Photo from Mount Royal, Frisco, Colorado.

"That is happiness; to be disolved into something complete and great. When it comes to one, it comes as naturally as sleep." - Willa Cather

Wednesday 25 January 2012

Another 20 mile tempo

Without even asking SR, I was a click away from signing up for the Miami Marathon this Sunday. I am completely manic and need to find a marathon to PR in - like now. When I saw that airplane tickets were over $800, however, I sighed, and thought like a rational person for the first time since I had run my 20 miles.

But, seriously, what is going on with me? I ran my fastest time yet today. After running a 20 mile tempo just two days ago. But I guess I can't keep throwing these treadmills times at you without giving you more details (fessing up a little)

1. I have the grade at 0.5%.

2. I take two bathroom breaks that are not counted in the overall time.

3. I subtract time for getting up to running speed.

The amount of time I subtract from the three treadmill startups used to be 45 seconds each time but I realized today it actually only took 30 seconds to get up to speed. So my 20 mile interval times had to be adjusted to the following:

Last Wednesday: 20 in 2:23:43 (at 0% grade)
Sunday: 20 in 2:24:31
Today: 20 in 2:23:06 (13.1 mile split was 1:33:24)

And I should probably subtract even less because even walking gets you somewhere.

So, is this training regimine so crazy that it just might work?? Or am I asking for injury? Should I keep doing it until I start getting slower or should I mix it up more? (can't help thinking of the line from a great song "you'll find the Lord in repetition" - who can name this band or song? :)). I just like it so much better than stupid intervals which I always feel just build bulk in my thighs.

Speaking of bulk, my weight has held at 108 lbs (49 kg). I like it there. I'm keeping it there. No more anorexic thoughts.

For today, I'll leave it at that. Except to say, my favorite running song while in Mammoth was this from the Minnesota native, Jeremy Messersmith.


The song I listed to over and over for 2 hours and 23 minutes to day was this (I have mentioned it before, but now you get the video).

8 comments:

Kirsten said...

You are so experienced youself, so you probably know best what works for you. But I geuss that variation is a good way not to get injured (or bored), so maybe you should do some intervals anyway? I'm just impressed that you can stand all that time on the treadmill - I give in and take my hills, tempo and long runs in the snow, doing only intervals on the mill. Of course the speed is really slowed down in snow, but better than die out of boredom!
I will say only one thing about wight: Don't make me come out there to bang you on your head! Leave something on your body for SR.....

DDitlev said...

1.) Manic .. know the feeling. I kinda remember SR going through the same in .. december? Feeling ready for a PR and looking for a race to prove it. Find that marathon and do it.

2.) Your new weight looks great, lean and speedy.

3.) Medina \o/

heather said...

If it works for you, then go for it. Just don't leave your race on the treadmill!

mmmonyka said...

Impressive. Keep searching for that race!

SteveQ said...

As much as I love that Jeremy Messersmith song, it's awfully slow for running.

Repeatedly running a brisk 20 miles on a treadmill just makes you better at repeatedly running a brisk 20 miles on a treadmill. It does sound, however, like you're in racing shape.

Danni said...

You need to find a treadmill marathon! No seriously -- the only way to find out if your treadmill PRs translate to road PRs is to find a race.

"No anorexic thoughts" -- so I don't get it. You're not anorexic but would be if you tried to go lower than 108? What's special about 108? How many times a day do you think about your weight? Just wondering.

Alicia Hudelson said...

Hey SLG,

A couple of things--first, this just made me remember that I got my previous marathon PR (it was my PR for several years and at the time it was a big leap for me) after I trained by doing a 20-mile run on the treadmill once a week for 4 weeks, along with my other usual training. Maybe there's something about 20-mile treadmill runs...!

Also, apparently your brother-in-law was once my dad's student at university in Wisconsin, and my parents had dinner with your husband and brother-in-law a few days ago. Small world!:)

PiccolaPineCone said...

1. I'm going to go ahead and guess that your new blog header photo was taken along highway 395 between Big Pine & Bishop.

2. Treadmill running, while not perfectly representative of road running, is pretty damn close.

3. if we take your 2:23 32 km time and scale it linearly to be a 30 km time of 2:14 and plug a 2:14 30 km into a running calculator to get the equivalent marathon performance... the answer is 3:16:20.

4. please oh please... find a fast, flat marathon somewhere and do it! Do it for the big-bellied, sick-with-sinusitis, completely insomniac-sleep-deprived among us who are running 30 minute 5 kms and need to run fast vicariously through you!