Oh Those Doubles!

I reach my training goal of 72 miles this week and started adding doubles to my week. Doubles in ultramarathon training are when you run 2 long runs on consecutive days. The theory is that your legs will not be fully recovered yet when you start the second long run and this will mimic running on legs that feel like they are already halfway though and ultra. In that sense it works because that is exactly how my legs felt. The first few miles can be really hard as my swollen and stiff legs get warmed up. Then as I get into the run things get better and somehow I made it though each time. To make things a little easier on the second run, I am alternating between 8 minutes of running and 2 minutes of walking. My first double started on Sunday 2/17 when I ran 22 miles on the roads around home. This was followed up by 18 miles in the hills below Red Rock on some awesome trails I ran with a friend. I found out the trail we were on goes all the way to Harris Springs Road which connects to Mt. Charleston which opens up some awesome options for a long mountain run crossing the Spring mountains from east to west. I ran the the second double yesterday 20 miles and today 18 miles which included a 1,500 foot climb up Potosi Mountain on HWY 160 which leads to Pharump. What have you added to your running/training routine lately?

67 mile week - Quanity or Quality?

      I put in a solid 67 miles of running this week, about half on trails and half on roads, and I find myself asking if quantity or quality is more important.  Today I finished a 22 mile run with an average pace of 10:00 minutes per mile and the majority of my runs are consistently coming in at that pace.  I found myself surprisingly fresh at the beginning of the week when I knocked out 10 miles at an 8:47 pace.  This felt especially good because it was just 2days after my first long 22 mile training run of the year.  Then on Saturday I felt fresh again and finished 12 miles handily at a 9:12 pace.  Still these times are very slow compared to the paces I would normally training at if I were going for a marathon PR.  During Marathon training my long runs would be 8:00 pace, my slow runs would be sub 8:00 pace and my tempo runs would be around a 7:00 pace.  However, since I am putting in so many miles in a week, my legs are far too tired to being able to hold anything near these paces right now.

So the argument is, would I be better of putting in less miles but making them better quality miles at a faster pace.  Right now for what I am trying to accomplish, I don't think so.  My ultimate goal is to be able to go to the mountains and keep running from morning till night at a slow but steady pace.  That is what I will have to be able to do in order to complete the Bishop Ultra 100K this May.  If I can average 12:00 miles, that would be just five miles per hour, for the whole day, I would finish the 62 miles in just a little over 12 hours.  That feat would entail running on tired legs for more than half of the day and that is what I am trying to do with my training.  Many days when I go out my legs are already tired from the get go.  Even if I am only going for a 10 mile run, it feels like I am running on legs that have already put in more than 20. In addition to learning to run on tired legs, my secondary goal in putting in so many miles is to lose some weight.  Even if I restrict myself to solely veggies and fruit, the pounds don't seem to come off unless I drastically increase the volume of exercise.  I think this is partly due to the fact that training increase the efficiency of your metabolism so you actually need less calories to do the same amount of work the more fit you get. However, even if my miles may be low quality as far as pace is concerned, I strive extra hard to maintain good running posture and form even when I am running on very tired legs.  The type of quality that I am looking for is to be able to maintain an efficient running form even though inside I am feeling like dying from pain and exhaustion.

How about you?  How do you answer your training quality vs. quantity questions? 

66 Miles - Weekly goal met!

Banana Bread

I got in a lot of good miles in this week competing a total of 66 which was my goal for the week.  Overall this was an easier week than last week so my body must be starting to adjust to the increase work load.  Last week I started some of my runs in a completely exhausted state and I had to push myself real hard the whole way but that never happened this week.  Yesterday I completed an 11 mile run feeling I could of kept going and today I felt good all the way though my 15 mile run.

Last Tuesday I went to see a doctor for some Laser Pain Therapy for my right hamstring knot.  I never heard of it until I saw a Groupon advertising the service for half price so I gave it a try.  What they do is train a laser on the injury sight for five minutes.  During the therapy you can't feel anything.  After the therapy I felt the lump with my finger and thought that it was a little smaller, but that may have been wishful thinking.  Still it hasn't bothered me much this week besides causing some minor tightening of all the muscles in my right leg.  The physiology behind the laser is that it is suppose to "trick" the body into sending extra white blood cells and nutrients to the injury area.  At the same time it stimulates the cells in the region to start to repair themselves.  I am still reading up more on the treatment and not sure if I will go back for more.  What I didn't like about these people, is that they didn't give me any examination prior to the treatment nor prescribe any follow up treatment or procedures.  They just asked me where it hurt and set their laser to that spot.  I'll let you know if I decide to go back.

Another useful item that I found courtesy of the runners forum Runningahead.com is a little device called the Sacro Wedgy.  This thing is great.  You simply place it under sacroiliac (tail bone) and lie back on it for 20 minutes.  The gravity pulling down on your hips then stretches and loosens up all those muscles running around your hips.  After using it I can feel my hips rotate more freely as I run and they are now nicely line up under my knees and feet giving me a better more efficient running posture.  If you are having and trouble with tight glutes, piraformis, psosas, or hamstring muscles or your running posture needs help, I would definitely recommend this little $40 investment.

Finally, that picture up top is some banana courtesy of a recipe from therealfoodrunner.  It's made with all natural ingredients and it makes an excelent high carb energy snack.  Mine came out real moist and a little gooey so I decided to try them on a run today.  They were a fanatastic replacement for store bought Gu's and energy bars.  So much more tasty and I plan to make more when my first runs out. Plus being moist and gooey is a plus when you are running and trying to eat because things that are to dry are hard to swallow and you can risk inhaling crumbs and chocking.  Its happened to me a few times and I can tell you it really sucks.

All and all it's been a really good week.  Next week I will be scaling back my mileage to about 40 for the week so my body can rest, recover and realize some gains as a result of all the hard work I did this week.