I have tried to stay well below the red line in 2012 and have been pretty good about keeping individual workouts and the total work for the week moderate. This is much easier when you are only focused on base building mileage.
Recently I have been trying to do more speed work. This just adds another factor of stress. Long runs (greater than 30 miles) Hill runs (Long slower grinding repeats) and speed make for 3 workouts a week most weeks.
3 workouts is a lot more stress than 2 a week. If you over-do 1 or 2 workouts in a week it can have a negative impact. With 3 workouts I cannot afford any to be over-done or it will lead quickly to over-training.
The last 14 weeks post vacation starting with Tuesday 7/31 I have run 358 miles ... I have run more - Actually a lot more in a 14 day period (475)~ But the pace was quicker, the hydration and nutrition not as good and the last 4 days included 3 runs runs > 4 hours 2 of which were way over-done on effort.
What does this all mean?
A smart man would take a few recovery days to get a body re-set and avoid a serious case of over-training ... I hope I am a smart man!
When I become more fit and the workouts are going great, its easy to get gready. When I want something really bad it is easy to push harder than I should. When these 2 factors come together at the same time discipline can be hard to hold onto.
Good running to all!
Be the smart man
ReplyDeleteRichard C
Richard
ReplyDeleteSo my "smart" was to skip the PM workout and eat copious amounts of food and have 4 beers. Alcohol is evil.
After that easy day and a fair amount of calories - I felt pretty decent for a moderate speed workout last night.
Looks like I dodged the bullet and I am in a cutback week this week, so by the end I should be in a pretty decent place.
Michael