Big Day of Being Smart

Time: 93:08
Distance: 14.10 miles

W/u: 30:02 for 4.03 miles
W/o: 6 mile tempo at 5:15 to 5:25
C/d: 30:25 for 4.07 miles

Today was going to be a monster day in terms of fitness gains and evaluation. However, I played it smart and called the second effort off. The morning session was going to involve a 6 mile tempo run while the afternoon session was going to be an 8k race. The dual session workout in the same day is something that famed Italian marathon coach Renato Canova recommends and it was been adopted by others like Brad Hudson. The idea is to tire the legs out in the morning session and deplete some of the energy stores and then come back with a tough workout in the afternoon to really test the athlete both mentally and physically. I ran a workout like this in my lead up to the Austin Marathon last year, but never got to see the benefits because I got hurt with an achilles injury. See any similarities?

I started the first session from the house and warmed up to my 1.8 mile loop near the Dowd YMCA. The goal was to run marathon pace for 6 miles feeling relaxed as possible. As I walked down the stairs this morning the achilles felt fine, but the quads weren't happy. I had a general fatigue that was going to make today's efforts difficult.

The workout began and I tried to fall into a rhythm. My legs didn't want to get rolling and the splits showed it.

Splits:
5:26, 5:26, 5:29, 5:27, 5:26, 5:24 for 32:41 total and 6.0 miles.

I thought that after the first mile I would start seeing some sub-5:20s. Didn't happen. I struggled to keep the splits under 5:30. Perhaps knowing that I had an even harder workout in the afternoon kept me from really attacking during the session. I think the miles over the last couple of months are finally catching up with me. I only have 4 weeks until the marathon so I realize that a hefty taper is on the horizon.

My achilles didn't hold me back at all. I really only felt it on the 2 minute walk I took immediately following the tempo. It tightened up just a little before the cool down, but was fine during the jog home.

Once I got home I was sure to take an epsom salt bath, partly for the achilles, but mainly for the quads. I needed something to get rid of the general soreness before the Winter Flight 8k. I stretched, took some ibuprofen and massaged my legs. As I left the house I was a little hesitant to go through with the race in Salisbury. I tested the achilles with a little jog in the Dowd YMCA parking lot with Caitlin, Jay and Meagan present. I finished and knew I could run the race, but didn't know what would happen in the following days.

It was a tough decision to make, but I called off the race simply knowing that there was the potential of not running for a week. I could have run hard, improved the fitness, won some money, but not be able train for a few days. Or, I could step back, rest, be smart and start anew next week.

Jordan of yesteryear would have raced and faced the consequences, but today I tried to be intelligent. Why is it that the smart decision is sometimes the hardest one to make? I called Jeff soon after to explain why I elected not to race and he said that it was the right move. Not that he would have reprimanded me for choosing not to run, but the best coaches know when to pull their athletes back.