Sometimes Less is More

That is something I have been learning my entire life. It started when I was a kid, learning little things like it's actually better for your teeth to not use quite so much toothpaste when you brush or you just want to use a little bit of conditioner in your hair. And it has been an ongoing lesson for me ever since, as I push myself to be the best that I can in each area of my life. It keeps coming around to, sometimes less is more. Sometimes scheduling fewer activities through the week and having a day just playing at home leads to the sweetest moments between my kids or the best learning experiences for us. The area where I have been struggling with this the most lately is with my running. Saturday I was reminded that sometimes less is more when I had to scrap a workout I had planned because I physically couldn't complete it at the pace I had been hoping for. Scrapping a workout is so hard for me to do, to admit it's not happening and not trying to force something but I felt like I did it with grace on Saturday. I didn't give up on a long run or a good workout, I just gave up on running my planned tempo run.

It all started this fall when I started bumping up my weekly mileage and saw great results, only missing a PR in the half marathon by 15 seconds. I found myself thinking, if I can do that off mostly 40 mile weeks, what could I do off mostly 50 mile weeks? So here I am 3 weeks into my training cycle finishing out my 3rd 50 mile week in a row. I only ran 2 weeks at 50 miles in the fall. I've found that amount of mileage is very manageable for me. My body is recovering well between workouts and I don't feel over stressed or taxed. I'm able to fit the miles in around our schedule and things are working out perfectly. Since higher mileage was going so well I started playing around with adding more to workouts. I got into a good habit of running speedwork once a week along with either a long run or a long tempo run each week during the fall. During the first week of this cycle I wanted to add more quality to my workouts so I added strides one day. That went well so the next week I added hill repeats into my week. So on Monday I was running strides, Wednesday speed work, Thursday hill repeats, and Saturday either a long run or a long tempo run. It didn't seem like too much and I felt good during my long run that Saturday so I thought it would be a good routine for me. Then this past week I decided the hill by our house wasn't big enough so I ran out to the biggest hill in the area and ran over a half mile of hill repeats, not counting the jog back down between. The hill is a monster and my legs were burning by the top. I had also run speedwork the day before and did a strength training workout when I got home that included squats and lunges. In hindsight, that was too much.

I didn't think much of it and headed out for my tempo run on Saturday. My plan was a 3 mile warm up, 8 miles at 6:50-6:55 pace, and a 2 mile cool down. I ran the 3 mile warm up with my brother, Thomas, and felt great. Then I took off for my tempo. Right from the start I could tell the workout was going to be a struggle. My legs were burning and I was having a hard time dropping below 7 minute pace. As I went over things in my head, I quickly realized my legs were fatigued from the hill repeats on Thursday. The workout had been a bit of a ball buster. My first tempo mile was 7:08 and I decided the tempo was most likely not going to happen. There was no point in finishing it out much slower than my anticipated pace, killing my legs, and feeling demoralized in the process. I told myself if I could push under 7:08 for the 2nd mile, I'd continue the tempo and hope when I turned around with the wind at my back I could get closer to goal pace. My 2nd mile was 7:23 and my thighs were burning so I decided to switch gears. I think it is good to teach your body and mind to run fast on tired legs, but I think you can overdo it or push at the wrong time. I decided to run 2 mile "pick ups" since I couldn't hit tempo pace. I'd run 2 miles hard, a mile easy, 2 miles hard, a mile easy, 2 miles hard, a half mile easy, and then one last hard mile before a half mile cool down. I was so glad I made that decision because even running the pushes at 7:10 pace was tough. My legs were burning and I wanted so badly for each set to be done. But I finished out my 13 mile long run and felt like I got a decent workout in, even if it wasn't what I had planned.

I'm still figuring out what works for me. I had a good cycle in the fall and was excited to see my times fall as I started taking training more seriously than I had in the past 7 years. But I was still really cautious because I wasn't sure exactly what my body could handle. I wasn't prepared to push my body to the limits yet. Now I am and I'm figuring it out a little bit at a time. Sometimes it just takes pushing a little past your limit to realize where your limit is. Then you can regroup, push on, and adjust your training to fit your needs. Now I know hill repeats on a monster hill on Thursday before a Saturday tempo run is too much, especially if I do a strength workout after returning home. I'm going to play with it and see what works best, only running hills on weeks when I'm doing a long run without a tempo built into it or continuing with hill repeats each week but sticking to the smaller hill by our house on weeks when I'm going for a tempo. Sometimes when I make mistakes like I did this past week and I look back the mistake seems so silly and glaring to me, but in the moment it seemed like a great idea. Obviously trashing my legs on hills wasn't the best idea on my last run before an 8 mile tempo. My half marathon isn't even going to be hilly, I just feel like hills will make me stronger. The more important workout is the tempo run, hands down.

I'm just proud of myself that I was able to let go of the workout and adjust it to meet my needs that day. Sometimes I get my heart so set on doing a certain thing that I can't let go and I try to force a workout when it's not there. This fall was huge for my confidence and I've had some big tempo runs already with a 6 mile tempo at 6:51 pace followed by a 7 mile tempo at 6:47 pace with the last mile in 6:29. I think part of the reason why I was able not to stress over the workout not going as I had planned was that I have confidence that next week without monster hill repeats on my legs, I can run that awesome 8 mile tempo I was looking for. I'm only 1/4 of the way through this training cycle so I have plenty of time to make up this workout. Even after over 20 years of running, I'm still learning and it's important to give myself the chance to do so.

Just for fun, some pictures from my run this morning with the whole crew.