This week was brutal on me. With the move, stress, and the marathon in 2 weeks.. I'm completely happy with just 100 miles. I had wanted to make this my last huge week of volume... but such is life. I did have 2 very good quality runs, Tuesday and Friday, which made this week good. The long run today was just mileage and I have zero fatigue from that... long easy miles are simple.
Next week will be a complete focus on 3 runs. It is important for me to not lose sight of my #1 goal which is the Las Vegas Marathon in December so the workouts need to have little (or no) focus on marathon effort. Some coaches advocate increasing intensity in the final weeks before a race in order to stimulate a peak but my own personal belief is the opposite. I have learned this from 3 of the best coaches (imho) out there- Jack Daniels, Renato Canova and Brad Hudson. Increasing the intensity of training has a detraining effect on aerobic fitness so it makes sense to maximize the stimulation of race specific intensity in the weeks leading up to a race. For Ironman in particular I feel it is hugely important to not come too close (withing 10 beats) of lactate threshold in the weeks leading up to your "A" race. For the marathon- which is FAR removed from anything even resembling an Ironman- coming up to LT may be acceptable because it is relatively close to marathon effort. With this in mind- 2 of my workouts next week will have intensity that exceeds my LT. Hopefully this will not allow me to even start to peak for KC.
Another aspect of stimulating a true "peak" is rest. Of which I will not be doing for KC. I have the week of the race planned as 100 miles. In order for me to consider KC a workout- which it will be- then the commitment needs to be whole hearted. I want KC to be less than an ideal scenario. I want KC to put me on the ropes and make me grind my teeth. I want to learn how to truly fight through pain and suffering and fatigue... and still come out on top. If I fail then it was because I am mentally weak because I believe completely than I can run under 2:30 fatigued and not rested and not peaked.
4 comments:
Tim
I know you get a lot of raw inspiration from the lyrics and powerful music of Tool. Your comment on 'grinding through' and the potential of coming up short by being 'mentally weak' reminds me of a song I have listened to often as a mantra to confront my minds weakness when working through tough training towards my goals.
As Henry Rollins states in Bottom: 'in order to survive you, I must first survive myself'...'there is no choice but to confront you, to engage you, to erase you...'I've gone to great lengths to expand my threshold of pain. I will use my mistakes against you...there's no other choice'...'but my soul must be iron, because my fear is naked....I'm naked and fearless....and I'm fearless naked....'
Awesome... Rollins is badass.. Thanks for that.
T - did you see where USATF has made the marathon qualifying standards a little tougher for 2012 by 3 minutes? I know your long-term goal is 2:15 so it shouldn't be an issue.
http://www.yourrunning.com/news/usatf_unveils_tougher_mens_olympic_trials_marathon_qualifying_standards
The qualifying standard is now where it should be.. When our top female is getting the men's "A" standard it's time to switch. 2:19 is perfect.
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