Wednesday, February 11, 2015

February 15th Preview

On Sunday you marathoners begin alternating shorter runs with longer. The first of these is six miles. You can either take it as a recovery run at the same pace as last week's 11, or as speed training at a faster pace than last week. Half-marathoners can go the this same distance or less.

The route (with an 8:00 start from the Eugene Running Company): Oakway and Coburg Roads to Ferry Street Bridge and don't cross. Turn left onto bike path, to Alton Baker parking lot. Continue on road to its end at ponds. Turn right on canal path, to I-5 underpass. Turn AROUND there and come back the same way. GPS distance is 6.10 miles.

Bring a drink for delivery at about 1.5 and 4.5 miles (near dog park). Weather forecast: starting temperature in the 40s with rain unlikely.

WEEK'S LESSON: YOUR MILEAGE

Question: You never mention how much weekly mileage I should total. Why not?

Answer: Weekly mileage is one of the most misleading figures in the sport. It causes you to run too far on days that should be easy, penalizes you for taking a day off (which you need), and can leave you tired for the ones that really count. Put your emphasis on the length of your long runs, and on recovering in between with easy runs and days off. At least for the life of this marathon-training program, stop counting weekly mileage. If you count anything during the week, make it minutes – which help insure that those runs will remain easy. As noted earlier: no more than two hours of running between the weekends, and no run lasting longer than one hour.

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