Old Faithful

Everyone has their own ideal workouts. Some guys like 1200's. Some guys like mile repeats. Some guys like complex ladders. Some guys like to vary.

Me, I'm simple. I just like good old fashioned 800's and 400's. Tried and true.

In my mind, I don't have that faster track speed so I try to gain it by means of shorter distance workouts. I don't feel like I gain a lot from longer repeats. Actually, I probably should even be doing more 200's, but I find those far too annoying and you have to run too damn many! 800s are always just a good solid gauge for speed + endurance.

In this case, I'm about a month and a half out from Berlin and I ran one of my bigger workouts last night: 10x 800 at a 2:35.7 average. I felt good the whole way though, in spite of my mind wanting to protest any thoughts of speed. Looking back at my past workouts, that's actually a great pace for me too. The only time I've really gone faster was with fewer reps. Ie, a few weeks ago I managed to pull off 8x 800 @ 2:33.5 avg. I was far more fresh back then and had a few more guys on the track to help out... (I'm kissing 90 miles right now).

It'll be interesting to see what I can do when I get back from the cabin in two weeks, and if I clip another second off my time. That would make for my fastest 10x800 workout ever and certainly give me some big confidence. In the mean time, keep on keep'n on.

Split recap:

1- 240.4

2- 237.5

3- 235.5

4- 235.5

5- 234.9

6- 236.7

7- 235.3

8- 235.0

9- 233.3

10- 233.7

Avg- 235.7

Don't call it a come back, I've been here for years!

Brick by brick I'm putting myself back together. The winter was brutal and I missed a ton of training/basing due to the shitiest.injury.ever., but I'm coming back.

I'm now sitting on five weeks of mid-60's to upper-70's training. I've inserted a couple joker races, have a few workouts under me, and have been doing lots of progression runs. In general, I'm feel decent, albeit a little tired and sore... but no significant holdbacks (huge knock on wood). Importantly, I'm actually having fun training again.

This is where things take off. Including this week, I have about seven weeks to train for Berlin (assuming an abbreviated taper). I'm letting it fly. Over the next couple weeks, I'll jam as much quality as possible into about 80-85 mile weeks, and then it's off to the cabin. Hopefully I can survive two back-to-back 90-100 mile weeks in the mountains without any injuries.

After the Adirondacks, I go back to the Chicago Half Marathon on 9/7 to try to prove myself, then a week and a half to tighten things up.

I've been down this road 19 times already. I know what I'm doing. If I don't fuck up, number 20 will be my fastest marathon ever.

That being said, last night I had my first real tempo since last October. I ran six miles at a 5:49 average. It was humid outside and eventually started to rain, but I ran extremely smooth and controlled. I picked it up nicely after the turn. I didn't have any troubles at all... And to boot, I doubled the day for 16 total miles. That's a pleasant confidence booster.

Tempo #1 recap:

1- 6:00

2- 5:56

3- 5:57

4- 5:48

5- 5:40

6- 5:35

Avg: 5:49