STOP

Lacking motivation? Exhausted? Hit a plateau? INJURED??

THEN STOP.

What you're doing isn't working.

Take a step back and look at the last few weeks, last few months, whatever it takes, to find the culprit of your struggles. Don't tell me it's the weather. It's not summer yet.

I know why I'm sometimes struggling. I'm on the right track and I hope to fix it permanently soon. Or until I do the next dumb thing. I'm a runner, after all. 

I saw a couple posts by runners who I follow on Instagram and it got me thinking about this issue I see time and time again from me and my running buddies/social media influences. The constant struggle to get through a training cycle unscathed....it's a big problem! Been there, done that. Tired of it. Tired of seeing it from others, too. (harsh, yes, I know)

This particular post pointed out the four things that you need to become faster, but it also totally applies to the concept of STAYING HEALTHY, both mentally and physically, in a training cycle. I've adapted it with a few extra points:

• 80% easy running (typically not what you *think* is slow, but SLOWER)
• 20% hard running (and NEVER on consecutive days)
• Consistency
• Specified training (every run has a purpose, every small step is part of the big picture)

The second post I saw is a quote from the Growth Equation:

Peak performance does not result from heroic efforts. It results from consistent small steps that compound over time.

So which part is your weakness? 

Do you know what 80% easy looks like? It means that out of 5-6 days per week of running, perhaps 50 miles per week, only 10 of those miles, or maybe 2 of the days, are at a hard effort. Hard effort is Zone 4+, maybe still high zone 3 if you're like me and the gears take awhile to heat up as I get more fit, or because your specified training calls for marathon pace and that might not necessarily get you to Zone 4 right away. Easy effort is Zone 1-2. Zone 3 can be the gray zone and when you have more Zone 3 than Zones 1-2, you're in trouble. 

That 20% of hard running should never be on consecutive days. 48 hours or more between hard efforts. Easy miles or rest in between. Your body CRAVES easy miles to build your aerobic engine and allow your body to recover instead of becoming overly fatigued, leading to bad form and injuries. 

I recently wrote up my marathon training plan for this next cycle and once I hit 6 days per week of running, this is how my week will shape up:

• Mon: Recovery Run
• Tues: Intervals (always with a warm up and cooldown)
• Wed: Easy Run (and long-ish)
• Thurs: Tempo Run (always with a warm up and cooldown)
• Fri: Off
• Sat: Easy Run
• Sun: Long Run (with race pace miles incorporated every 2-3 weeks)

Lots of easy paced stuff throughout the week.

Matt Fitzgerald explains all of this so thoroughly and much more eloquently than I ever could in his book, "80/20 Running." 

CONSISTENCY is a big BIG problem for a lot of people. You run a couple days one week, or take a whole week off, for whatever reason, then jump right back into 30 miles per week for a couple weeks, then take more time off. You can't stick to a training plan if your life depended on it. You can't commit to running on specific days, thinking it's okay to push things off a day or two, and then try to play catch up. JUST NO. Be committed and consistent, and if you have to take time off, ease into things. My first two weeks back after my 15 weeks off running after my surgery involved less than 10 miles of running. I still only run 25-30 miles per week and it's been nearly 4 months since my return to running. 

Specified training is just that. SPECIFIC runs on specific days, each with a specific purpose to build upon your overall fitness and lead you to the start line healthy and fit. Easy runs to build your base and aerobic endurance without overtaxing your body, recovery runs to recover from hard efforts while continue to add volume and endurance, long runs to increase endurance and your confidence in longer races, interval workouts to develop speed and efficiency, tempo runs to improve lactate threshold....you get the idea. Include a variety of running into your plan, in an appropriate schedule, and your fitness and speed and health will gradually improve....injury free. 

There are countless pace calculators out there to help you determine appropriate pace zones, calculators to help with heart rate zones, charts based on effort if heart rate zones aren't your thing. The point is, everyone should understand what their individual easy pace range is (hint, it's not marathon pace but rather MUCH slower). Everyone should understand their current fitness and adapt accordingly. Everyone has the ability to make up a schedule and stick to it. 

Coming off of an injury and getting right back into regular hard workouts and high volume, or running through an injury, is not smart nor is it heroic. I've only run 10 miles straight once since my return. I haven't run over 30 miles per week. I am chipping away at each baby step as it comes, knowing that each step creates big gains overall. Everyone should understand that big leaps can lead to big falls, that the turtle really can win the race.

