|
RE: Long March Rocket
An idiot's guide to long, slow running.
It's at times like these that I really wished I had listened to what my mother told me when I was young.
Why? What did she tell you?
I don't know, I didn't listen!
- Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect about to be thrown out of an air lock into the emptiness of space. (Hitch-hikers Guide To The Galaxy.)
How many times have you read the instruction that on long, slow runs you should run at a slow enough pace to be able to carry on a conversation? Probably a great many times; I know I have. The idea is that you keep yourself in the aerobic heart rate zone which simultaneously builds endurance and burns fat, rather than glycogen, or something like that.
But do I listen? No, I do not. I usually end up pushing myself well into the anaerobic zone and finish the run sore and tired and having done precious little to boost my endurance. Well that all changed today. In my new-found sense of discipline and commitment to some sort of semi-rigid training programme, I ran 15km well within myself, keeping down in the aerobic training zone, and had there been someone with me to share my training, I could well have maintained a steady banter about training methods, the Brussels bombings or CC5's recent bout of psychotic Easter egg gathering.
The result was that I ran my fifteen kilometres without once feeling as if it was getting difficult and quite confident of having been able to continue for many kilometres more, and possibly would have done so if we hadn't needed to be at my mother-in-law's house by midday for a superb Easter Sunday lunch of glorious, perfectly cooked medium-rare rib eye steaks accompanied with a very acceptable 2010 Coonawarra cabernet sauvignon. Yum.
It was a run that left me feeling very satisfied. It's a long time since I last ran that sort of distance quite as easily as I did today. Sure, it was flat and slow, but that's the idea of these longer runs, and that I ran it so easily has given me a huge boost in confidence, especially after a big night on the turps which saw my weight and body fat head rapidly in the wrong direction when I jumped on the hi-tech bathroom scales this morning. The foggy head and thumping brain probably also helped ensure I didn't go off at a cracking pace, and often in the past when I've run in a hung-over state, once I've sweated out the over-indulgence and start feeling great again, I tend to take off at a gallop as if to compensate for a reckless evening the night before. Today however I maintained my early, sedate pace and had a wonderful run. Why I didn't listen to the countless experts who have all been saying the same thing for aeons, I don't know. Well OK, I do know; it's because I'm a pig-headed fool. Now that I have seen the truth of it, I'm dead keen to repeat the experience, and I'm sure I will.
As regards to long runs, I am formulating a plan, and I'm now reckless enough to go public with it. These half marathons I've entered (Canberra in two weeks, and Sydney a few weeks later) are all well and good, but I've come to the realisation that I really do want to run another marathon, and run it well. By well, I mean not finishing the thing feeling like death, and actually being able to run the entire distance at least without having to walk lengthy portions of it. To that end, I'm thinking my weekly long run needs to be in the order of 20 - 25km, except once per month when I extend that to 30 - 36km.
At least, that's the plan hatching in my head just at the moment. It may also require adding an extra run per fortnight, bringing the number of runs to eight per two week period rather than seven. But we shall see. I'll creep up on this plan slowly, and adapt it as needs be.
This morning's run brought my total for the week to 38km, the most of my campaign to date, and still well short of the 50km per week I think I'll be needing as a minimum to seriously consider another full marathon. I am however feeling fantastic, and pinching myself with disbelief that I've run 38km, as it seems hardly anything, so straight-forward and routine has it now become ... even if that does require several 4:30 a.m. efforts through the working week to get it all done.
Got to be happy with that!
|
Long March Rocket
