Wow! Dwight and Kari dropped by from Colorado to run part of the club workout while I jogged around and did some quick strides with Mark. Mark helped me with my form.
5 miles total.
I talked long and hard with Jake and Dimitri about training, as we always seem to do during and after breakfast on Saturdays. Jake's legs are dead. He ran a two mile time trial in over 15 minutes and had to stop. A year ago this was 14 minutes. I continue to believe that as aging runners it is all about balance and recovery. Balance in the sense of being able to run and not have your legs feel tired "at any time". This may mean you'll have to run very slow on some days and not worry about miles and relative time. I originally thought, well I am running less days so load up those days. I don't believe this anymore.
If we are lucky we can run what we used to run daily but run it every other day. In my case that is 7-10 miles on a running day preferably in two runs with a now and then single run.
Do what you have to do to keep your legs feeling fresh.
Use the damn HRM. It is a terrible mistress but it tells you to run slow enough to recover.
When your slow runs get faster at the same HR then you are recovering and improving.
Do some sort of AT test every now and then to see if your training is working. My favorite is a 3 mile or 5K time trial at 85-90% of max. If this gets faster, then you are getting faster. This workout does not lie.
Limit speedwork. If you want speed then go race. Speedwork breaks you down. 100's are ok but 8-10 of those are enough.
Forget long runs. This is just another secret hard workout that breaks you down. if you have been running as long guys like Jake and I have been, we have all the miles we need. We need to trust this.
Take every other day off. No cross training. Sorry Galloway, but what I often see is runners killing themselves on some bike ride, the exercycle or in the pool. Recovery is king. Now that being said, pool running in deep water on an off day may work but make that run an easy day, not a "let's see how fast I can churn because i am bored" day.
This last one may be the toughest of all. I believe that older runners like me, need to take 6-8 weeks off (yes, O-F-F) every year to get complete recovery. The only thing a runner should do during that period is watch their food intake. No walking, cycling or other secret workouts. It will take 6-8 weeks to build back up and another 6-8 weeks to get back in racing shape. In fact you can race yourself back into shape. So the whole process is 18-24 weeks. The rest of the year is yours. 6 months . Maybe 10-12 quality races. maybe more.
You could skip this last part but then you will have to be very good at all the rest and even then you will not reach your potential. My last 3 best racing seasons were all preceded by 2-3 months off. The time off was not planned. Twice my back bothered me so much I could not run and the 3rd time I had non running related foot surgery.
Each time I had to cool my heels until I could run again. Each time I came back stronger than before.
You know, maybe it is a month for a runner who has done all the other stuff right. I am not sure but I do know that total rest is a key component.
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