Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Getting Psyched for the Next Challenge
I got home late last night from work so decided to putter around in my woodworking shop instead of doing my weight training – probably better for my recovery anyway.
In any case it gave me time to think about my objectives for the next couple months. The next major race on the agenda is the 50K on May 25th. This is a non-competitive event that will not be timed, so I don’t need to worry about speed. However the race does have some aggressive terrain, I need to build up my endurance, particularly on the hills.
I came up with a few things that I will be concentrating on over the next couple months:
- Getting my weight down. An old ugly theme, but the weight is still here and its time to get this goal behind me!
- Building core strength. Important for future plans.
- Learn to take walk breaks during my long runs. I don’t anticipate running the whole 50K.
- Implement at least one speed workout a week. I’ve never done speed workouts, I want to know if it makes a difference.
- Establish more distinguishable “recovery”, “easy”, “tempo” and “race” paces. They tend to overlap frequently. Normally I wouldn’t be so concerned with it as long as my body is making the call, but I keep getting into trouble at the longer races by starting too fast. I need to be more focused here.
- Hills, hills, hills.
- Work on my confidence and mental fortitude. The next time the going gets tough I want to make sure I’m tough enough to keep going. The body is only willing to go where the mind takes it.
Tonight I’m going for a short jog. On Saturday I want to run my 14K route at recovery pace. If the body responds positively to these runs than I will increase this to three runs next week, but still at lower intensity. By the first of April I hope to be back up to my normal training intensity. From there I will start building up again for the 50K. Happy running!
In any case it gave me time to think about my objectives for the next couple months. The next major race on the agenda is the 50K on May 25th. This is a non-competitive event that will not be timed, so I don’t need to worry about speed. However the race does have some aggressive terrain, I need to build up my endurance, particularly on the hills.
I came up with a few things that I will be concentrating on over the next couple months:
- Getting my weight down. An old ugly theme, but the weight is still here and its time to get this goal behind me!
- Building core strength. Important for future plans.
- Learn to take walk breaks during my long runs. I don’t anticipate running the whole 50K.
- Implement at least one speed workout a week. I’ve never done speed workouts, I want to know if it makes a difference.
- Establish more distinguishable “recovery”, “easy”, “tempo” and “race” paces. They tend to overlap frequently. Normally I wouldn’t be so concerned with it as long as my body is making the call, but I keep getting into trouble at the longer races by starting too fast. I need to be more focused here.
- Hills, hills, hills.
- Work on my confidence and mental fortitude. The next time the going gets tough I want to make sure I’m tough enough to keep going. The body is only willing to go where the mind takes it.
Tonight I’m going for a short jog. On Saturday I want to run my 14K route at recovery pace. If the body responds positively to these runs than I will increase this to three runs next week, but still at lower intensity. By the first of April I hope to be back up to my normal training intensity. From there I will start building up again for the 50K. Happy running!
# posted by Jack : 9:29 AM
Comments:
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Looks like a great mental recovery for you. I'm impressed!!
I like your list of goals....is stretching included in there somewhere???
Everyone is talking about CORE and upper body strength as critical to getting one through those last miles when your legs are shot...I'm seeing the importance of that in my training runs.
I'm learning from you as I get all my ducks in order for my 50K training the end of this year.
What a interesting journey life takes us on as runners, huh?
I like your list of goals....is stretching included in there somewhere???
Everyone is talking about CORE and upper body strength as critical to getting one through those last miles when your legs are shot...I'm seeing the importance of that in my training runs.
I'm learning from you as I get all my ducks in order for my 50K training the end of this year.
What a interesting journey life takes us on as runners, huh?
Jack -
Playing catch up a little on your blog. I'm sorry to hear about your DNF and the mental struggles that go along with it...but if it's any consolation, I think you made the right choice at that point.
Sounds like you are recovering well - both mentally and physically. And setting the next goal is a sure fire way to move on.
Happy training!
Playing catch up a little on your blog. I'm sorry to hear about your DNF and the mental struggles that go along with it...but if it's any consolation, I think you made the right choice at that point.
Sounds like you are recovering well - both mentally and physically. And setting the next goal is a sure fire way to move on.
Happy training!
Seems like a good plan. Some unsolicited advice: I wonder if you might want to wait to do speedwork. Here's my reasoning (and I am not an expert!): you will be stressing out your body by strength training, losing weight and focusing on hills (another form of strength training). My concern is that you could possibly overdo it by adding speedwork at this point in time. But like I said, I am not an expert, and you can totally tell me to bugger off, I don't mind! :)
On a related note, I attempted to do some strength training last night - and realized why I injured myself on Pemberton! I have no strength! I will be blogging about it tonight, no doubt.
Happy running!
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On a related note, I attempted to do some strength training last night - and realized why I injured myself on Pemberton! I have no strength! I will be blogging about it tonight, no doubt.
Happy running!
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