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Sunday, August 21, 2016

Marathon training, week 7

Training for Twin Cities Marathon, October 9:

Monday: Off.
Tuesday: 10 total. This was the week I switched to the longer, slower repeats I'll be doing for the remainder of the training cycle. Rather than run on the track, I did my mile repeats in the park. It was dark when I started, and I didn't have my backlight on, so I struggled a tad with paces at first. The workout was 6x1 mile with 400m active rest. It seemed very easy, too easy, and my pace was much faster than it should have been (more like 7:05): 6:59, 6:51, 7:00, 6:52, 7:02, 6:50. Hm. No way this could come back to bite me, right?
Wednesday: 8 in the blazing sun at 7:55 pace. Bad idea. First, my workout was too fast. Then, my easy day - the most important easy day, between two hard days - was faster than prescribed. 
Thursday: And Thursday was payback time. I headed out for a tempo, and at mile three and a half, I bonked. Just like the end of a marathon. It was incredibly humid, and I'd gone to bed hungry and didn't eat that morning, but I really think the bonk was from veering off my training plan as far as paces go. I jogged back home for 8.5 total.
Friday: Off. I was scheduled for 8 easy, but I took off because I was worried that Thursday's bonk was a sign of overtraining. Plus, I had to take a final that morning. It was poor timing, because this was the first week with a long run of 16 miles, which is supposed to be on tired legs, but oh well. 
Saturday: 16 at 7:47 pace with 20 levee hills. I keep doing a lot of my runs on the levee, and I have no idea why. It's broiling out there. As soon as I hit the park, the shade under the trees changed everything. My last two or three miles were the fastest because I was in the park. I felt fine for this run, which was a relief, but I'd rather have the experience of a long run on tired legs like the plan calls for. I still kind of feel like this plan isn't working well for me - but maybe with the longer speed work and increasing length of easy runs between hard days, I need to go back to a full day off between speed work and tempo. The tempos just seem harder than they ought to. The pace I am running them at matches my fitness based on recent races, so why so tough?
Sunday: 8 easy.

Total: 51 miles.

This should have been 61 miles - so the workout I quit plus the skipped day had a big impact. I feel kind of bad about that, but I also think that a bonk bad enough to quit a workout should be followed by a day off. Plus, the final exam schedule really gave me no choice (unless I took it late Friday after our dinner reservations). Regardless, I feel like a big failure for flopping on the week. 

Have you ever bonked on a workout? What did you do, and did you take time off after? 

6 comments:

  1. Sorry to hear that you bonked. I think taking the day off after that was the wise thing to do. I've definitely bonked during plenty of workouts, mostly on days when it's been hot and humid. I don't run consecutive days as I train at a much lower number of miles since I'm at a different level of running compared to you! So I always have an off day after a workout (but usually not a full day off as I'd do some sort of cross training).

    I hope this is a better week for you!!

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    1. I'm supposed to have "rest" days, too - but Hanson's rest days are like 8 miles. I supposed that's easy for some, but it still seems a slog to me!

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  2. Back when I did tempo runs I bonked almost EVERY time...

    Probably best to take a rest day if you aren't feeling it. Hope next week is better!

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  3. Gurl you are way faster than I am, so your paces just blow me away. And the fact that you are knocking out sub 7 minute mile repeats x 6 in less than ideal conditions.... Are you gunning for a PR at Twin Cities?

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    1. No, not trying to PR. My PR is 3:06 and I am far, far from that fitness now! I am trying for between 3:15 and 3:10. I'm just running the paces all wrong! And I did it again today!

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  4. I can't remember ever bonking a workout in the end-of-marathon sense, but I have definitely had ones where I went out too fast & kind of just sort of fell apart pace wise. It happens. I think all you can do is put it behind you & move on.

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