A Brush with Reality and Getting Stronger

Heading in to Week 14, I needed to make an adjustment to my FIRST training plan. I have been running as follows:

• Key Workout #1 - Intervals on Tuesdays
• Key Workout #2 - Tempo Run on Thursdays
• Key Workout #3 - Long run on Saturdays

Cross training has been on Monday and Wednesday. Strength training on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. But as was bound to happen, holiday travel has come around. We are traveling to California on Thursday to do an early Christmas celebration with family in the Sacramento area, and a little further south in the San Francisco Bay Area. That allows us to see family for the holidays and still be home come Christmas day. I look at this week as "marathon training meets reality".

From a training perspective, there is a real benefit that will come out of this trip. I am training in Colorado Springs, at 6200 ft elevation. My training plan assumes I will see between a 12 and 20 second improvement in pace per mile when running at sea level. I only need 12 seconds to run a qualifying time, but the normal range of improvement you can expect if 12 to 20 seconds. That range is pace sensitive, so in percentage terms, the range is 2.5 to 4%. That means when I do my runs in California, I will be adjusting paces to the mid point of that range, about 16 seconds per mile to see how I do. This trip will provide a good test of the assumptions in my training plan.

Because we are traveling on Thursday, and having a family get together on Saturday, I have shifted my running plan for the week. Runs this week are on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. No big deal, really. Although I was a little curious to see how today's interval work went with only one day's rest from my FIRST 15 mile run. I was also a little concerned, because looking at the workout on paper, I didn't think that it looked too hard. That has burned me before.

I still did some mental preparation to make sure I was ready for some discomfort. Also, just so you know, I ran this workout on the treadmill as well. Today there weren't any weather issues, but none of the schools in the area allow non-students on campus during school hours. I generally prefer to run in the mid-morning. I work from home for a company based in NY, and the 10-11am hour Mountain time lines up nicely with lunch time on the east coast. All of that is the long way of saying, I didn't want to wait until dark to run on the track. And if it is any consolation, I'm convinced that my treadmill goes faster than the requested pace. I routinely run faster paces outside with less perceived effort than I do on my treadmill. It's 10 years old, maybe it has a calibration issue.

Key Work #1 for Week 14 is a series of intervals that become 200 meters shorter, while the pace ratchets up. In looking at the workout, I kept thinking, "yes, it gets faster, but each interval gets shorter. How hard can that be? I did a couple of things different this week. I did a 1 mile warm up, then got off the treadmill for some stretching. I got back on to complete another 1/2 mile of warm up that included the 'butt kick' and 'high knee lift' strides described in Chapter 13 of Run Less Run Faster. I had to do some modification to the exercises for the treadmill, but in general, this warm up better prepared me for the intervals to come.

I knew something was up, when the first interval (1200 meters) really wasn't too bad. In the past two weeks, the first interval has been a bit of a rude awakening. Today not so much. The second interval at 1000 meters was tougher but I really couldn't tell the difference in pace. And that was to remain true throughout the rest of the intervals. I knew I was running faster (I did the last 200 meter interval at a pace 25 seconds per mile faster than the first interval). But it didn't seem to be harder, because I got to stop sooner.

One of two things is likely to be true:

1. I'm getting stronger and faster, or
2. this was an easy workout.

I'd like to believe that number 1 is the truth, but I'm a little cautious about that. And of course the downside to being at sea level next week, is I won't have a direct comparison. So, confirmation will need to come in Week 12's interval workout.

To be honest, during the first two weeks of the program, I wondered if the FIRST Marathon training program was going to be right for me. The interval and tempo workouts were so tuff, that I was missing some of the things I enjoyed most about running. I was missing a leisurely run where I could solve a tough problem. I couldn't do that, because my mental energy was pretty wrapped up in solving the tough problem of finishing the workout. I was missing enjoying the scenery on a lazy run. I couldn't do that, because there are no lazy runs and with the focus it takes to get through the workouts, I hardly noticed the scenery.

But that began to change on last Saturday's key workout #3 long run. It was a comfortable pace and I enjoyed the time. Today, I wouldn't say it was comfortable, but I never really had to battle the "there is a really good reason why you should slow down" voice. Don't get me wrong, there was plenty of discomfort, but somehow it didn't seem as difficult. Could be I'm getting tougher mentally. Or maybe, I'm getting faster.