Mon: AM – 4.5 miles; PM – 8.5 miles
Tue: AM – 4.5 miles; PM – 9 miles
Wed: 11 miles
Thu: AM – 4.5 miles; PM – 8.5 miles
Fri: AM – 4.5 miles; PM – 9 miles
Sat: AM – 7 miles; PM – 3 miles plus drills/plyos
Sun: 16 miles
Total: 90 miles
ECAT (East Coast Altitude Training) was in full effect this week. As a result, training was far from optimal. On the one hand, it’s been a while since I ran a 90 mile week, and laying down that sort of a base certainly has its benefits. On the other hand, I would much prefer an 80 mile week with a couple good quality workouts than 90 miles of long, slow distance. However, when you feel like you’re in an oven the second you step outside and your shorts and shoes are completely soaked with sweat 45 minutes into a run, about all you can do is just cover the distance and try to survive, so that’s what I did.
Since I knew workouts were pretty much out of the question, I added a little extra volume to help offset the lack of quality. Make no mistake about it, there is no substitute for running fast and mileage alone will not get you race fit, but like I said, 7 minute pace felt hard in the conditions we had this past week, so attempting anything beyond that would have been pointless and might have even been detrimental. As is, I felt like I was in a state of perpetual dehydration despite the fact I tried to drink extra every chance I got. Also, by the end of the week, my legs were pretty well fried. I know some of that was all the mileage I was running, but I think the conditions had a lot to do with it as well, as those I train with were experiencing the same thing even though they were doing less volume. Again, ECAT at its finest.
One of the worst parts about this week is not only did I not do any workouts, but I didn’t do any of my ancillary work either. It’s hard to do hill sprints, drills, and plyos when your shoes are as wet and squishy as if you’d run through a rain storm. As an example, I tried to do a few strides towards the end of my Saturday morning run, but the insoles of my shoes were so wet that they started to bunch up when I picked up the pace and got more on my toes, so I had to bail out to avoid getting a blister. That’s pretty ridiculous, especially when you consider that run started at 8:30AM and was only 7 miles total. Furthermore, I was overheated enough at the end of my runs that I didn’t feel like doing anything other than cooling off and rehydrating as quickly as possible. I did manage some drills after my shakeout run on Saturday evening, but that was it.
Hopefully this week will see at least a little break in the heat and humidity, but based on the current forecast, I’m not counting on it. It’s frustrating not to be able to do what I need and want to do, but that’s how it goes a lot of times in both the summer and the winter. You have to try to take advantage of the good days and just do what you can on the others. I may start doing a few strides in my morning runs just to turn the legs over a bit. I don’t have time to do a full workout in the mornings, so strides would be the best I could do, but at least I could get those in and might be able to do a quick drill session after a morning run as well. Regardless I’ll keep logging the miles and pick my spots to run hard whenever I can. At the very least I should be building a base like I haven’t had in a while and that should pay off in a couple months when the weather turns good. Stay cool, everyone!
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