Learning from Your Training
Last year was a big running year for me. It really started in the October of 2010 when I watched my sister-in-law, Danielle cross the finish line of her first marathon. I had just started running again after a two year hiatus and had completed a half marathon and a few smaller races. Watching her and thousands of other runners cross the finish line, brought back a strong desire to run another marathon (I had run three previously in 2003 and two in 2007). Within a week of watching her cross the finish line I was registered for a 16 mile race in January and a half-marathon in February. It was all in preparation for a spring marathon: Danielle and I planned to run the Vermont City Marathon in May 2011. In anticipation of these races I began to map out my training plan. I mostly followed the Hanson Brothers training plan with I read about in a Runner's World article. I had several marathons under my belt so a more advanced plan like the one they suggest wasn't too much of a stretch. Ultimately my goal for the spring marathon was to run a Boston Marathon Qualifying time (which at the time, for my age group was 3:40) and it seemed like the Hanson plan would get me there. So I started training.
What I love about training is that you can learn so much about body and what it is capable of, but most of this knowledge comes in retrospect and so it did for me in 2011. I never made that Boston Qualifying time in May or again in October when I ran the Maine Marathon (you can read my race re-cap HERE). So why not? I had a good solid plan. I was putting in the proper training and following the plan. I was participating in track workouts with my running club. And I was putting up some fast PR's in the process that indicated a 3:40 marathon was within reach. What went wrong?
Racing Too Much: One of the biggest mistakes I made in 2011 was racing too much. Between January and May of 2011 I ran a major distance race every month: a 16 miler in January, a half marathon in February, a 20 mile race in March, a marathon in April and then a half marathon and marathon in May. I thought (wrongly) running more races would act as speed work and would help me get faster as a runner. I also thought that I could replace training runs, lets say a weekend long run, with a hard effort race and that I would gain the same benefit. I was wrong. I was racing far too much so when I got to the Vermont Marathon in May my body was burnt out. I was running at race effort too often and not running long and slow as much as my body needed, as a I couldn't recover. In a training cycle every run has a purpose: speed work and tempo runs build speed and anaerobic capacity, long runs teach your body to burn fat as fuel and build aerobic capacity. Recovery or easy runs are meant to allow the body to rest, while maintaining fitness and mileage base. Even though my weekend long runs were slow, I wasn't allowing for recovery runs during the week and all the racing and track workouts had me at maximal effort too often. In essence all the racing was contributing to overtraining. Despite my lackluster finish at the Vermont Marathon (serious dehydration due to heat and humidity also contributed) I continued to race, running at least a 5K or 10K every other weekend through June, July and August (with mixed results I PR'd in the 5K in August with a time of 21:45 but ran a slow-for-me 10K two weeks later in 49:17). It wasn't until September that I stopped racing at the suggestion of my running club's track coach when he said "I looked stiff and tired." (You can read my post on his suggestion HERE.)
Improper Pacing: One of the other things that contributed to my disappointing race finishes was the fact that I wasn't pacing my runs correctly. I thought that if every run was faster than the last, then I was improving. But this, again, left no room for recovery, no time for my body to build up after I'd torn it down in a hard run. One of the tools I didn't have at the time was the McMillan Pace Calculator, an extremely valuable tool that allows you to properly predict training and race paces according to your current level of fitness. Looking back now and comparing my training runs and races to those predicted by the pace calculator I can clearly see that my long runs weren't quite slow enough and recovery runs were a non-existent part of my training. I also replaced to many long-run days with races, meaning I wasn't getting the benefit of the slow pace of a long run (building aerobic capacity) and was instead taxing my body at anaerobic threshold. And during the week I wasn't running easy paced recovery runs, instead I was pushing as close to race pace as my body would allow. If you have never used the McMillan Pace Calculator you should check it out. Plug in your latest race time for most accurate results. Sticking to the paces it gives you for training and racing will yield much better results.
Didn't Allow for Rest or Recovery: One of the other things that I didn't do was allow my body to rest by taking days off, stretching or foam rolling. As a result I started to feel the early stages of plantar fasciitis, something I'd experienced before in my first marathon. It can be excruciating and debilitating pain in the arch of the foot. When I first noticed it in September I panicked. The Maine Marathon was only a few weeks away and I was at risk of not being able to run it. Unfortunately it took an injury and my coach noticing my stiffness and fatigue to get me to slow down and take care of myself. In early September I scheduled several massages with a massage therapist who specializes in working with runners, I started foam rolling, icing after long runs and stretching. I also took more days off and per suggestion of the track coach ran all my runs at a 9 min pace or slower. Three weeks later at the Maine Marathon I ran a Marathon PR of 3:48, still shy of my Boston Qualifying time, but better than dropping out of the race completely, which is what I thought I would have to do.
My next training cycle will start sometime in November after the birth of our little boy in September, with a goal of running the Sugarloaf Marathon in Maine in May of 2013. (I'll be sharing my post-baby comeback plan with you soon!) This time around I'll be training a lot smarter and racing a lot less. Despite some of the disappointments, I learned so much last year and feel that I am a stronger, smarter runner for it.
What have you learned from your past training? How do you hope to improve this year?
--Sarah