Rest week is over! Before I get back to work, it’s time to pause and assess how I‘m doing. Sometimes small changes creep up slowly over a period of time, things too small to notice among the day-to-day ups and downs. So it’s important to look back regularly for larger patterns, both good and bad.
I’m ticking off all the checkboxes on my workouts. I’ve done all my long runs according to schedule, and I’ve already completed the longest ones in my plan. I’ve built up the volume on my track workouts without breaking down and I’ve hit my speed targets. Mixing in crosstraining has allowed me to sustain a higher volume of training than I have for past marathons. All this should pay off in October.
My original plan to crank out speedwork on Tuesday, tempo runs on Thursday, and long runs or tempo/marathon pace runs on the weekend might have been too ambitious, so I’ve scaled back my effort level on Thursdays. Three hard runs a week and a long bike ride are probably too much for me. As I’ve written before, I’ve learned it’s better to be conservative in training so I can survive to let it all hang out on race day.
In other news, I’m using the fifth notch on my belt instead of the fourth more often!
Torture device
The pain in my butt isn’t getting any better. I try to keep it to a dull roar with crosstraining, stretching, self-massage, but lately it’s gotten to where it sometimes bothers me when I‘m trying to sleep. I’m going to try to work the sore spots more with the Goosebump and my foam roller, and I’m hoping that the fiddling I’m doing with my shoe inserts will do some good.
The sore spots caused by the scar tissue from old injuries in my left calf are also acting up. Mina mentioned it as a concern at my last massage. And the spot where my Achilles attaches to the heel is sore. That might be bursitis. I start running hills tomorrow, and that’ll put more stress on my calves. I’ll have to keep at the stretching and self-massage, and I really should start icing my heel more often after I run.
I’m usually tired. It’s nothing new and it’s something I’ve tried to resolve, but I haven’t found an answer. I never seem to get enough sleep, whether or not I’m training hard. Part of me wonders if I’m recovering enough between hard efforts. My running hasn’t been affected, but if I wait until that happens it’s too late. One thing for sure – I can’t sleep better by trying harder. So I train conservatively and try to keep my worrying to a minimum.
The big question is, “Am I getting any faster?” Of course, at my age maybe I should just ask, “Am I keeping from getting any slower?” Anyhow, part of staying conservative is to avoid racing all-out before the marathon, so I don’t have any race results that might answer the question directly. Besides, summer races are usually slower due to the heat, so any race times I had might be discouraging. I’m sticking with the advice Bob Ross gave me years ago : “Trust your training.”
Overall, I’m encouraged. Training is a process, and so far, I feel pretty good about the process. I just need to stay patient and healthy, and keep working to get ready for the most important assessment, on race day in October.
(strength; 147#)