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November 30, 2005
Waste of Time?
I ended up doing my long run on the treadmill again yesterday. I was supposed to go in the middle of the day, but I found a warm spot in the library and sort of settled in and got into a groove. Since I was being productive (and feeling cozy, while out the window the day looked grey and cold), I decided to keep working and do my run when I got home. Which is always a mistake. It took all my willpower to tear myself off my couch around 10 and go down to the treadmill... when all I wanted to do was crawl into bed, turn on my stereo, and drift off to sleep.
I somehow convinced myself that trundling along on the treadmill at 8 min. pace for a couple of hours while listening to music wasn't going to be substantially different from lying in bed listening to music. The 8 min. pace was the deal I struck with myself to actually get myself on to the treadmill. I rationalized it by telling myself that some benefit was going to accrue from simply running the miles, and that I didn't want to be up all night with stomach issues as I was the last time I did my long run on the treadmill.
I still haven't figured out exactly why that happened. A good part of it may have been caused by dehydration. I didn't drink very much water that day and only had a few sips while I was running. But I also think that sometimes I tell myself a pace is easy, so it feels easy, but it really isn't. Sort of the same effect I was describing yesterday with the weather.
So, last night I kept the treadmill at 8 min. pace and made myself drink water every 20 mins., consuming a liter over the course of the run. And suffered no stomach issues. In fact, the only effect of the run was some tightness in my left hamstring which caused me to get out of bed around 3 and spend some time with the foam roller. When I walked to school this morning I had no post-long-run weariness in my legs at all.
So, now I'm feeling guilty for not running harder... and also feeling as if I may have wasted two hours on unproductive running. On the other hand, I have a history of over-training by running too hard on my recovery days. But long runs aren't supposed to be recovery days, at least not when you're training for a marathon. I guess what's done is done, though, so I'll just try to make sure the rest of my runs this week are of higher quality.
Posted by alweiss at November 30, 2005 09:51 AM
Comments
My coach tells me _not_ to run fast sometimes because there are adaptations that occur while one is running slowly and fast running interferes with that. Since I like running slowly, I am happy to believe him! I'm just impressed that you ran that long on the treadmill.
Posted by: Alison at November 30, 2005 02:34 PM
You lie! (At least about liking to run slowly)
Posted by: alweiss at November 30, 2005 07:23 PM
I do almost every single non-workout run at 8:00 to 8:30 pace, and I often start out at 9:00 pace. P and I run 10:00 pace together right now. Really. I am not lying! Perhaps I have run faster with you in the past, but that was merely so I could keep up with you!
Posted by: Alison at December 1, 2005 05:13 AM
Hmmmm... I seem to recall that more often than not it was YOU pushing the pace. ;)
Posted by: alweiss at December 1, 2005 11:54 AM