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?  

Racing in the Rain - Frostbite 15K report

I signed up for the local Frostbite 15K in order to use it as a training run/workout where I could do some marathon-paced miles.  It's always more fun to do race-paced miles in a race environment where you have the company of others and a great opportunity to practice fueling/hydrating at pace.   I didn't taper for the race, but was hopeful that I'd get to race day and feel pretty good maintaining marathon pace for the duration.  Since the race was on Sunday, I shifted my recovery miles to Saturday and ran 12 miles with my Dad and a friend at a good recovery pace (9:15/mi).    After a good dinner of spaghetti and a (fairly) decent night of sleep, it was time to roll.

Race morning dawned and was RAINY.  I ate my breakfast (english muffin - half with peanut butter, half with cream cheese), had a serving of UCAN, and tried not to stress about the fact that I could hear the rain pounding on the roof.   With wipers going full blast and cars going 45mph on the interstate, I slowly made my way over to the starting location for the race.  It was shaping up to be a very, very wet morning.

A friend of mine had (very kindly) offered to meet me an hour or so before start time for some extra mileage.  I'd wanted around 16-17 for the day, so we were going to get in 6 miles beforehand.  I was so loathe to get out of my nice warm car, but knowing that I'd have company for those miles was a huge help.   Two minutes into our warmup we were SOAKED.  Soaked to the point that we didn't even try to avoid the puddles - there was no point!  We were as wet as we could possibly be.  A cold and damp 6 miles later, I hopped back into my car and used my two towels to dry off and change into my next set of clothes for the race.  I was feeling pretty decent after the warmup, and hopeful that it wouldn't be so bad.  After changing and taking one of my Honey Stinger gels, I threw a trash bag on to shield my second set of clothes until the start and hopped back out into the rain.  I was doing ok until...all of the sudden I could not stop shivering.  My teeth were chattering so hard that I had a hard time talking.  With only 3-4 minutes until the start I just wanted to GET THIS OVER WITH!!

Thankfully, we were soon off and underway.  My friend was hoping to run around the same pace as I was for the first 5 miles and it was wonderful to have him there to help pace me.  We started a tiny bit fast (but not terrible) and I was so cold and wet that it was actually feeling pretty decent to be generating some heat from the faster pace.

Miles 1-4 (6:42, 6:43, 6:45, 6:42)  Miles 1-4 were wet, but pretty close to my goal pace.  Since we'd gotten so much rain overnight there was so much standing water in places that the race marshals had us hop off the road and onto the muddy ground to try and avoid the huge patches of water.  It was definitely a first for me in a race!

Mile 5-7 (6:46, 6:43, 6:56) I was feeling pretty decent at around mile 5 when my friend decided he was going to go on ahead.  I was content to just continue to try and run my pace.  But then...the hills started.  There were some hills on the first half of the course as well, but I think the hills on the back half are worse - most likely they just feel harder because of the fact that you've already run 5 miles (or a total of 11 in my case) and are a bit fatigued.   I tried to take my gel, but only managed to get about half of it in my mouth since my hands were so cold and I was uncoordinated.  By mile 6 I was finding it harder to maintain my pace without putting in quite a bit more effort.  I was bummed we had over 3 miles to go but tried to stay positive and run the tangents.  I leap-frogged a bit with a girl in front of me.  She was in 5th place and I thought it would be cool to come in 5th so I passed her.  But a mile or two later she caught me and by that point my legs were pretty toast.  Mile 7 was a welcome sight but I had a moment of panic when a volunteer shouted out "Only a 5K left!!" and I thought "I think I'll die if we actually have a 5K left" - thank goodness his math was wrong!

Miles 8-9.3 (6:51, 7:07, 6:48 (0.47mi on my watch) Mile 8 was my worst thanks to two big hills it made my pace tank by quite a bit.  I was getting discouraged by seeing a 7:xx on my Garmin and was upset at myself that I couldn't quite find the energy to care about catching the #5 girl in front of me (who I could still see).  I know that's something I need to work on for future races.  I don't have much of a "finishing kick" and I just mentally couldn't turn that switch on today that would encourage me to hunt her down.  It was more like "Meh.  It's nasty out here and I'm struggling to hold my pace - I don't have the extra energy to chase her down.".  And I know that's probably not the best way to be towards the end of the race!   I did manage to pick up the pace when I knew we only had less than a mile to go.  The thought of getting into warm, dry clothes was spurring me on but the legs were definitely feeling the fatigue.  By the time we hit the hill to the finish (cruel, isn't it? We finish on an uphill!), I was toast.  Happy to be done, I ended up at 1:04:31, 6th female overall.    My Garmin pace was 6:49/mi (I had a total of 9.47 mi for total race distance though - perhaps due to the off-roading we had to do in order to avoid all the standing water), but the official average pace per the 9.3 course was 6:55/mi.

A cool down mile and a half in the rain (thanks again to my friend for being there to make me do this - I was sorely tempted to just go to my car and get warm and dry!) and I was done for the day.  My warm clothes felt so awesome and I was so happy to get inside for the post-race awards and attempt to warm up.   I was 1st in my age group and won a ribbon and a gift card to a local running store!

Now that it's done, I have acknowledged that there were some good and bad things about this run.   The good:  I pretty much held my goal pace for this race if you use my Garmin time. (Yay?) I got to practice running that pace in the rain, and fueling and drinking at that pace as well (which was more challenging than I thought!).   The bad:  It was a nasty day.  My clothes and hat and shoes and socks and EVERYTHING was completely soaked by mile 2 and felt very heavy as the race went on.  I was mad at myself for not chasing down the #5 girl, and bummed that I was as fatigued as I was at the end of the race.  And it was tough to swallow that my time was close a minute slower than last year's.   It's hard not to get discouraged when you realize that this pace that feels challenging for 9.3 miles is supposed to be the pace I'll run for 26.2 miles in two months!

I am not yet revising my goal pace, but recognize that I may need to.  I've got one more marathon-paced workout (12 miles at MP) coming up in two weeks and we'll see how that one goes.  I'm hopeful that it goes well and will give me a little more confidence about the pace.  In the meantime, I'm going to try and work on some positive visualizations/affirmations to help try and get my head out of the way.  I feel that mentally (consciously or not) I had already determined that this wouldn't be a great day and therefore I didn't push as hard as I probably could.   I need to get more of that fire in me that helps drive me to chase down those people in front of me when I'm at the end of the race - rather than sit there complacently and run it in.  But!  I am still so very thankful that I'm healthy at this point in the season and am able to run and push the pace at all.  Rain or not, it's so awesome to be out there.

Total mileage: 83 miles for the week.

Any tips for how to cultivate that fire in you that helps you to go "chase 'em down"?  

Any positive visualizations/affirmations that help you wrap your head around a goal pace that feels challenging?