Sunday, January 20, 2013

Sundaes

Weekly recap Jan 14-20
75 miles total
7 runs
19 mile long run
15 Weeks until Marathon

I'm pretty darn proud of myself for fitting all of the 'extra stuff' in this week in addition to the higher mileage. I even did my strength work on my big workout days. That entailed going to the gym late at night (got home tonight at 10:00 pm) and doing the workouts on very tired legs. Ewen asked about the timing of my strength work last week and that reminded me that my strength coach, Tim, wanted me to do the strength routines on the same days either within a few hours before or after my running workouts. The main reason is that recovery days should be just that--about recovery and not trying to build additional strength. 

Since I started a new strength routine this week, I had a nice case of delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) to deal with Thursday and Friday. However, it didn't slow me down much. I continue to be stumped by the lethargic feeling I have in my mid-week workouts. I'm not sure what's going on there, but I wonder if I am still adjusting to all of the stuff I'm doing the rest of the week.

Today's long run was a change in that it was a straight easy run. I am used to having some sort of long interval workout in the middle or at the end of my long runs. The purpose of this long run, according to Coach Hadley, was to enhance my body's ability to store glycogen and to get my body used to burning fat. I was to take in only water during the run and to run it at an easy pace to ensure I didn't bonk. Bonking would set me up for a world of hurt this next week as my body would need extra time to recover. I am used to taking at least 1-2 gels during a long run, so this was going to be foreign territory for me. 

It was kind of nice to relax during a long run and just coast. I listened to a few great podcasts of RadiolabThis American Life and Freakonomics Radio. It is amazing how quickly time flies when I listen to something engaging while running. I kept my pace easy and gradually picked it up the whole run so my last mile was the fastest, in the low 7:00 range. I felt great, though I was pretty hungry right after the run. I had eaten a breakfast of about 600 calories at 9:00ish and didn't eat again before running starting at noon. So, I had definitely burned through my fuel early in the run. It was great to push myself in this way and see how my body responded. I have always suspected I'm good at burning fat since I have never bonked in a marathon (I've run 19 of them), but I could just as easily attribute that to having a good race fueling plan. Regardless, I like the idea behind the no-fuel approach. If you're interested, check out Coach Hadley's post on the subject of fueling during long runs. It's very informative.  

Of course, I refueled like a mo after my long run with a big burger, sweet potato fries and a huge hot fudge ice cream sundae (we HAD to use our Groupon to Leatherby's). 



Next week, we talk about racing weight!  


1 comment:

  1. Of course you HAD to!

    Nice week, esp dealing with the DOMS - no fun that. On the subject of marathon fueling, fat burning... a blogger I follow, Bob, has been trying this high fat diet (he's running Boston), the theory being that one doesn't switch to fat-burning (from stored glycogen) at the end of races. I haven't researched it, but he linked to a Tim Noakes article - http://www.mh.co.za/nutrition/healthy-eating-tips/the-tim-noakes-diet

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