Training Update

Since last I posted I’ve added some more distance to my endurance training. The week after running the 10k I ran 15 miles, and last week I hit yet another milestone in my running: I ran 18.26 miles. The schedule called for 16, but I think I misjudged my turn around point and ended up doing an extra 2.26 miles. And I did this in 3 hours, 5 minutes.

Back up a bit . . . I started listening to a podcast that a DailyMile friend has been doing for a while, I just so happened to start listening to episodes from a few months ago and caught up (http://theextramilepodcast.blogspot.com/). For you runners out there it’s a great piece to listen to because people from around the world contribute, give personal updates, and from time to time there are some great interviews with great people. One series of interviews in particular caught my attention and made me rethink my own marathon training.

The series of interviews was with former Olympian Jeff Galloway (who was a part of the 1972 Olympic games in the 10,000 meter run). Jeff has written many books on running and training for marathons, but this set of interviews was primarily focused on his Run-Walk-Run method for distance running. Intrigued by the first interview I continued listening to the others. By the time I had listened to all posted podcasts I was convinced I needed to at least give it a try on my distance runs. Which brings me back to last weekend . . .

The R-W-R (not to be confused with Runner With a Reason [R.W.R.]) method takes the current skill level of the runner and finds a good proportion of running time (usually in minutes) to walking time (usually 1 minute or less). That said I set me RunKeeper to intervals of 5 minutes to 45 seconds (run to walk) for my long run. The week before I had just set out to run 15 miles and get it done, but when I finished I was completely spent for at least two hours (thank goodness I had that long to travel to a family reunion). So when I hit the mile 10 mark I thought, “I don’t feel nearly as tired as I normally do at this point.” My pace was pretty much near what I had ran the week prior, but I wasn’t nearly as fatigued. By the time I was getting back towards the house and I knew I still had a little more than a mile to go I still felt about the same. I was a little more tired, but I felt really good.

Without getting overly worked, keeping my heart rate lower, and still managing to keep a nice steady pace I was able to have a normal day after my 18.26 mile run last Saturday. I got back to the house, took a shower, got some food and headed out to watch my girls’ soccer games. Then I thought that it would probably catch up to me the next day, but it didn’t. I still felt great, like I had only run 3 to 4 miles. Needless to say I think I will be implementing the Galloway R-W-R method from here on for anything over 9 miles. I am really excited to have found this and have been sharing my own results with fellow runners. Big thanks to Jeff Galloway for putting this down in an understandable format and to Kevin over at the Extra Mile Podcast! Kudos to you both!

Tomorrow I set out on yet another big run, this time breaching the 20 mile barrier. And, as long as my body holds up nicely I will attempt to get in 22-23 miles before 10 am!

Until next time, catch up or keep up!