Day 227, 138 To Go

August 15, 2013

Hello Thursday.  Your close proximity to Friday makes me feel deep affection to you.  I am so excited by your arrival that I have decided to kill myself out there and run hard.  It is hot.  It is humid.  And for fun, why not run on the gold course today.  Yeah.  That's the plan!

As you may have guessed, today is a non Honey day and she isn't rolling with me, so I am going to make this my one hard day for the week.  Well, I suppose my long run is hard too, so maybe I should have said fast run.  Tomorrow, Honey will be running with me so I can take it easy.  That brings me to rule #20 from The 25 Golden Rules of Running from Runner's World magazine.

20. The Hard/Easy Rule
Take at least one easy day after every hard day of training.

"Easy" means a short, slow run, a cross-training day, or no exercise at all. "Hard" means a long run, tempo run, or speed workout. "Give your body the rest it needs to be effective for the next hard run," says Todd Williams, a two-time U.S. Olympian and online coach at pushthepace.com. Apply the hard/easy rule to your monthly and yearly training cycles by treating yourself to one easy week each month, and one easy month each year.

The Exception: After the most exhausting long runs and speed workouts, especially if you're 40 or older, wait for two or even three days before your next tough one.

Yeah, this is a rule I follow now...not because I want to, but because I have to.  I really don't have a choice.  I'm sure I could go out there and run two hard days in a row, but that would be the end of this blog for sure.  I fall into the exception category too, so I need two or three days before my next hard run.  I found out a few weeks ago that if I did two hard runs in a row, everything hurt and I came close to ruining my year.

This is just plain good, practical advice.  You need to let your body recover.  Many runners, and even more triathletes, have a hard time running.  They feel like if they take it easy, they will not improve when the opposite is true.  Without rest, you may improve, but you will not maximize your gains and you may even go backwards.  I am living proof of that.  I know I could be getting much faster, but running every day is holding me back a bit.  Sure, by running easy most of the time, I am limiting my gains, but it is what it is.  So, I am taking this rule to heart and you should too!!

Here are my numbers for today:

Time: 25:00

Distance: 3.29 miles

Pace: 7:36/m

Max Pace: 6:43/m

Calories: 361
Avg HR: 152

Max HR: 166

My time at the 5k mark was 23:37.  Not too shabby, especially considering I didn't warm up and I ran the first 5 minutes fairly easy.  Also, I was on a harder course than normal.  I was pleased.  I was also sweating so much, I looked like I took a shower.  I'm beat.  Friday, here I come...

Run for Life!!