Pine Belt Pacers Forum

Friday - I ran one of my old favorites, one of my 5 mile loops from my house. I ran easy.

Sat. - met Margie at the trail and we ran 5 miles easy. Margie wanted to get in some extra mileage so she ran 3 miles before I arrived.

Sun - after working out in the yard all day I went for a very easy 30 minute bike ride.

Monday - total of 5 miles at the Labor Your Legs 5K. I ran 24:08 and felt ok with that effort. Of course, I wanted to go a little faster to equal or improve my 23:51 a few weeks ago in Baton Rouge, but today was not the day. Congratulations to Chad on winning the race. He didn't run what he wanted to run either, but he won so that was good.

The next two weeks I plan to cut back my mileage about 50%. This will be a little bit of rest between my summer season and starting my marathon training 2 weeks from now. This will be a challenge for me.

Sun - after working out in the yard all day I went for a very easy 30 minute bike ride.

Monday - total of 5 miles at the Labor Your Legs 5K. I ran 24:08 and felt ok with that effort. Of course, I wanted to go a little faster to equal or improve my 23:51 a few weeks ago in Baton Rouge, but today was not the day. Congratulations to Chad on winning the race. He didn't run what he wanted to run either, but he won so that was good.

The next two weeks I plan to cut back my mileage about 50%. This will be a little bit of rest between my summer season and starting my marathon training 2 weeks from now. This will be a challenge for me.

Sticking with my easy 2 week period.

Started on Tues. - walk 30 minutes
Wed. - yoga and walk 30, a little ab work.
Thurs. - Jog 3 miles easy, on the treadmill.
Fri. - some ab work and 45 minute spin class at Anatomies.
Sat. - walked easy for 30 minutes after fishing a tournament with Chad. (we finished 2nd place out of 28 boats in the tournament)

Sunday - Jog easy 3 miles on treadmill, pm

Monday - easy bike and walk for 30 minutes, pm

Tues - I had planned to jog outside, but the weather changed the plan. I had to run 5 miles on the treadmill, easy effort. After 1 week of easy effort exercise, I am already getting lazy. I was supposed to lift weights today, but did not, no push-ups, no ab work, LAZY. After another week of easy effort, I will be "SORRRRYYY."

NO, u deserve it!

Your muscles will be rested, and you will be fast at the next race!! You are doing great!! The other day I took a x/t / rest day completely off, and WOW, my legs felt good instead of just heavy!! So, it is all good!! (That is what I tell myself, anyway!!) Take care,

Ginny,

DO NOT THINK OF REST AND RECOVERY AS A BREAK FROM TRAINING BUT AS A NECESSARY PART OF TRAINING.

Remember TRAINING EFFECT = STRESS + RECOVERY

It is during the RECOVERY the body actually becomes stronger. The stress of running tears down the body. Too much too often will lead to injury and/or illness. The human body has an unbelievable ability to adapt to stress. By applying levels of stress above that which the body can easily cope (i.e. long runs, tempo runs, intervals, etc.), then allowing the body to sufficiently recover, it will achieve a higher stress tolerance (i.e. you will be able to run faster and/or farther). Repeating this cycle on a regular basis is the fundamental concept of training.

I have also found that recovery is not only important physically, but mentally. Training is a tough gig, especially marathon training. I know I need (and look forward to) my easy days. In fact, my favorite part of marathon training is the taper.

Good luck with your training!
Terry

I love the resting & recovery part! In fact, I am looking ahead to October 28 to start a looooooong resting period with not more "10+ long runs" and maybe not training at all....just jumping from race to race with very, very, very, very little running in between!

Terry - I do agree about the rest and I realize it is very important, it's just hard for me, for a 2 week stretch, especially. In my typical training, I always have hard days, followed by 1-2 easy days, more if needed.

You say that your favorite part of the marathon training is the taper, that is my toughest part, I hate that part, but again, it is a necessary and very important part of the game so I do it.

When I start getting lazy, that is exactly what I tell myself, I deserve it. Still I am looking forward to speed and tempo. "I feel the need, the need for speed."

Today, I went to yoga and then I made the decision to risk life and limb and pulled out the quad skates, and headed to the trail. I made it 30 minutes without breaking anything, so that is a good day on the skates. It just kills me, in my teens, I could skate pretty good, now I can barely stand up. It was fun to do something different.

Thurs.- today I ran 6.5 miles on rolling hills with Amber. It was a good run, but I have to admit, I had to work, a little, to keep up.

Friday - 30 minute walk on the treadmill
Heading to Gulf Shores for some R&R. I will keep it easy this weekend, and get ready to gradually start picking it up next week.

Sat. night - I walked 30 minutes at Gulf Shores with my sister. Sat. morning we did some of the same type of cross training that Audrey mentioned, running from yard sale to yard sale. I picked up a couple of great bargains, that was a treat.

Sunday - awesome weather, awesome run. Nothing better than a cool fall morning at Gulf Shores. I had a nice sunny run. During my run, I thought about how thankful I am for my health and my desire to go out and run. Looking forward to this week of running.

Excited to be back to my regular training with hard workouts.

Monday - 3 mile easy jog.

Tues. - am. track workout at Thames. 1 mile w/u and 4 X 800 and 1 X 400. I was supposed to do them at 3:50, and my first one was 3:35 oops, when I saw that time, I said to myself, "you are going to pay for that." 2nd was 3:47, 3rd- 3:51, 4th - 3:41. Margie was running 400's, so I ran her last 400 with her and we ran that one at 1:40. 1 mile c/d. It was a great workout and it felt good to be back to speed work.

Tues. pm - ran the 2 mile predicted time run with the Pacers.

Wed. - medium effort on the bike, for 30 minutes, on hills.

Thurs. - my long run this week is 8 miles which I ran this morning. The weather was so nice. I let my Garmin continue running through my water break, and including the stop, I had an average of 9:14 per mile. I felt good about the run, it was on hills, near my house and my first mile was 10:01. My mile with the water stop was 10:01, most of the other miles were between 8:52-9:03. I am sure as my mileage increases my average will go up, but I am very happy with todays effort.

At lunch I lifted weights, did a little ab work, and a few back extensions, a few lunges, and a few squats.