Not that I've had any actual *hard* or *intense* weeks yet, but this last week was slightly easier (in terms of how much running I've done) than Week 2 for a couple of reasons:
1) A last-minute ski weekend in Tahoe! Back in December I got new skis and have been looking forward to trying them out. Since there's now ten bazillion feet of snow in Tahoe (and somehow all my free Jan/Feb weekends are starting to fill up with Stuff), it seemed like a good time to go. (Also, this early in my season when I am running fairly low mileage, I don't really mind taking an extra day or two off of running.)
Top of Lake View Chair at Palisades
2) My lower left leg/ankle has been feeling a bit tight and pound-y, and again, there's no reason to risk overdoing it this early when I'm just trying to build up the miles and re-acclimate my whole body to running. Luckily I was able to get in with my massage therapist on Wednesday who did some SERIOUS work beating up my various fascias and such. It's generally better to give body work a good 12-24 hours to settle in before a run anyway, so rather than thinking of it as a Sad Unplanned Rest Day, I tried to think of it as smart recovery so I could run happy on Thursday.
Speaking of recovery, a quick reminder of the basic equation that governs all of training, for literally anything:
OK fine, that is a diagram, not an equation, but hopefully you can infer that the equation we are speaking of is stress + rest = growth.
Stress = applying a stimulus (such as a hard workout) that pushes your body juuuust a bit further than you're accustomed to so that you go "Wow, that was hard!" As a result you feel tired, which is your body going "Hey we've suffered a bit of damage here & need some time & resources [rest, water, carbs, protein, etc.] so we can rebuild."
Rest = giving your body & mind the time & resources they need to repair tissue damage, restore various hormone levels, refill carbohydrate stores, renew motivation, etc.
Growth / supercompensation = the cool part where you body doesn't only fix itself back up to its previous level, but kind of goes, "Eek, that was tough today, who KNOWS what she might do to us later, better pack on just a bit of buffer so we're extra prepared for whatever she throws at us next." That is supercompensation, or "getting fitter."
Which is all to remind us that we do not get fitter and faster by running; we get fitter and faster while resting. All the running (or cross training or whatever) does is stimulate your body to adapt in ways that make you fitter/faster.
Much ink has been spilt all over the internet and in various published books about how the stress + rest = growth equation holds not only in physical training but all kinds of skill-, talent-, and experienced-based pursuits. If we think about how it applies to endurance training, we can also see it at work in every grain size of well-designed training:
- Hard speed sessions ➡️ hard interval / rest interval / hard interval / rest interval / etc.
- Day-to-day ➡️ quality session / easy day(s) or rest / quality session / easy day(s) or rest / etc.
- Week-to-week ➡️ a couple of harder weeks / cut-back week / a couple of harder weeks / cut-back week / etc.
- Across a season ➡️ training cycle / race / rest / training cycle / race / rest / etc.
- Across a year or years ➡️ racing season / off-season / racing season / off-season / etc.
We do not get better at anything by only doing more and more and more; we get better by applying stimulus (a hard interval, workout, week, training cycle, season) AND THEN giving our bodies and minds a period of rest to absorb and respond to the stimulus and change in ways that increase fitness and/or renew our sense of excitement and motivation to get back to the grind.
Now, here is a revelation I came to as I sailed into my 40s and my masters running career:
- I have not fundamentally gotten slower in the last few years. Up until the end of 2022, I was running workouts as fast or faster than in my 20s and 30s. At 41, I ran my fastest half marathon in nine years (and fourth-fastest ever) and my fastest 5K in ten years (at least my second-fastest ever, possibly my fastest ever). Obviously at some point age absolutely will slow me down, but it hasn't happened yet!
- But here is what has changed; sometimes I recover more slowly. That 1:40 half last March felt *amazing* while I was running it, but afterward I went home and fell asleep for four hours and spent the next two days feeling like I'd been hit by a truck. In mid-2021 I could do a 12-14-mile workout just as fast as ever, but I might need a full rest day before I could even do an easy run, or multiple days of short, super-easy runs before I could handle another quality session.
So it makes sense to me that perhaps folks start slowing down in their mid-40s less because they physiologically aren't able to run as fast and more because running fast takes solid, consistent training, and the longer it takes you to recover, the less often you can do those hard sessions. Or if you're going to keep doing them with the same frequency, you might have to start scaling them back in terms of time/volume/intensity in order to stay on top of your recovery and not dig yourself into a hole.
How am I trying to keep myself out of such holes? I will tell you. Later. 😉
Grand Total: 25.5 miles, all easy
Monday 1/16: Rest. I actually felt really good and rested on Monday, but I've really been trying not to overdo it on my left ankle. After 10 miles on Sunday, I wanted to make sure it got some recovery time.
Tuesday 1/17: 2.5 easy to/from the gym + 1 hour strength + 7 more easy for the proper day's run = 9.5 total.
Wednesday 1/18: Massage + rest. Letting the left leg/ankle recover from Tuesday & soak up the body work.
Thursday 1/19: 6 easy. This was a busy busy day -- lots of work, then driving down to Stanford and back for my grad school advisor's retirement party. It was really great to see her & a bunch of other folks from my grad school days that I haven't seen in years and I was glad I went -- it just meant that I didn't have time to run until I got home after 8:00pm. Friends, I was exhausted and I did not not NOT want to head out into the dark & get it done but somehow I talked myself into it Atomic Habits-style.
Friday 1/20: 12 easy 10 easy. Man that ankle is still a bit unhappy. I could have tacked on the last two miles but I just didn't think it was a good idea. Hoping that a couple days of skiing and not running will help. Then it was into the car & up to Tahoe!
Saturday 1/21: Snow day!
Sunday 1/22: Snow day!
For all that last week was pretty low-mileage, I finished the week absolutely *exhausted* and desperate for some rest. You'd think after two days of skiing and not running I'd be ready to lace up my running shoes on Monday and get back out there, but the truth is I kind of feel like I've been hit by a truck! 🚚🥴 So I'm keeping my traditional Monday rest day & starting back up on Tuesday.
Have a great week all!
In Case You Missed It:
Victory Half Week 1 of 8
Victory Half Week 2 of 8
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