Death by Doubles

After taking the girls to Disney last week for our vacation, I'm crashing back to reality this week with high mileage and cold, early runs.  Mileage is back up in the low 90s which means that I've been running quite a few days of doubles.   What does that mean for me?  Well, this week it's meant hair that stays in a ponytail, multiple showers, quite a few loads of running-related laundry, and COFFEE.

I've never done a lot of doubles in the past since Pfitzinger's schedule doesn't really call for too many.  And I've appreciated that!  It was so nice to run once a day and be done!  For the most part, marathon training encourages endurance-based adaptations in your body to store more glycogen and utilize more fat at a given speed.  Pfitzinger argues that there's a greater stimulus for these adaptations through one longer run (12 miles) than by doing a 7-miler and a 5-miler at the same pace.

But once you get above 75 miles or so, doubles become almost a necessity.  Since this year I've tried to up my mileage some, I've had a decision to make:  Do I get up super, super early every day to allow enough time for a 12-15 mile run before 6:45am?  Or do I run 8-10 in the morning and then run again later in the day to make up the difference?

From the title of this post I'm guessing you can figure out what I opted for.  So for several days each week, I run twice a day.  This week, Monday-Thursday looked like this:

Monday:  11 miles at 5am w/5x600m at 5K pace  then 8 miles at 10am Tuesday: 6 miles easy at 5am then 7 miles easy at 10am Wednesday: 9 miles easy at 5am then 6 miles moderate at 10am Thursday: 10.6 miles easy at 5am then 2.4 miles easy at 10am

I won't lie.  It's been tiring to do so many double runs each week.  There are days when I seriously question both the amount of mileage I'm putting in and running doubles in general.  I don't yet have the race times to back up my higher mileage weeks  - I often find myself wondering "why on earth am I putting in so many miles?  I'm not elite.  I don't have a super-fast time yet and there are plenty of speedy gals that run fewer miles and clock faster times than I'm capable of."  But I come back to a good friend of mine who has had a similar marathon progression.  She (and others I've spoken with) feel that it's only after a solid multi-season diet of higher mileage that one starts to see their true marathoning potential.  I am working under that assumption for now, and this is my first season running this many miles.  But - should a few seasons of this strategy result in less than stellar times - I'm not opposed to revising that assumption and cutting back the mileage.   But back to the double runs.  I'm fortunate - I have a window of time on Tuesday and Thursday when my girls are in preschool.  This makes that second run a bit easier to get in, even though it means that I'm usually going for that second run less than 3 hours after the first.  It's not ideal from a recovery standpoint, but it's what works with my schedule this season so I'm rolling with it.

But now as I am slowly (slowly!!) nearing the taper (hurray!), I'm still wondering if I've taken the right approach.  I suppose I'll find out on race day, but I do wonder if splitting up the runs as much as I've done will help or hurt me.  There are benefits to running those longer mid-week runs of 12-15 miles (greater training adaptations for storing glycogen and using fat), but there are also benefits to running twice a day (additional boost in metabolism from the second run, easier on your body, and splitting runs on easy days can actually boost recovery as each run will increase blood flow to the muscles but take little out of you).  It's made sense for me this season with where I'm at in both my training and life with the little ones, so I went with it.  But I'm curious to hear from others out there:

Do you run doubles?  Do you feel it helps/hurts/doesn't matter? 

Tackling the Tempo

If there's one run that strikes fear into the heart of this particular runner it's the Long Tempo run.  It's the run that I dread seeing on my schedule.  Even though I know it's coming, it still manages to get me all worked up and anxious about getting it done.  It's silly, really.  I know that I'm the only one who cares and that it's not even something to get worked up about!  No one is out there at 5am in the dark with a stopwatch saying "You're terrible, Jen!  You did that last mile 5 seconds slower than the pace you were supposed to run!!"  The anxiety I feel before each tempo run on my schedule is all internal pressure that I somehow manage to heap on myself - but it still manages to make me into a wreck before each of these runs.

