Moving On

Photos by Emily Dufton

It was a week of darkness at 7 a.m. and cold, damp air. Irritability, sluggishness, running-behind-schedule ... there you have it.

Some mornings you just can't tear yourself out of bed as early as you want to. Perhaps you hit the snooze and oversleep by 30 or 40 minutes. You get up and try to drink your water and coffee and dress in half the time, but it never seems to work out that way. You are running late, always, thinking during your run how you will make your lunch and pack your bag (shower?) and be out the door and in your office and the first article will be filed by noon. Let's face it: This is no way to train.

This was a recovery week to get some "rest" before another month-long block of 100 MPW. In previous marathon cycles I have run up to 110 MPW, but in this current life I have found 100 to be much more manageable, and I would rather aim for 100 and hit it and feel good about it than shoot for 110 and hit 107 and feel like I failed. After New York, in the fall, I joined a gym across the street from my office in Waldorf. This, actually, has helped me quite a bit: For one, I am lifting weights now and doing more core work, but once or twice or three times a week I do my second run there on the treadmill, and although treadmill training is boring, it is easier than driving all the way home, changing my clothes and running through the dark up and down the hilly neighborhoods of Takoma Park. This is more time-efficent; taking the hills out allows me to get some recovery.

Tomorrow, as I said, I start another month-long block at 100 MPW. Upcoming races before the Frederick Marathon May 3 include the D.C. National Half Marathon March 21 and 10,000 on the track at Gettysburg College April 19. Ideally, I will get a p.r. at both races, but it's hard to say. My half marathon p.r. of 1:12.10 was the first half of the 2006 Chicago Marathon ... The National Half course is pretty tough, and I'm not sure if I will be able to dip under 1:12 without my legs all the way under me. My 10k p.r., in turn, went back to college until a month ago. I ran 33:38 during my sophomore year in college (my third year running), ran the race poorly my junior year, and ran the distance again for the first time about a month ago. I should be able to run in the 32s, but during a marathon cycle you just never know. You might be able to run 5:30s all the day but explode quickly at 5:15 pace. And some days, when your legs are tired, it feels as if your top-end pace is 6-flat.

Like during my workout this week. It was supposed to be 7 miles at half marathon pace. Next weekend I want to run on the edge of 5:30 pace and get under 1:12 ... I did the workout on the C&O Canal, parking the car in a dirt lot across the street from Angler's Inn. This is around mile 11 on the canal, and it's great spot to start: You are only a couple miles away from the overlook over Great Falls. I warmed up a few miles and got rolling at mile post 16, but I just didn't seem to have it. After going through 3 miles in 17:27 (turning around at mile 18) I got pretty frustrated -- actually, very frustrated -- and decided to jog it up to the next mile post and try to regroup for a solid last three miles. Well, as it turns out, it was not as bad as it seems: The C&O Canal Web site has official distances between each mile post. I ran 17:27 for a bit more than 5k, not 3 miles, which is about 5:30 pace, and then hit the same pace for the last 3-mile rep.

Honestly, I should know by now that, for tempos, it is best to just run off effort, accepting that on some days my legs are too tired to turn over as fast I want them to. The way to think about it, perhaps, is that if I ran 33:10 for 10k a month ago, there is simply no way I am less fit now than I was then. For what it's worth, my Wednesday 15 and long run (20) today were solid.

Monday - AM 6 PM 4

Tuesday - 10

Wednesday - 15

Thursday - 10

Friday - 10

Saturday - 11 with 7 tempo

Friday - 20

Total - 85