Running Around 6-3-07

I had a few questions this week regarding time off. Take a full week totally off? Yes. If you want to. Cross-training is good too. At the very least, cut back your mileage and take a few extra days off. In the near term, you'll lose a little fitness, but not much. In the long run, you'll be better off (mentally & physically) having taken some down time.

If you don't need a break because you've been injured or you're already doing a lot of cross-training, that's OK. Keep training.

If you've been training since January or December for the marathon or other races, you need a break.

Why the break? Well, we can't be at our best all the time. That's why we're following a periodized training cycle. Part of that cycle is rest, recovery and base-building. Following a hard Winter & Spring with lots of training and racing, we are in the rest & recovery stage right now. That' s why I'm suggesting some time off. Throughout the summer we will work on building a solid base of mileage which will support our track work in the fall training cycle.

If you took your break last week, it's time to start on base training. That simply means building a solid foundation of mileage. The idea is to build slowly and intelligently over the Summer. By limiting the intensity of training during this period, our bodies can adapt more easily to the stress of adding mileage. Intense training and more mileage would compound each other and really increase the probability for injury.

If you want specific advice for a Summer base training, talk to me, and we'll figure out a good plan for you.

During the base training phase, I'll provide a base training workout (usually a road run) plus a maintenance track workout for those who need a track fix.

So ... since I'm not running this week, I'll be joining you all for pizza afterward, but not for the workouts.

Now for the workouts ...

1a. Road run 6-10 miles.

1b. 2-3 x 3200m @T pace w/2 min rest.

2. Striders. 4-6x100m twice this week.

Get your paces here: http://www.panix.com/%7Eelflord/vdot.html -or- http://www.runningforfitness.org/calc/rp.php