Well if He was a runner that is what he would have said. And for November that is what I did. Ran all seven days of the week.
Running had not been going to well and I was finding that I wasn't improving as fast as I was hoping. So it was time for a new challenge.
I decided to try and run every day in November. At first I didn't tell anyone but as I came closer to the end I did.
I had some rules for my challenge.
- You must run every day
- To count as a run it must be over 25 minutes or 3 miles. Whichever is first
My legs no longer felt heavy at the beginning of each session but light and fast.
So what did I learn from my challenge. For one you can run every day of the month but you must listen to your body. When I was tired I did a recovery session. Forget the watch and just ran how I felt.
I always had an eye on my main sessions of the week. My Monday and Wednesday speed sessions and a race on the Saturday. Once I knew that I had to be 100% fit for these sessions the rest took care of themselves.
I also changed how I did my long runs at the weekend. I tended to run off road and give my legs a rest. Forget how quick I could do the run and just go out enjoy myself and get time on feet.
So a typical week was:
Monday : 20 min tempo + 6 * 200m strides (about 7 miles incl. Warmup)
Tuesday : 8.32 miles easy
Wednesday : 6 * 4 min reps (75s recovery) (7.6 miles incl warmup)
Thursday : 8.42 miles easy
Friday : 4 miles recovery including strides
Saturday : 6 miles XC Race
Sunday : 18 miles hill run (3hrs 15mins)
This was last weeks training and totalled just under 60 miles.
It has gone so well that I am now going to continue and run as many days as I can. I wont be fanatical though. If my body needs it I will have time off.
Now Debbie is wanting to try the same thing in December. Much harder month with all the festivities.
4 comments:
Approximately 8.32 miles? :-) If you manage to fit in a run today, you've cracked it. xxx
Yeah I am worried where I will fit it in today.
Fetch are doing the same thing but it is for wimps
http://www.fetcheveryone.com/viewtopic.php?id=32068&page=1
Mxxx
We should have called ours the marcothon :-) Minimum of 2.62 miles or 26.2 minutes per day. xxx
I think this is a great idea and glad it has helped reinvigorate you. I always do my long runs at the weekend off road with no real sense of urgency. Time on feet in the great outdoors. :-)
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