Well I am rounding out week three, day 23, and training is going much better than at the start. For the first two weeks I was just sitting in and trying to hang on as long as I could during workouts, slowly building my mileage back up and getting back into a training routine. It was a grind but now things are feeling better.
It never takes me long to get back into decent shape and this time is no exception. I am feeling more comfortable near the front of workouts and I may even start pushing a bit instead of just hanging in. Workouts are getting longer, which I like, the longer the better, or the better I do at them. I am getting back to doing weekly long runs as well which were always my favorite run of the week.
In general I am getting in longer runs than I have in the past year and a half, 90 and 100 minute runs on easy days are common now and I know getting back to running longer single runs will help my strength during the marathon. I think I got a bit blinded with thinking two 8 mile runs were better than one 14 or 15 mile run, they just simply aren’t, sure you can do that and get in a good amount of mileage but you loose the strength and benefits of being on your feet for a good amount of time. So for now I am am putting more emphasis on getting 100+ miles in on single runs then running a bunch of shorter double runs. The advantage of this is I have room to improve on my overall mileage by adding in some secondary runs while keeping up with the primary runs of 13-15 miles, and maybe even getting back in the pool for some pool runs early in the mornings. Maybe!
Next up we have a longer run this Sunday at Stanley park with 10 miles brisk in the trails then 6.25 miles quick around the seawall and then back to 4 miles easy to finish. Race wise I was beginning to rethink heading out to toronto for the national 10km road champs but with the way workouts have been going this past week I am back to being pumped to see what I can do on that course.
