Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Back to Basics

Hey everyone! I am still alive and running, just not blogging much lately. I hope everyone is feeling and running well.

 

Since San Francisco I’ve run really well. My ITB pain is completely gone and I’m trying to get back in some kind of training rhythm. I’ve also been biking a bit just to mix things up. I like biking but it’s not running and I don’t plan to enter the Tour de France anytime soon so you’re safe Lance. I am still struggling with sleep and it has impacted my ability to run well.

 

After some brief retrospective (look at that word! Who’s distinguished now???) analysis, I believe part of my problem in San Francisco was a lack of endurance. I had been paying much more attention to the speedwork and tempo runs than to my bread-and-butter weekend long runs. I’m going to remedy this. Time to hit the roads for some serious time on my feet.

 

I find it kind of funny that I could get to the point where I actually need more long runs. It was not too long ago that I was trying to get more speedwork and tempo runs into my training because it seemed all I was doing were long runs. How could I get this far away from what I absolutely love? I miss you long runs! I miss your relaxing, sun-filled hours of thoughtless running. Those wonderful days spent at Lake Hefner when I would block off an entire afternoon to do nothing but RUN. This is where I found myself a few years ago and now it seems I’ve lost myself again so it’s time to go back “home”. I could go on and bore you with some lengthy, drawn out metaphor about life here but I’m trying to stick to running. Sorry if I’m too deep lately, sometimes my sappy side gets the best of my fingers and they just start typing away. Gotta remember that this is a running blog and not a psychologist’s couch no matter how much I need it to be sometimes.

 

I’m working out the details of my fall marathon plan. It looks like I’ll be staying local for all my marathons this fall. I just don’t have the time to travel around as much I would like. Right now it looks like the Spirit of Survival marathon in October, Tulsa in November, and Dallas in December. That is more than enough I think. My plans are to concentrate on Tulsa again and use Spirit of Survival as a long training run and Dallas as a backup.

 

First things first though, I’ve got to get those miles on my feet. Got my plan from Runner’s World Smart Coach and it starts week after next.

 

Thanks for listening

6 comments:

Unknown said...

I've had marathons where I've focused on too much speed work training and I think that was a mistake!

It's great that you already have so many fall goals!
By the way, I love your pictures of the boats, I must send your blog link to my husband, he loves boats AND running!

cath said...

welcome back. Yep the long long runs are the bread and butter arnt they!...I'm only just starting to 'sorta' like them...

Clark said...

Good luck to you, man! :)

Anonymous said...

I know one can find a book about running to support almost any marathon strategy but...i'm readng run less run faster. You might try it. It focuses on three runs a week: speedwork, medium tempo run, and long run. Crosstrain the other days. I have a buddy who did the training in the book and shaved off 20 minutes. Maybe worth a read as you go back to the basics.

Southbaygirl said...

one marathon a month? You are nuts man!! I'd die! Well-I wouldn't have the time to train for it!! Rock on...

Nov 15th!!

Terri said...

Have you seen the latest issue of Runner's World? there's an article in there about Tara Moody, and how she hardly ever sleeps. Of course she's an Olympic trials type runner, and none of us are!

I have to admit, I just love your posts where you get deep or use your blog as a psychologist's couch. They resonate with me, very much so, actually.