On Holiday...

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Look at me SMILE!

I LOVE to be on HOLIDAY!!!

Don't you?

Yes, darling. I am taking the day off (well, no running anyway). It was a spontaneous thing.

Just sounded FUN!

Now that I am done being sarcastic ...or just dreaming that I would ever do an impromptu rest day, let me fill you in on a little info.

I haven't missed a long run for anything other than a race or recovery from a race in 15 months.

The last time was for injury. I am feeling like a fool and taking today off. I might take tomorrow off too.

If I can handle it.

I have achilles tendinitis,

I think.

Or something similar.

***

Where am I?

My right foot is sore just below the ankle on the right side only. Not too bad- except when I stop and try to start again. No cooling down allowed! I've been icing and stretching and taking ibuprofen around the clock.

I am in a scheduled cutback week- a cutback from 68, 69, 70 mile weeks. I was supposed to run about 55 miles this week. I have 29 :( .

How did I get here?

It didn't start off too bad yesterday, until I did that tempo portion and had to make an emergency pit stop at mile 6.1. Really didn't want to stop. I was on a roll! When I started again, it was like the heel locked up. I got it going again pretty well and finished the 7 miles in 46:30 (6:39 pace, with the watched stopped for the stop). After the tempo was done I still had about 4 miles to get home and I hobble-jogged.

Looking at the last few weeks, I was overconfident in my mileage increases. I was overconfident in my speed work. I was overconfident my ability to handle hills two days in a row.

See a trend?

Not so confident now. Yeah, I finished the tempo in my goal time. Actually, well ahead of my goal time, but I spent the rest of my run thinking, "You IDIOT."

Where I am going:

I am sticking to my vows and trying to stay rational. I am TRYING to tell myself that taking a couple of days off will be just fine right now and that I can pick it up Monday without lost fitness, speed, etc...

I don't sound convinced, do I?

I have been foam rolling, sleeping extra, lifting weights, riding the trainer bike (just a little), eating. Trying to be nice to others.

My mind is processing thoughts:

What if I already hit my peak mileage at 9 weeks out?

What if I can't do any more speed work?

What if it gets worse?

Could it be the shoes? No...probably not.

If I take off a day or two or three, am I going to lose all that I have gained?

Maybe God is trying to get my attention.... Probably. Maybe He's trying to tell me that Boston really is NOT that important. Other things are.

And THIS is why He did not make me a four minute miler. I struggle to think of anything besides running!!

Sorry to whine! I think I just need some rational people to tell me some rational things.

***

Now, time to put on my Audry Hepburn sunglasses and enjoy my holiday (at the looney bin)!!!

Hope you all have a great weekend :)

Training Conundrums

Preliminary warning: Cute photos have nothing to do with the subject matter of this post!

First, I want to thank anyone who has given training advice to me here. Any and all suggestions are always welcome (honesty and disagreement is OK)! Feel free to leave as many as you like in that little box labeled "comments" below.

Obviously, by the title of this post, I still am undecided about how to best train for Boston. In a way, I think that's good. It shows that I don't want to blindly go into a marathon. However, it's also bad because I really would like not to be still weighing my options at this point.

Boston is 17 weeks away. That may seem like a long time to some people, but the more you look at training plans for Marathons, the more you see a pattern of 16, 18 or 22 weeks. Some are even 6 months or a year.
Why so long? The "experts" in the field create phases within training that include endurance building, peaking, sharpening and tapering (and maybe I missed some others!). Sure, you can run a marathon without all these phases, but my goal isn't just to finish. It will be almost a year since my last (and first) marathon and it might be another year until the next. (But I hope NOT). Putting it simply, I will put as much of myself into this race as I can. It is a PR goal race.

As of Sunday, I started Pfitz's (Pfitzinger & Scott) 18 week plan that tops at 70 MPW, (aka 18/70). The total mileage for this first week is 54, which is actually a cutback from what I ran (not on a plan) the week before. I have toyed with the idea of just adding 5 miles to each week, starting next week. Not sure this is a great idea, but would maybe be just the right boost. 

I have another issue with Pfitz, something I consider more important than the mileage. His plan schedules races as part of the training. It's never seemed wise (to me) to truly race while training for another key race. (Kara Goucher can do it, though, and it looks like she will with the PF Chang RnR half and Boston). My body needs time to recover from racing and I usually take a few days off even after a hard 10K.

I don't want to feel pressured to run a long run the day following a race. Pfitz schedules it. *This is where I should insert that I am still reading his book.* It appears he might advise you to run the races as Lactate Threshold runs instead of "true races". If so, that's better; but, I still wouldn't spend money to go do an organized Lactate Threshold run. I'd do it for free on my home turf.

Another option I have considered is following one of Jack Daniels plans. Unfortunately I couldn't tell you which one, because I have only recently bought the book, and am confused as to which level of plan I should use. Ha! :/  His plans are based more on experience, and not so much on mileage. I have about 2 1/2 years of running experience (not counting goofing around on and off before that). Where does that put me? I don't know.  I like that there appears to be some flexibility in his plan. There are scheduled workouts for each week, but the rest of the mileage is flexible. I can't even tell you how many speedwork days there are each week! One problem is that the plan(s) start 22 weeks from the race. Oops. I missed that window!

Then there's  RunnersWorld's SmartCoach, which is considered to be lame by some. But when you start playing with 55 mile weeks starting, and throw in some race times and goal paces that get harder, it doesn't look so easy. The max with that plan is actually a bit higher than Pfitz. The increases of mileage are steeper. I have considered using the mileage plan and changing the speedwork from one to to two days with progressive long runs & MP runs on alternating weeks...Or something like that. And maybe a few 22 milers instead of 20. This plan is for 16 weeks.

Then there's the plan that someone emailed me this week, which is also interesting!

As you can see...I am still not settled in what I am doing. I sure hope by next week to have a better plan- or at least get comfortable with Pfitz!

This might be the most boring post I have ever made. Ha! If you are still with me at this point you deserve some dessert: