Train Hard Race Strong

As luck would have it, the August issue of Runner's World arrived with an article written by Dean Karnazes on how to run a faster marathon! That is going to be one dog-eared page.

With the Rock and Roll marathon almost two months behind me, I need to start some serious running. I followed a five week recovery plan and am gearing up for a 10K in September. Without a race, I get complacent, so last week I started following a 5 week plan that incorporates speed work. It appeared in the July Runner's World and it's for a 5K, but I figured speed work is speed work and I just add more miles on the weekend long run.

Tuesday is interval day and last week and today I ran 4 x 400 on the treadmill, with two minutes recovery between intervals. I set the incline to 1.5 to compensate for the belt and run the 400s at 10mpm. That's my 5K goal--to finish in 30 minutes. I'll bet reading this makes you feel fast, doesn't it? :-)

On Thursday I do tempo runs. I'm not really clear what that means, so I run for twenty minutes at an 11 mpm pace. That's what I did last Thursday, and it was tough. Maybe this Thursday it won't be as difficult.

The reason I'm running on a treadmill is that for the past month I've been taking swimming lessons on Tuesday and Thursday, so to save time, I run before my swimning lesson. It's not a heavy-duty swimming lesson; it's with the women I trained with for the marathon. I took swimming lessons when I was ten, and it was one of the best things my parents did for me. But four and a half decades later, I'm not a strong swimmer and wanted to improve. Besides, I keep hearing what great cross-training swimming is.

I've noticed an improvement! Although my basic form was good, I had developed some bad habits and the instructor showed me how to improve. We do drills and practice breathing. I wear fins and they helped me kick stronger, although today I loaned them to one of my teammates and did fine without them. I even managed to swim two 50 meter laps without stopping! I once told my triathlete friend Marcia how winded I get when I do the freestyle, so she advised me to just go slower. So I did and it's much more relaxing! With this class, I've discovered the joy of swim goggles and even wear a swim cap, something I remember from the bad old days and thought I'd never do again. It keeps the hair out of my eyes, so that's a good thing. My silicone cap is a lot easier to put on and off than those old latex ones with the fake flowers on top. God, I hated those things!

I also had a killer bike ride last Saturday. Four of us rode from the store; two women (one was the store owner) were very experienced and the other one had my level of inexperience. We rode through the country for 28 miles, which incorporated hills, flats and freeway. Not flats as in flat tires, but flat road. I'm still learning my gears and shifted up instead of down while climbing a hill, but I only made that mistake once! The other newbie would follow me too closely, so I fell back about 5 bike lengths to bring up the rear. But at one point, where the road was pretty flat, I overtook her and flew past. Actually, my bike flew past, I just went along for the ride. This was the day that I appreciated what a great bike I have; I hadn't noticed on the hill climbs. The women that I passed envied my endurance (!) and decided that it must be because of the marathon training. It's pretty nice for this 55 year old back-of-the packer to have someone envy her fitness. But I'm pretty sure it's the bike. :-)

I had company Sunday, so did my long run on Monday instead. I ran nine miles of rolling hills, on a road that I trained on for the marathon. It's been a long time since I had been on that road and it was very enjoyable. I saw quail, deer, and wild turkeys. I kept my eyes peeled for skunks, but fortunately, didn't see any. The running was difficult, but I pretty much kept to my 6:1 run/walk schedule. I was proud of those nine miles once I was done, but where the heck did my fitness go? During marathon training, nine miles wasn't even a challenge. I thought I'd be able to bang out 18 miles runs whenever I wanted. Now I find I have to build up to that again. Oh well, it's good to have goals.