My fitness, meanwhile, seems to be improving every week. My 5-mile tempo run on May 8 was done in 29:06. On May 17 I did the same workout in 28:40. I am starting to accrue some of the physiological adaptions that come with consistent weeks of good mileage with a couple hard workouts.
While there is no one set program or philosophy for a runner to follow, the principals of long distance running should not exactly be likened to neuroscience. Frank Shorter had it right: put in a lot of mileage, go long on Sunday, run your guts out twice a week. There you have it, the basic foundation. The more tricky thing is to set it all up so you run your best in the races you want to peak for. A creative photographer might show you a photograph and tell you about the great lengths he or she went to capture it in a frame. But what if there is nothing particularly compelling about the image? What if the photograph is just not very good?
Training in Takoma Park can be less than ideal. The metropolitan D.C. area is extremely busy, and on weekday mornings the roads are clogged with commuters. The beautiful Sligo Creek bike trail is already like a treadmill for me, although I'm getting good at negotiating the street-crossings.
One resource I have found is an asphalt track at the Takoma Park elementary school. I have been doing my tempo workouts there (and an 800 workout when I was short on time). A lot of people would probably think I'm crazy to do a 5-mile tempo around a track, but I think the monotony is a good mental exercise for the marathon. Tempo workouts are supposed to be slower than race pace but markedly faster than general training pace. I try to settle into an effort that is difficult yet contained; it gets hard toward the end but not quite as hard as a race.
All in all, my training the past two weeks went on with few interruptions, save the inability to double-up some days -- due to work assignments at night -- when 6 in the morning and 6 at night could have provided more recovery than a 10- or 12-miler (especially when you end up getting lost and winding up in downtown D.C. and a crossing guard tells you to take a left on South Dakota and then a right at the "chicken place").
May 5-11
Monday - 10
Tuesday - 9
Wednesday - 11 - 3 warmup, 5-mile tempo in 29:06 on track (5:55, 5:53, 5:51, 5:44, 5:41), 3 cooldown
Thurday - 15 - intended to go 12
Friday - 9 in pouring rain
Saturday - 10 - 6 by 800 with lap jog rest, 4 by 150. 2:35 avg. for 800s. Wore training shoes.
Sunday - 16 in cold hard rain
Total - 80
May 12-18
Monday - 10
Tuesday - 10, ice bath
Wednesday - 10 with 7 by 2 minutes hard, two minutes easy; 5 by 30 seconds hard, 30 seconds easy
Thursday - AM 8 PM 6
Friday - 10
Saturday - 10 - 3 warmup, 5-mile tempo in 28:40 (5:38, 5:34, 5:41, 5:50, 5:55), 4 by 150 meters
Sunday - 16
Total 80
I will race the Spring Lake 5 on May 24.
Training in Takoma Park can be less than ideal. The metropolitan D.C. area is extremely busy, and on weekday mornings the roads are clogged with commuters. The beautiful Sligo Creek bike trail is already like a treadmill for me, although I'm getting good at negotiating the street-crossings.
One resource I have found is an asphalt track at the Takoma Park elementary school. I have been doing my tempo workouts there (and an 800 workout when I was short on time). A lot of people would probably think I'm crazy to do a 5-mile tempo around a track, but I think the monotony is a good mental exercise for the marathon. Tempo workouts are supposed to be slower than race pace but markedly faster than general training pace. I try to settle into an effort that is difficult yet contained; it gets hard toward the end but not quite as hard as a race.
All in all, my training the past two weeks went on with few interruptions, save the inability to double-up some days -- due to work assignments at night -- when 6 in the morning and 6 at night could have provided more recovery than a 10- or 12-miler (especially when you end up getting lost and winding up in downtown D.C. and a crossing guard tells you to take a left on South Dakota and then a right at the "chicken place").
May 5-11
Monday - 10
Tuesday - 9
Wednesday - 11 - 3 warmup, 5-mile tempo in 29:06 on track (5:55, 5:53, 5:51, 5:44, 5:41), 3 cooldown
Thurday - 15 - intended to go 12
Friday - 9 in pouring rain
Saturday - 10 - 6 by 800 with lap jog rest, 4 by 150. 2:35 avg. for 800s. Wore training shoes.
Sunday - 16 in cold hard rain
Total - 80
May 12-18
Monday - 10
Tuesday - 10, ice bath
Wednesday - 10 with 7 by 2 minutes hard, two minutes easy; 5 by 30 seconds hard, 30 seconds easy
Thursday - AM 8 PM 6
Friday - 10
Saturday - 10 - 3 warmup, 5-mile tempo in 28:40 (5:38, 5:34, 5:41, 5:50, 5:55), 4 by 150 meters
Sunday - 16
Total 80
I will race the Spring Lake 5 on May 24.
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