Marathoning: Training Diary, 6/21-6/30
6/21: 9.3 miles, trails, ~10′ miles, AM
This was a fun run.
My dad’s a big runner–he’s done a ton of marathons, and is still fast as hell as he enters his sixth decade on this earth. I was back in Detroit, and it was Father’s Day, so I decided to finally humor him and do something I’ve been avoiding for, oh, say a dozen years–go running together.
It isn’t that I’m worried about my dad showing me up. He’d never try to make me feel bad or run fast and leave me behind. I’ve just never really been interested.
So early on Sunday, with my legs still very sketchy after 48 holes of disc golf at Hudson Mills the day before, we broke out and went over to Island Lake State Park along with one of my dad’s running buds. We did almost ten miles on the trails, up and down hills, through mud and sunny fields–the farthest I’ve ever run before. And we didn’t even go terribly slow.
6/23: Interval training, ~2 miles alternating 200m lengths with fast pace and recovery, PM
I like doing intervals. It’s fun to test yourself, and, as is the goal of this half marathon, train your body to go faster. I’d prefer to do them on an oval, though, because my mind tends to wander and I need some sort of heavy visual cues as to where to go. Case in point this time; every 200m we had to alternate between a very brisk pace and a recovery pace, but I forgot to turn around at the nearly invisible designated point and went on doing the push-recovery sets for another half mile or so, until I got to the bottom of the hill. I jogged back to see the others and finished things off but my absentmindedness really threw off my rhythm.
6/27: 6.7 miles at ~ 73, 11′ miles, AM
Had a good run and chat with Angela of team Brooklyn after we couldn’t bring ourselves to head to Manhattan to work with the rest of the group. Fun, light run, no music, just chit chat, two loops at Prospect Park on a hot day.
6/30: Interval training, ~3.5 miles alternating 400m lengths with fast pace and recovery, plus an 800m at the end, PM
Phew, more intervals. It was pouring rain as we got started, but cleared up significantly as we went. Coach Jim gave me some good tips on mechanics, namely to move my feet quickly without jacking my whole body and pumping my arms furiously. I think he described it as “bounding.” I thought that’s how you were supposed to run fast–I guess there are more efficient ways when you’re preparing to run fast for a long time. At any rate, Jim’s tactics made my running feel more like a speedy shuffle, but at the same time felt much lighter and were less of a general strain. This was much better coaching on my running form than the last advice I heard, from a lacrosse coach some 15 years ago: “You run like a soccer player. Cut it out.”
Ah, so I’m adding weight to this log–I’m at 191 lbs. I’d like to drop 5-7 to get down to fighting weight, so I’ll keep you updated on how that goes.
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