Back to the…present/past/future?

I’ve been trying to write this post for the past week without much success, and I think I’ve figured out the problem; there’s just too much going on in my head and everything is interconnected.

This week’s race > injury > return to training > training plans > cross training > goals & directions > time management > other time constraints > goals & directions > training > time management > training plans > cross training > other time constraints > repeat ad. nausea …

Perhaps I should start in the present, move to the past, and then jump into the future…Doc Brown would be proud!

As it stands I’ve finally taken a short test run to see how my toe will handle things. I would have tried it earlier, however there are still some directions where the toe is noticeably “uncomfortable”. Anyway, the toe felt great and I’m ready to try a few longer runs this weekend.

This leads me to my next issue; what the hell do I do for the next week? In a regular training cycle I’d be knee-deep in taper madness right now, but not running a step in 5-6weeks leaves me floating in an odd divot of time; No training I do at this point will make a major change on the outcome of Saturday’s race, at the same time I really need to do something to get my body used to running again, without killing myself. To answer this I consulted an expert (ha!). Adam, over at The Boring Runner has recently become a certified coach, so to test his new-found skills (ha!) I explained my situation and asked his what I should do. After much ridicule for my self-inflicted injury he actually gave me some usable advice (hur?)**:

Thanks so much for reaching out. Oh, I couldn’t forget your broken toe – I still smile about it when I think about it.

I think your best bet would be lots of long slow miles – working up to around 25 or 30 miles per week. Coming off of a 5 week break, if you try to throw I a lot of speedwork, you’re going to be at a higher risk of injury than if you were to try to build your endurance back up.

 Once you have 25 miles per week, start by adding one day of tempo runs at half way between 10k and half marathon pace (15k pace). Run 3-4 miles at the start. When you’re 4-5 weeks out from the race, add a day of 800m repeats. By that point, you should be able to do quite a few of them in a shot – 6 or better. Taper two weeks and kill the race!

 

The most important thing will be to listen to your body. Don’t be afraid to take an extra day off if you feel like you need it – especially between now and the 25k.

Since you’re only 2 weeks out from the 25k, unfortunately, you’ll have to set your expectations to use it more as a training run for the half. Trying to blast through it full speed will only lead to further setbacks.

So there you have it: Saturday’s race is merely a “training run” and I should be focusing on next month’s half-marathon.

** In reality Adam graciously offered me a very useable short-term solution to my issue, and didn’t even require me to sell my body on the streets to afford his services…he did make fun of me though…bastard…

Onwards

Fun little video called Onwards stolen from Mike over at dailymile

have a good one kids!

What, Me Worry?

We are now officially 18 days out from the Run for the Toad 50km trail race, and I haven’t run a step in nearly a month.  This might worry some, but not me…not in the slightest.

 

• It’s not like I’ve run at all in the past month when (ideally) I should have been peaking my mileage and putting in back to back 20+km long runs.
• It’s not like I’ve done a run over 20km in past 4 months, let alone a long trial run.
• It’s not like I’ve ever run over 42.2km, so why not try it without much training, it’ll be easy!

What’s there to worry about?

In fact if I HAD done any of these things in preparation for my race I might have an idea of how much pain I’m going to be in, but ignorance is bliss, and this is one blissful cat.

In reality, I’m not worried about this race for a few very good reasons; as suggested by a friend on dailymile I’m simply going to try and change my race distance on race day.  Yes, I know the notice on the website explained there were no more race changes allowed but I can always hope that my charm and charisma will sneak me into the 25km race.  Seriously, how can they resist?  If the organizers stick to their guns then I have no choice but to sob uncontrollably and create a scene…or just run 25km and DNF (shudder) the 50km portion.  Regardless, I’m not putting a whole lot of stock in the outcome, instead I’m going out for the experience…and the race schwag, I paid for it after all.

Moving beyond the Toad, I have signed up for the Road 2 Hope ½ Marathon in early November.  Initially I had debated doing the full marathon again as the course is a fast one (flat, downhill, then flat again) and the temps are usually cool enough to make PRing a definite possibility, however after running 50km race 4 weeks before this one I had serious doubts if I’d be recovered in time to crush the R2H course.  The clincher was when while having a few wobbly pops with the neighbours, my former running partner thought it’d be funny to tell me he was going to run the ½ marathon with almost no training (I think we settled on 4 training runs before race day).  Special K (my neighbour) and I started running a couple of years ago to get back in to shape, then after a few weeks he disappeared and I was left running solo.  It’s going to be a lot of fun to hit the road again with him…and watch him suffer.  What’s for dinner? Mmmm…Schadenfreude, my favourite!

 The situation isn’t ideal but this is where I’m at…have a good one kids