I kept busy with other activities this week, but not too much running. I had hoped to do more running since the next two weeks I will be out of town. But I had a really fun week, so no complaints. I intend to get back into serious training in 2 or so weeks when vacation is over. My wife's family is here for a while, so we were busy with them.

M: Sea kayaking ~8K in the southern archipelago of Gothenburg, Sweden. Beautiful.
T: Climbing.
W: Fell asleep after dinner, no running.
R: 15.2K @ 5:40/K Easy.
F: Climbing, Wow, tired from this one. Still sore today (Sunday).
S: Off
Su: Packing for vacation.

So, only managed 1 run, but did some serious core and upper body training with the kayaking and climbing. A nice break from pounding the pavement and trails. Looking forward to a good vacation. Going to Stockholm, Tallinn Estonia, then down to Bavaria, Germany for 5 days of biking.

quote:<HR>Originally posted by VeganPride:
Nice PR! If your demoralizing weeks contain PR's, you will be tearing it up on the good weeks!!

<HR>

Thanks VeganPride. And good point. Time to adjust they attitude, aye? The week just ended so poorly that I was in something of a rut. I went out to do 4.25 today (although technically a rest day) to try to get some gas back in the tank. I had a great run and am ready to move forward. Thanks for the nice message - it really cheered me up!

------------------
Me[/URL" target="_blank">

quote:<HR>Originally posted by crb81:
I just find if your long run becomes too big a percentage of your overall weekly mileage, it takes too long to recover from and you don't get in a good quality tempo run, which I think is key if you can do 3-4 miles at tempo pace during a 6-10 mile run each week and gradually build the time up you can hold that "comfortably hard" until it is 6-7 miles of tempo running.

Johnny,
Can you give us your definition of tempo run(pace)?

<HR>

crb81,

This is one of those answers "it depends". The typical tempo run is what others call a lactate threshold run. Most people would do a 2-3 mile easy w/up followed by anywhere from 3-7 miles at a pace that is anywhere from a few seconds slower than your 10k race pace to your half marathon race pace. Then do a 1-3 mile cool down.

Go to McMillan running page, pull up the pace calculator, plug in a recent race performance and then look at the "stamina workouts" box. This shows paces for steady state runs (longer, slightly slower tempo runs), tempo runs (3-7 mile continuous effort), and tempo intervals (total mileage may exceed a typical threshold run but you may run 10-15 min on pace, then 2-4 min. easy running, then on again, then off, on, etc.). These are all basically variations on tempo runs, or lactate threshold training. All of these have their place. I have found early on in my training cycles trying to get into better shape I prefer tempo intervals, run slightly faster, with short breaks, but with the total time run at a faster pace being longer than a single steady state run. Psychologically these are easier for me and I feel like I can spend a greater amount of time at lactate threshold pace with 2-4x 10-15 min. intervals with 3-4 min. easy running in between. As marathon training progresses, I personally have found I need to try to do sustained tempo runs without breaks as it tends to be more marathon specific (for me at least, particularly psychologically, to keep a good solid steady effort even when getting tired). As you lengthen you tempo run, you may reduce the pace closer to half marathon pace rather than closer to 10k. There are all sorts of variations on this and some people will even do runs up to an hour or so at closer to marathon pace, another very good marathon specific work-out.

Here is the link to the McMillan pace calculator to get you started.

http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/rununiv/mcmillanrunningcalculator.htm[/URL" target="_blank">

Signed up for Hartford in October with the hopes of qualifying for Boston (3:20 is the goal).

I?m on week 13 following Pete Pfitzinger 55 week plan. I really enjoy his book "Advanced Marathon" which was recommended by several of you.

Sunday: Medium- Long Run 17 miles (Humidity was awful)
Monday: Off
Tuesday: General aerobic + Speed 8 mile w/ 10 x 100 m strides
Wednesday: Recovery run 5 miles
Thursday: General aerobic 10 miles
Friday: Rest or cross train 3 miles
Saturday: Recovery run 4 miles


Total 47 miles

Not the best week for me.

M - rest
T - 5
W - 6
Th - 9
F - 3

And that was it for the week. Had 17 more scheduled for over the weekend, (it was a step back week) but didn't run a step. I did however, build a new fence in my back yard (including augering out the post holes) and was too exhausted to run at all. I likely would have ended up injuring myself in the process anyway, as I was totally exhausted, so I'm telling myself it was better to not run.

This week, 45 miles.