Tuesday 070709

• AM – 4 miles easy. Sluggish. AvHR=140.
• PM - 15+ miles on variations on the Mesa trail.  2:45 of running.  Hot.  AHR=156.  3500 feet of climbing. First hour solo kept is real low key- average HR was 138.  Then joined JV and ran “easy” with him, but AHR = 161 over that (little less) hour.  Then joined BTR Tuesday night crew and I was cooked, put a fork in me, done … I just thrashed about and ran behind everyone… HR averaged 168.  More data later … I am tired now.  This run was definitely harder because of the load I have been carrying.
• Race preview for Barr Trail by Justin … (women)
• I am clearly looking to continue to pile on some degree of volume here in July. I have often said that the key to races like Pikes are five fold: run alot, run up, run fast, run down, and altitude.
  
  I have debated the order of these with folks (particularly fast and down ordering), but nearly all agree with the "run alot" and "run up." Altitude - well, I put last just because some folks can't do anything about that, and some folks, even though they do get to train at altitude still (disproportionately) struggle there. It is good if you can get it, but it perhaps the least important of the "keys."
  
  That said, I have beleive I have curtailed the "run long" stuff. Simply, getting out for three, four hour runs is ... hard. Not just getting out and doing the run for that amount of time, but finding the time to do that AND then finishing the run in a mental condition that does not leave you as a wastetoid for the rest of the day - and hence impacting how you interact with those you love. But, arguably, with the marathon being at least four hours (with the exception of a handful of folks), if one wants to properly prepare, such sessions are necessary (or at least a build up to them).
  
  I guess I know that I have eschewed this real long running stuff. When I asked folks like Galen and Bernie what made them successful, I heard stuff like "training 15 hours a week" or "a lot more hundred mile weeks." Arguably at this point, I am "cramming for the exam" by looking to address this weakness with some higher (for me) mileage weeks.
  
  I bring this all up though because I think this understanding that I can "comfortably" fit in 10 hours a week has also led me to sneak in more speed work. In other words, understanding that 15 hours a week might be best but that I can't regularly get that due to other choices I have happily made in my life - has led to a thinking like this: "can't get three hours, let's bang out a hard ten." Of course, there has also been other factors that have led me to doing that sort of running, which includes seeing my overall speed drop (200 meter repeats have slowed by four seconds over the last three years), how I have trained historically for 20+ years, and having "fun."
• Yeah, sometimes aerobic training is not fun. If you are going to do it with specific HR caps. be prepared to run alone. I have run with folks who are more than 10% slower then me on 10ks, but I need to let them go on short easy runs because I see my HR floating too high. Discipline to a HR cap is going to be challenged when you get together with the guys for an easy run - and definitely more so if it is the typical throw down session that a lot of runs become.
  
  But, even more then that - I know a lot of folks who just don't care about that sort of development of running. I know that comes across as a judgment but it is not. They rather bang out a hard five miler with their buddies, or run hard up a mountain, or bomb a downhill all out. It is fun. And it is why they run. I can see a spectrum in my head where running at one end is without regard for any training principle, or plan, or results. At the other end is training with very specific goals, plans, outcomes. It is up to the individual to determine which is fun - and what is fun for you might not be for someone else.
  
  JV and I have had this conversation dozens of times. I have told him that I think he could run sub 2:30 in the PPA if he did some track work. I legitimately believe that. But that sort of work just would not be fun for JV. And so, he does not do it. He has fun killing himself up Green (and every other 14er in the state) - and is happy with doing that and the outcomes. That is the balance - find the balance between fun and outcomes.
  
  Another example of this is my periods where I give up beer.  Drinking beer is fun.  I love it.  I love making it, I love the smell of it, I love its presentation in a glass with a nice good head.  But I give it up for periods of time in my life because that represents a discipline towards a goal for me.  And demonstrating that discipline is fun in its own way.  I don’t think it has a huge outcome particularly on what I am able to physically perform on race day, but it leaves my mind in a set that believe it drove appropriately towards some objective.