Today is a Wednesday, the Hanson’s Marathon Method’s “off” day for runs. I like how it’s placed in the middle of the two challenging speed and tempo workouts, the rest from Tuesday’s effort and prep for the Thursday tempo run is appreciated.
Last week I began swimming. The goal was to increase my lung use and capacity. I’ve found that running at the faster paces taxes my lungs as the tempo runs increase in distance. I’m at 8 miles for tempo runs now. The 6:45 minutes per mile pace takes work, it’s 30 seconds off what I’d do in a 5k race. So to improve the effort, I know swimming deprives me of being able to “breathe when I want.” In this, I should be able to better handle the feeling of my breathing isn’t supporting the speed I’m at.
The speed workouts on Tuesdays are good, I run differing distances at 10 to 20 seconds below my goal marathon pace. We had done 400m and 800m at 6:25 pace, this past week we did 1.5 mile repeats at 6:35 pace. The furthest this goes is next week’s 2 mile repeats.
The measuring stick for the plan’s effectiveness is my ability to complete the 10 mile tempo runs. This week it’s split in two, with a pair of 5 mile tempos separated by a mile recovery. We do 10 mile tempo runs twice in the “thickest” part of the training. Once they can be completed, I should be ready to bottle up that fitness and succeed in my race!
Last year the two 10 mile runs were a challenge, but I felt great having made it. I’d like to have cooler, less humid weather for these efforts, but I don’t have a vote. I will achieve growth in whatever conditions I am dealt.
~dm
drun4fun 