Are you seeing gains? Or are you feeling overly fatigued and have nagging injuries? Then stop what you're doing, reassess where you can make positive changes, and set the wheels in motion.

 

New Training Plan

I'm a planner. I love to write up a plan, to have a timeline, to have detailed steps of how to get to my goal. So basically, writing my own training plans is perfect for me. I'm really detail oriented and I love the process of hashing out how I want to get myself prepared for the starting line. Now that I've graduated from physical therapy and have no limitations on my running, I feel prepared to sit down and plan my comeback!

I'd love to say that I'm going to blow this training out of the water, but let's be real. I'm not in 3:45 marathon shape, nor will I be by December 13. But I honestly think, that even with my struggles getting back into running, I can run a 4:00 marathon. I have 31 weeks until race day and will officially begin my training 22 weeks out, on July 12. Training for a 4:00 marathon sounds so much more doable than a 3:45. The training paces aren't daunting to me, even in my current running shape. 

The next few weeks are all about maintaining what I'm doing, adding in little bits of volume and intensity as I go. I'm running about 5 days a week now, and I've just added in a second quality workout per week, in addition to the intervals I've been running the past few weeks on Tuesdays. I'm getting close to about 30 miles per week, so my base is good right now. I'll continue the 5 days per week with speedwork and either a tempo run or progression run, and a long run every Sunday. I probably will not go beyond 10 or 11 miles in my long run until training officially starts. Just several more weeks of consistent running, increasing volume and extending the duration of intervals. 

I've definitely learned over the years that one of the most important things when tackling a marathon is CONSISTENCY. If I can consistently get in good volume weeks leading up to training, building up my base, then I'll be ready to add in more intensity and higher volume without hurting myself. The discipline I've cultivated over the past few weeks is paying off now, thankfully! I'm determined to get out there on my run days and do my best, even when I'm not feeling up to it. I keep ramming into my head that I have to be consistent if I want to get back to where I was pre-injury.

I'm not going to do the Hansons plan this time around. It's just too intense with too much volume for what my goals are. I'm not going to try to hit a Boston Qualifying time (which means the next time I do try, I'll actually be aging up....that's a nice little bonus for getting old). There's no need for me to run 55-65 mile weeks every single week. I'll be sitting around more like 50 mile weeks towards the end of the training, spending most weeks in the 40-50 mile range. I think that's a good place for me to be in....intense, but not too overwhelming. But I AM going to use the Hansons pace charts and pace adjuster for weather in determining my training paces. And I'm really glad I am, because as I was looking them up it reminded me that marathon training is A LOT of easy miles, and when I'm planning to run a slower marathon than previous cycles, it really means slowing it down. It's a huge relief.

So how does that break down for me for this cycle? A 4:00 marathon is 9:09 pace, so I'm using 9:05 as my marathon pace, giving me a few seconds room to be under 4:00. In good weather (temps in the 50s or colder, which is impossible in a Texas summer), that would mean my recovery runs are over 11:15 pace (yes, REALLY), my easy runs are no faster than 10:30 and ideally more like 10:45, my 5K-10K interval paces are about 8:00-8:20, and tempo paces probably around 8:30. If I want a more moderate long run, I'd run those around 9:50. 

But in a Texas summer when some of the worst mornings are over 75 degrees and high humidity, I'll be adding 30-40 seconds per mile to my easy/recovery runs and about 20-30 seconds per mile to my speed runs. That mean a lot of runs over 11:00 pace. To say that is a huge weight off my shoulders is an understatement! I'll get the same benefit of the faster paces but won't be overtaxing myself in the heat. The adjustments are so important, and they work! Leading up to my last marathon before I hurt myself, I took those adjustments seriously and was feeling pretty great as the weather starting getting cooler. 

In all honesty, I'm probably not running slow enough right now as often as I should. I'm not tackling a huge amount of miles yet, but once I do I need to be more mindful. 

In addition to maintaining consistency, I'll continue to ram it into my head that 80% of my miles are EASY MILES. Not pseudo easy, but truly easy. My Strava won't be flashy, but I'd rather see easy runs than an injured runner because I was running myself into the ground day in and day out. 

I have a second marathon that I'm signed up for 5 weeks after Mississippi Gulf Coast. If all goes well, I might try to run that one balls to the wall. I've got nothing to lose! Then by the time Chicago 2022 rolls around, I should be ready for that Boston Qualifying attempt. The great part? That's during the qualification window for Boston 2024, when I'll be 50 and can run 5 minutes slower to qualify (3:55). 

I'm a planner! And I'm getting excited!