training…

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about training. Am I training enough? Am I training correctly? Why am I not faster???

There is so much information available on the internet, it’s hard to know what advice to follow. Should I train less but with increased intensity? Should I train more with less intensity? Is it ok to run on an empty stomach in the morning?

I’m sort of a nut, so I have over 2 years worth of training data. In 2011, my average distance was 1.89 miles. In 2012, that went up to 2.71.  So far this year, I’m at an average of 3.67.  Does this increase in distance warrant a 0.27 drop in mph?  I feel slow.  I don’t see any improvement speed-wise  and when I run races of the same distances, my times go UP.  The one exception to this is the 5K, where my time has gone down from 36:43 in 2010 to 35:02 in 2012.  However, I was expecting to see a much greater improvement.    The first 5k was before I really considered myself a runner.

So, what am I doing wrong?  Or am I doing anything wrong?  Is it unrealistic to expect as-good-as-or-better results from each race?

In 2011, my training strategy was this — run 1 to 1.5 miles as fast as possible without stopping. Sometimes I would run just 1 mile and then run/walk the next mile (or 1/2 mile). But pretty much every run was an “I want to run at least one mile as fast as I can” run. I don’t think this was very effective, and it certainly did nothing for my endurance or distance running. Only 11 out of 110 (10%) runs were 3 miles or longer.  My longest run that year was just 3.71 miles and I bet I walked a fair amount.

2012 brought more of the same. And then, at some point, I slowly starting adding more distance.  Not a lot, as my average distance for the year went up by less than a mile. However, 37 out 116 (31%) runs were 3 miles or longer and 10 (9%) were over 5 miles.

This year, 65% of my runs so far have been 3 miles or longer, and almost 10% have been 5 miles or more. I am trying to work on easy runs that build endurance and distance (no walking breaks!) and race pace workouts that slowly increase in distance (from 1 mile intervals to closer to race distance).

I signed up for the San Jose Rock ‘N Roll 1/2 Marathon in 2012 on a whim. I don’t think I trained enough, but I did invest in a custom training plan from Greg McMillan. In retrospect, this was a wise move, but something that I should have done much earlier. I had 5 weeks to train for the 1/2, and I had only logged 1 run at or above 5 miles…ever.

2 weeks before the race, I got sick. I didn’t run at all during those two weeks. I completed the race, and I made it just under my goal time fo 3 hours, but just barely. I was elated to have done it, but disappointed with my performance. I set a goal to run another 1/2, and to be more prepared. I decided on the Santa Cruz 1/2, which would be in April 2013.

Unfortunately, some times life gets in the way. Earlier this year, I discovered that I would need laparoscopic surgery to remove a tumor (no cancer, thank goodness). My surgery was scheduled for shortly after I returned from a 2 week business trip and just 6 weeks before the 1/2 marathon.

Once again, I decided to run anyway, despite the setbacks in my training. And once again, I was disappointed with my time. I knew I was under prepared, but yet somehow I felt faster. I finished 4 minutes slower than I had in the previous race, and just missed my original goal time.

My next 1/2 marathon will be the Disneyland 1/2 on September 1st. I’ll talk more in my next post about some of the training “plans” that I’ve tried to follow and what my plan is get ready for Disneyland.  I do have some answers (albeit only my own) to the questions I posed at the beginning of this post.

Until next time!  Happy Earth Day!

PS.  Just for fun, here’s some of the graphs that I have based on all my data —