It's time to evaluate things. June was meant to be a month of racing to test my fitness level. I had originally planned on running 4 races in 4 weeks but had to drop the New Balance Twilight Meet due to injury. After 3 races in 3 weeks, I feel like I did make some progress over the spring. After missing the entire winter, I was able to get back into shape fairly quickly. Unfortunately, I seem to have stalled out at about the same point as last year. The parallel between the two years is actually eerily similar. To avoid what happened last year, I think it may be a good idea to stop racing for a while. My plan is to spend this week on recovery and begin a new training cycle once my legs feel ready. I'm hoping that without the training interruption and stresses of racing, I'll be able to progress through the fitness level I have seemed to cap out at over the last two years.
Today was an off day from running. I have a sore spot on the bottom of my heel that has been gradually getting worse over the last week and a half. I'm optimistic that a few days without the pounding of running will be enough to sort it out. Instead, I decided to ride my indoor bike a bit. I put in enough effort to make it a workout but didn't really push the pace. My hamstring is still slightly sore, so I want to make sure that gets a chance to recover as well. 29 miles total.
Just make sure you are ready to join CMS in time for the Labor Day 15k in August! We need some more young guys to mix it up at the front of the Grand Prix races! I hope a little recovery time gets you fired up about racing again later this summer and fall!
ReplyDeleteMy recommendation would be to take your normal/recovery days easier and focus on getting quality volume in workouts. 6 min pace for normal runs (based off of recent PRs) might not help to actually build the physiological adaptations that lead to increased aerobic capacity. It does help to develop lactate threshold but without increased capacity (from long easy runs) threshold will kind of eventually plateau out (as you pointed out)
ReplyDeletejust my 2 cents...
Patrick, I am actually considering just calling it for the summer and focusing on getting ready for the fall. We'll see though. I've been looking for a running club for a while. I was leaning towards NBB or GBTC, but I'm yet to meet the performance standards. I haven't made a decision though. What's up with the CMS website!? I tried to take a look and get some info on CMS, but it seems to be broken.
ReplyDeleteThanks Sean, I appreciate the advice! I've been thinking along the same lines recently. It's just a matter of actually doing it haha. I always have a tough time with throttling back.