4th day in a row

Despite tired legs and 4 days in a row, I rebounded a bit today running 4 in the morning and 5 in the early afternoon. But this is the end. In looking back i realized the following.

I looked back over the last 10-15 years and realized several things.

When I ran well these were the constants:

I was not running high miles. Generally 25-35 mpw

I did little or no speedwork. What little I did was speed oriented versus VO2 max oriented.

I generally ran every other day

I did not do long runs as a rule. 8-9 miles was enough.

I did AT runs every 3-4 weeks and if they got faster than everything got faster

I really enjoyed my running

and this last one is the most important........................

At the very moment of success I would feel so good about myself that I would either add in VO2 max workouts, raise my miles or start running more days a week and then after about 2-3 months I would crash hard.

Reminds me of early 1982. I was running well. Really enjoying my training, my daily runs. I had run several great races and had just run a 10k PR. I stayed away from speedwork for the most part and used races to get racing fit. I ran each day at a steady pace. I had a perceived effort and as the weeks progressed I got faster at the same effort. Everything was working well.

Several days after the 10k PR I did 200 meters hill charges with my running buddies. Now I never did hill charges to get there in the first place but I was feeling so damn smug that I figured that I could break my rule and run some hard work two stinking days after my race.

By the end of the week I was coming down with a cold that led to a flu that I struggled with all spring and summer. Finally I got past it but it was well into 1983 before I ran well again.

So me not learning BIG lessons is not a new thing. It is an old thing.

Let's see:

Don't run in cowboy boots. That was lesson number one. 1968.

Don't run in deck shoes. That was lesson number two. 1969.

After that it became much more complex than just about shoes.

Oh yeah.

Don't do one day that which you can't repeat the next day (or these days the day after that).

Keep hard runs at under 7-8% of total monthly miles.