Day 211, 154 To Go

July 30, 2013

Its Tuesday and time for Honey to get off her butt and RUN!  She had Monday off and she should be well rested.  I want to push her today to maybe get below an 11 min mile pace.  I didn't tell her that until we got out there, but I think she will be up for it!

First, I want to move onto #7 from The 25 Golden Rules of Running from Runner's World magazine.

7. The Race-Recovery Rule
For each mile that you race, allow one day of recovery before returning to hard training or racing.

That means no speed workouts or racing for six days after a 10-K or 26 days after a marathon. The rule's originator was the late Jack Foster, the masters marathon world record holder (2:11:18) from 1974 to 1990. Foster wrote in his book, Tale of the Ancient Marathoner, "My method is roughly to have a day off racing for every mile I raced."

The Exception: If your race effort wasn't all-out, taking fewer recovery days is okay.

This was a rule I never really heard of before this list.  It makes a lot of sense, but I'm pretty sure I have broken this rule in the past.  Normally, let's say after a sprint triathlon, I would take it easy for a few days just to rest.  Since a sprint tri usually means a 5k run, it works out.  I think when I have done longer races like Olympic distance Triathlons and 1/2 Ironman Triathlons, I have broken this rule.

The whole point, as I have mentioned before, of these rules is to keep you healthy.  I have seen all sorts of numbers on this, but as high as 80% of runners deal with an injury every year.  This is certainly something that can be avoided for a portion of this group.  These rules focus on how to do that while also improving your run.

If you just ran a marathon, I'm pretty sure you will not want to go for a hard run for a few days, if not a week or two.  26 days is a long time to keep an addict (a running addict) away from training hard.  The key to doing this is planning.  You need to plan your race schedule with this off time in mind.  This doesn't mean that you can not run, it just means you should leave the speed work, fast tempo runs and really long runs out of your schedule for a little while.  Not a big deal and very doable if you plan well.

Now, for our numbers:

Time: 25:00

Distance: 2.32 miles

Pace: 10:47/m

Max Pace: 9:11/m

Calories: 239
Avg HR: 119

Max HR: 136

That's right folks, Honey put up a 10:47 pace!  That is a PR for her!  She pushed really hard (too hard, really) and was able to break the 11 minute barrier.  She did have a few stops along the way, so we still have a goal of under 11 min with no stops, but this is a nice breakthrough for her.  The problem she is encountering, as all new runners do, is with pacing.  She knows she can run faster, so she does, but she can't keep it up for long, so she tires out.  It tried to keep her close to 11 most of the time, but I ended up running behind her most of the time and I wasn't able to reign her in.  As you can see by the max pace, she was really moving.

I'm proud of her and her hard work.  Hopefully she is proud of herself as well!  Once you reach a goal it doesn't mean you slack off, it means you set another goal!  Keep up the hard work Honey!

Run for Life!