, 2 x 15 minutes + 10 minutes

Eh. Got dusted in this workout. Did the first 15 minutes at about 5:50 pace. 8 minutes easy. 15 minutes at ??. 5 minutes easy. 10 minutes at ??. It was cold out.

I wish we had done measured distances so I could get a better gauge on the quality of this effort.

Thursday

pm - 8 miles at 7:53 pace

Felt okay considering last nights workout. About 2-3 miles in I was feeling pretty tired, but I rallied and felt strong by the end. Windy after the turnaround.

In an effort to not let mileage rule my life, practice race preparations, and let my quads (which have been very sore) recover, my plan was to run a pretty typical 1 hour-ish run on Thursday and 6 miles on Friday (no matter how easy it felt) in order to prep for my race on Saturday. 

Why 1 hour, then 6 miles? Based on how I've been feeling, I thought this would allow me to maximize my mileage while still allowing my legs to feel a bit more fresh. It is amazing that 15 minutes fewer can make a pretty significant difference.

Friday

pm - 6 miles at 8:20 pace

Did 6 on my Easy 8 course to end up at mom & dad's. I'm actually practicing "tapering." At the end of a long week, I didn't care what pace I was running.

Saturday

am - Skipped doing a shakeout, didn't feel like I needed it since this race would be later in the day.

pm - 6 miles, 4.39 miles warm up and cool down, 3000m race at the Illinois Club Relays

The ground wasn't covered with snow!

I got to run with old teammates: Declan, Spillone, Frigo, and Ben Zeman!

I got to run parts of old running routes!

It was great. 

We ran our trademark (Jake's) Jack Daniels' warm up: 15 minutes easy (felt very easy) then 5 minutes at threshold.

3000m in 9:33.21 (3:09, 6:23), which was about 1 second faster than last year. Ran very even and moved up the entire race (I don't think I got passed). Full race recap to follow.

Sunday

am - 18.96 miles at 7:03 pace

Well at least this felt better than last week. The 6 miles to/from the path were very slow 8+ min/mile. Did 10.5 at 6:20 pace and couldn't pick it up at all. This was disappointing. Took a Huma gel at mile 8. No issues.

76 miles for the week in ~9.5 hours. Good volume considering I only ran 6 miles for two of the seven days. 

At this point, I thought it would be wise to reign in my training a bit so drew out a plan for the remaining 7 weeks of Boston Marathon training which I'll post later.

Finally, it was great fun hanging out with the other Illinois Track Club alumni (or Illinois Elite as we like to call ourselves). I'd like to post on the merits of good training partners at some point. Shout out to Declan, Ben, and Mark W!

Rest Days

On Saturday, I got into a couple discussions about the prescribed Day Off/Rest Days in the Boston 365 program. I had some thoughts and recommendations, but after thinking about it a bit, I think doing a post on this topic might be helpful to clarify my thoughts on these matters. The discussions revolved around this sort of statement:

I feel sluggish or sore when running after prescribed Rest Days*.

Our Rest Days are prescribed immediately after our Wednesday night group workouts which constitute the bulk of the fastest running we'll do every week. This is in order to mitigate injury risk as faster running poses arguably more and objectively different stress on your body.

If you tend to feel sluggish on your Friday runs, consider your warm up and cool down routine on Wednesday, the day before our Rest Day. Luke Humphrey in the Hansons Marathon Method does a good job describing warm ups and cool downs without going too deep into the physiology:

"Warm-ups and cooldowns are instances when you will want to run on the slower end of the spectrum. Here the idea is to simply bridge the gap [emphasis added] between no running and fast running and vice versa."

So, what am I getting at?

I would encourage you to focus on performing a thorough cool down Wednesday night. Since we do most of our very fast running on Wednesday, there is a bigger difference between the running at this workout and a resting state (no running) than on a typical easy run. This makes transitions to and from a resting state more important. Additionally since you'll be in more or less a resting state for all of the following day (Thursday) you'll want to make sure you take your time.

It might be tempting to get back to the store as soon as possible after our tough Wednesday workouts, but as long as you don't feel like your mechanics are compromised, I would encourage you to do 10-20 minutes of easy to moderate running to help your body enter a resting state. A cool down should be done at whatever pace feels comfortable. It should be easy, but not slow enough where your body temperature drops quickly particularly in the cold conditions we've been experiencing.

A final recommendation:

In addition to focusing on a thorough cool down, I would consider moving the prescribed Rest Day to Friday. Moving Friday's easy run to Thursday will help your body continue to transition from the fast running of Wednesday to a resting state on Friday. Remember to warm up slowly and ease into your long run pace on Saturday. I find I'm a bit less antsy at the beginning of long runs as I know I have a lot of miles to ease into the run.

Still have questions?

Leave them in the comments below or tweet them to @danielkittaka.

*A clarification: a Rest Day in this context indicates not only a break from running, but also a break from intentional physical activity with a focus on good nutrition (including hydration) and sleep/rest in order to allow for adaptation to training stimulus as well as prevent injury.