Training Update

It's difficult to believe that I've already completed four weeks of my training plan! It feels as though I've just started, which is probably a good sign.

As with most changes, there are things I like a lot and things that aren't so great about this new lifestyle, but I'm very, very happy overall and have no plans to stop.

I'm very much enjoying the variety of the plan. Simply doing long and/or slow jogs nearly every day gets old fast, so it's great to have a variety of speedwork in the mix. I do regular interval runs and tempo runs, but there are also other workouts thrown in that I've never done before. For example, last week I ran four miles with four 30-second sprints thrown in, then a three-minute tempo segment toward the end. It's tough to get bored with all of this stuff on the to-do list. I'm sure I must be getting faster, so I suppose that should go on the list of positives, but I don't have a way to measure, really. My most recent long run certainly felt easier than the one before it, and I went considerably faster, but there are so many possible explanations (better sleep, better hydration, more complete recovery from the nasty cold I had two weeks ago, etc.) that I'm hesitant to say that better fitness is definitely the cause.

While I was able to anticipate some downsides to following the plan, like time expenditure, several frustrations have surprised me. One is that the cumulative effect of all of these workouts is more draining than I'd expected. I've never run so many days in a row, so hard before (I ran every day in high school, but it felt easier then, possibly because the workouts were easier, or--ahem--I was half the age I am now...). Even though I have an "easy" run every other day to break up the hard, fast, or long ones, a slow five- or six-mile run is not as rejuvenating as a day off would be. It's great that I'm building so much endurance from all of this, but I'm still getting used to having tired legs nearly all the time.

I've had my Garmin GPS watch for about five years and thought I understood pretty well how to operate it, but figuring out how to use my watch to measure all of this has been more difficult than I imagined it would be. In the past, when I did simpler workouts, hitting "start" and "stop" was about as complicated as my watch use got. Now I want to collect all kinds of data about speed sets in the middle of runs, and I want to see that data while I'm running so that I can reconfigure my efforts as necessary. Analyzing everything after I get home to my computer won't cut it. The Garmin and Training Peaks websites are both quite complicated--at least, I think so; Ed doesn't--and I'm still learning how to use my watch to collect the information that I need in the most seamless way possible.

And I am already tired of all of the clean-up that this requires. I generate far more laundry than before, and I take about twice as many showers as I used to. There was a time when I enjoyed taking showers, but I'm starting to feel like Sisyphus.

One challenge I did foresee was working in runs with friends. Most of the women I run with aren't particularly competitive, and I have to do even my slower, long runs a little faster than most of them want to go. The best solution I've come up with so far is to show up for runs that involve hangout time after. I start with my friends, take off and do my own workout, then join back up with them at a coffee shop or restaurant to chat afterward. It's actually very motivating when I have a very tough slog because it gives me something to look forward to.

Jeff and I plan to go over my progress at the end of this week and make adjustments if necessary. I'm interested to hear what he will say about my work thus far.