I am starting to think seriously about the training approach for Quadzilla 2012 in November. For that purpose I decided to baseline my running to get an idea what 4 days in a row of high intensity running does to my body. Monday I hit 8.35 miles at 8.5 min/miles on city roads. Tuesday I hit 7.21 miles at 8.5 min/miles at lunch, city roads. Yesterday I hesitated between squizzing a run in the Mulkiteo Gulch after work (trail) or an easy run during Michelle practice. Turns out that would ned to be a very faithful decision …
As far as yesterday I felt some acute soreness in the upper inside of my right quad when I apply pressure there so my guess is I have a knot. Also I can feel some overall soreness in the inside of my calves now. I guess that’s part what I do this “baseline” as the other side of the Quadzilla will be to come up with a race strategy that works. The last race of the four is the Seattle marathon which I would like to run “hard” (relatively speaking) … Which suggest probably I should run a slower ghost of Seattle the day before … So yesterday would had been the equivalent of that.
Either way, It’s common knowledge that research has demonstrated that the strain of muscle work triggers adaptive responses that make muscle fibers stronger and more durable so I think my approach will work for Quadzilla as long as the strain is incremental. I plan to incorporate more “Gate week” (gate as opposed to this week which is the baseline. The gated process will stress my body thru a more intense distance. Of the bat, 13.1 comes to sense, that is I would run the 4 half marathons course in the next Gate. A key to marathon training is of course the 20 miles long run. So that would be the next gate week. However I worry at this point in time that 20 miles 4 days in a row might be over training for the event. Yeah I know, me, worrying about over training lol … Maybe I’ll make it 18-20 mile gate week instead to allow for a little bit of play depending how I feel at that time.
The other item of order is the Air Force Marathon of course. I was thinking of the AFM as a separate “fun” marathon that I would run easy. But that isn’t the best approach to it necessarily. I asked coach Jenny on FB her recommendation on training for Quadzilla, and even in her article, she talks how you have to look at these races as a package not single races. That is, the end goal dictating marathon 1 thru 3 should be how I want to run the Seattle Marathon. And I should consider AFB within my training for Quadzilla NOT as a single race.
So with that in mind, I was looking at the 6 weeks between marathon training schedule form Hal Higdon to guide my long runs between 8/5 and 9/15 but now I am going back to the 50 miler training schedule I have also been using, week 9 thru 20. The other aspect that Coach Jenny mentioned is that my training need to be structured around 4 consecutive running days … Although, and I like her suggestion, some of these days could be low impact cross-training on the elliptical. Makes sense. The gated weeks would see 4 consecutive running days while the weeks in between I would time the elliptical to be equivalent to a run …
Here comes the twist !!
warning --- Graphic Pictures! --- you have been warned!
Hit the Jap Gulch trail at lunch for an easy loop was the final decision for baseline run #3. I sure felt the drain of not having ran trails for a while and the excitement as well of zooming down the trail ... Were my strides a little too long? Did my attention shift a split second away from the trail? Whatever the reason, I tripped. Wipe out ... My first major wipe out ! I caught myself with my water bottle in one hand and the other just ripped (exaggerated ...) I felt my body crumbling into a fetal position as I continued sliding on the tip of my right shoulder. Everything really happened in slow motion and I was past my first though “oh this is going to hurt” as I felt my feel leaving the ground to “oh that’s not so bad right now” to I felt a sharp penetrating pain in the back right side then came abruptly to an end. I had skidded off to the side of the trail and caught a short tree stub covered by foliage. As the pain penetrated my body I though I hit a rock. Scratched and bruised I stood up and got back into the run. I had searing pain on my back side but was able to keep running, a sign I might have bruised the back muscle but that nothing is broken or tear. Oh and nice scratches and scrapes, even a little blood drawn make this an epic wipe out that I can brag about now ...
seriously speaking though this little episode reminds me that running trail is a totally different animal. I have lost some agility on the trail. Considering that the second marathon for the Quadzilla is a trail marathon I can’t lose sight of that in my training , as yesterday demonstrated. So I should make the second consecutive run a trail run on a regular basis. I can run the Gulch or continue looking for local trails. Either way, good lesson learned today.
I wasn’t going to achieve any training from forcing a run tomorrow. My legs although I have some soreness are able to output of good amount of power in day 3 which I do not think would be any less on day four, for the given distance, so I will probably retire from running for a couple of days and let my body rest and healed. I need to draw my training schedule anyway. I did resistance training instead with a 20 min cardio at the end. I think tomorrow morning I’ll be out for an early morning run.
Saturday I am accompanying SGF to the Zombie Obstacle run ... Fun fun fun !
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