This week in my schedule it was time to conquer the beast once again.  Pfitzinger's 12-week schedule from Advanced Marathoning has you work up to this one.  You start on week two with a 4-mile tempo at half marathon to 15K race pace.  Then in week four you take it up to 5 miles and then finally up to 7 miles at tempo in week seven.  I just DREAD week seven.  This season that particular run seemed especially daunting since the last tempo I did was quite a struggle.   I have yet to really hit the paces that McMillian says I should be running (6:30s), so I just have to run each of these tempos AS FAST AS I CAN SUSTAIN - knowing that I've got several miles to do.  It's very humbling, and somewhat discouraging.  But those kinds of runs are what make you stronger, so I do them.

Since I dread these tempo runs, I was less than enthused about getting up early to run in the dark and cold on my own.  I entertained the idea of doing the run later in the day ("It would be light outside!  And warmer!  And I would have had breakfast!  And coffee!") but I had a recovery run scheduled for later in the day and wasn't sure if it would be the best idea to flip the two runs around.  After texting a friend, he gave me the advice I'd been trying to avoid hearing:   He basically told me to suck it up and knock this tempo run out in the early morning hours as planned.  So...it was tempo run or bust.

But this week (after less than stellar tempo run last week where I ran the exact same average pace as this time LAST year - ugh), I decided I'd try something new on this run.  I pulled out all my "cheesy" race mantras and positive thinking articles and tried my best to arm myself with good thoughts the night before.

Alarm went off at 4:30am and I was up.  Grabbed a quick piece of toast and was out the door before I could think too much about what was coming.  Ran my warmup, got to the stretch of out-and-back I normally run tempos on (it's got some hills, but it's one of the flatter sections around my neighborhood), and it was time to start.  I was hoping to start around 6:50 or so and then drop down to somewhere in the 6:40s-6:30s for the rest of the run.   My internal dialogue went something like this:

Mile 1:  Ok.  I can do this.  Mile 1 is all uphill, but I'm supposed to be "easing in" to this so it's okay if the pace is a bit slower....wait...6:54 for that split?!?!  ARGH!  

Mile 2:  Positive thoughts.  Positive thoughts.  Let's just go ahead and get all cheesy and think "Only Love" for today.  Only positive thoughts.  You got the hill out of the way.  Keep pushing now. Your legs feel fine!  They feel great!  (side note:  they didn't.)  6:41 split.  Yes!  Moving in the right direction.   

Mile 3:  Wait - I have 4 more of these to do!?! Okay that's not positive - let's turn this around.  Quick feet, come on, come on.  Down the hill on this mile.  Try to relax your shoulders and let gravity do the work.  6:36 split.  Oooh - I like it.  Keep it up!  

(quick chug of Gatorade and then back at it)

Mile 4:  Time for the hill again.  Ughhhhh.  The legs feel dead.  Wait, positive only today - hmmm...okay.  Well, the legs haven't fallen off yet!  Yes!  I'm still out here running...up this darn hill, but running! It's good to be alive! Man, that's cheesy.  Okay, just don't look at the watch, keep pushing.  6:45 split.  Eh, since it's up the hill, I'll take it! That's a win!  This is going okay!!  

Mile 5:  Only 2 miles left!  Just two!  Okay, I'm tired now.  5 miles is good, right?  I could just stop at when I finish 5...no one would know.  Yes, but Jen, YOU would know.  Argh.  Just keep running.  This is making you stronger - no pain, no gain, right?  6:44 split.  ARGH.  Is that it?!  I feel like I'm working too hard for that to be it!  

Mile 6:  Ok.  Come on, legs.  We are going to improve on that 6:44 split.  We have to.   This is a TEMPO run.  It's supposed to feel uncomfortable.  Use the arms now, think about firing those glutes.   Downhill on this mile - use it to your advantage.  Stay relaxed.  6:39 split.  YES.  Better. 

