Flexible in training...
This entry was posted on 1/27/2012 4:47 PM and is filed under uncategorized.
even though my legs seem to have lost some flexibility. I haven't really done any fast running now for a few weeks and I was thinking that today I was due for a solid effort. The plan was to do 10 with 3 or 4 in the middle at tempo pace. The warm up felt fine, but after just a mile @ 5:50, I felt a strange tightness in my right hip. If this had come after 2.5 or 3.5 miles of fast running, I probably would have just hung in there until the end. But after just one mile I decided better to back off, stretch it out, and jog it in for 8 @ 56. Since I've upped the volume and let the pace drop my stride has shortened a little and my legs have tightened up. I know better, but now I know by experience, don't neglect one aspect of training at the expense of another. Don't just run lots of miles but nothing fast. Now I'm rethinking things and am planning on keeping the mileage at 70 miles per week (instead of getting up to 80) but adding in a day of fartlek and a day of tempo effort intervals. This should result in a more balanced set of legs (plus weeks of 60, 70, 80 or 70, 70, 70 average out to the same thing.) Once the real marathon training starts, months from now, I'll up the mileage a little more, but by then my legs should be hard!
