It seems as if the cornerstone to training for the top Americans runners like Ryan Hall or Brian Sell is the good, ol’ tempo run. In fact, when Hall dashed to the American record in the half marathon and then a 2:08 debut marathon in London last April, it seemed as if doing tempos in his long runs where extremely important.
The idea, of course, is not to do the long runs so hard that one gets trashed and can’t do any more workouts for the rest of the week, but emulating race pace and conditions on a long run – perhaps even up to 25 miles for a marathoner – is a really good idea.
And why not? If one wants to run faster the best way to do that is train fast. Pretty ingenious, huh?
Here’s the week of June 11-17.
Monday – 20 miles in 2:13:02
Felt really strong and could have held the pace all day if I had to. A couple of things though:
Splits:
33:17
33:32
33:15
32:58
Either way, it was my first 20-miler since that one I struggled through in December. I hope to do 16 more of these in a row.
Tuesday – 14.3 miles in 1:35:35
Got a late start for one reason or another, but once I got going I felt really strong again. It was pretty hot and humid, too, so the fact that I ran like I did was a pretty good thing.
1st 5: 33:07
1st 10k: 41:12
last 8.2: 54:22
Wednesday – 13 miles in 1:27:23
Felt strong again, except for when I took a header near the gym at Country Day. I looked like Pete Rose in the '75 World Series. Fortunately, I just got a few brush burns and got back up and kept running. As for the running, I did OK for the most part. I went back into the Brick Yards just to get some hills into the mix, but it seems as if the trails are getting a bit overgrown.
Nonetheless, I feel as though I can go out and run a 2:40 marathon right now. I'm ready.
Thursday – 15 miles in 1:39:55
This was one where I had to force myself out the door while I thought about how I could get away with going short, but once I got going I didn't want to stop. Everything about this one was easy... the weather was great (65 and overcast) and I felt as strong as I could be.
I did feel a little stiff from yesterday's fall, though. Regardless, it was a great run.
splits:
1st 5: 33:11
2nd 5: 33:25
3rd 5: 33:19
Friday – 15 miles in 1:41:30
This one was a lot like yesterday except that it took me slightly longer to get into it and I didn't really attempt to pick up the pace. Instead, I hit the roads and ran some hills, which I ran surprisingly OK. My pace didn't really change on the ups or descents and I came to the realization that all of the hill work I did in the past was the key to keeping me strong a relatively fast.
I don't care what anyone says: hills are speed work.
Saturday – 15 miles in 1:36:13
Procrastinated and delayed the run until the afternoon, but when I got out there running I couldn't slow myself down. In fact, after the first three miles I was cursing myself for going out too fast because I knew I wasn't going to have any turnover at the end.
Nonetheless, I ran pretty solid until about 13 miles when I slowed a little, but not much.
splits:
1st 5: 31:47
2nd 5: 31:33
3rd 5: 32:52
Sunday – 8 miles in 58:17
I locked in to the easiest pace I could find and just stayed there. The plan was to do exactly what I did. Easy, easy, easy.
The rest of the day will be spent sitting and relaxing. After all, the easy days are just as important as the hard ones... right?
There’s two straight 100-mile weeks. What made this one a little bit tougher was there were no doubles. Fortunately I will have more time this upcoming week to spread the miles out a little more.