(quick Gatorade sip, time to tackle the last mile)

Mile 7:  I'm almost done I'm almost done I'm almost done.  My legs are toast.  I am going to have to crawl home.  Wait - don't think that way - back to positive thoughts!  Okay.  I'm going to try to finish strong.  Up this last hill, push push push! Almost done.  This is great practice for how you'll feel at the end of the marathon.  Come on!  Get in the 6:30s for this mile - go go go!  6:40 split.  Missed it.  But solid effort. 

I was SO HAPPY to have this one done.  While the average pace was around 6:42 which was a bit slower than I'd have liked, I was still pleased at the fact that I was able to successfully quiet the negative voices in my head and get it done.  Besides the cheesy positive talk, I also found myself lifting up several prayers along the way.  With the silent streets and stars overhead it was a perfect time to offer up some thanks to God for my healthy body - the body that was able to run this pace, for this long.  And for my family for supporting me through the training.  And for my friend, Meg, who passed away last year.   The prayers helped and gave me other sources of positive thoughts to help push me along when my mind was telling me that I was tired and wanted to stop.  I was wiped out on my cool down miles, but it was such a happy tired.   That deep, satisfying exhaustion that you get when you work really hard and push yourself.   I ran home, made my post-run smoothie and enjoyed the heck out of my hot coffee later in the morning.

86 miles for the week.  

What workouts do you dread?  Any positive phrases you use to talk yourself through them?  

Carbs vs. Racing Weight

As runners, many of us are frequently on the lookout for ways to improve our performance.  Nutrition is one of the factors that often packs a big "bang for your buck", so to speak.  Improving your nutrition often results in improving everything from your race times to your recovery.   Along those lines, it's fairly well known that the best runners in the world eat a diet that maximizes their carbohydrate intake.  (Runner Marci had a great post in December on this very subject)  So if I want to improve my performance, I should improve my nutrition and maximize my carb intake and the stars will align and I'll set PR after PR, right?

Unfortunately, there is a bit more to it than that - and I've run (hahaha) into a conundrum.   This season I've been working to improve my diet.  And before you ask, yes, I still eat sweets on occasion and decaf mochas from Starbucks are still my weakness.   But I've been trying to do the best I can this season to fuel my body with high-quality foods.  I was excited to receive Matt Fitzgerald's "Racing Weight" cookbook for Christmas and have been reading and trying recipes from that for a few weeks now.  I've also read his Racing Weight book and really like that he takes the approach of improving the quality of your diet (vs. cutting calories) in order to achieve your optimal racing weight.

The challenge I have is this:  I've calculated what my optimal carbohydrate intake should be based on the formula he provides in his book and confirmed with a few other sources that it was reasonable.  For my training load of 11-14 hours a week (my runs + strength sessions), I need 3.75-4g of carbs per pound of body weight.  Which equates to about 436g of carbs per day.

I decided to calculate my carb intake for a few days a week or so ago and I am falling pretty short of my target.  As in, I'm about a third short - even on a day when I'm consciously trying to eat more carbs!   But...I'm probably within a few pounds of my racing weight and I am not really trying to put on any weight at this point in my season.  In order to increase the carbs without really upping my calorie intake (which might result in pounds gained on the scale), I'd most likely need to give up some protein/dairy and nuts/seeds in favor of more carb-dense sources.   So here's where I need help:

Fellow runners - if you are close to your racing weight (i.e. you don't want to gain any weight) and still want to increase your carb intake, what do you do?  Do you give up some food variety to try to optimize your carb intake by eating carbs, carbs, carbs all the time during heavy training?  Or do you just forgo maximizing your carbs and just focus on eating all high-quality foods? Should I give up my daily lunch of a nice big salad with nuts/fruits/cheese and opt for a more carb-heavy item?  Am I overthinking this?

And for those of you that have had success with upping your carb intake, did that impact your weight or leanness?  Has anyone come close to meeting their "target" carb-intake goals without eating 8 million bananas a day?  Sound off in the comments below (pretty please?)! Would love to hear from some of my favorite speedy ladies too (Sarah, Teal, Jasmine, Kris, Marci, Laura, Jen, Tina, Katie and Tia) if you guys have the time!