Monday June 7
12 miles, 1:22min, drills
Tuesday June 8
AM 5 miles, 35min
PM WO 8x300's at 47sec w/ 200 rest, 8 miles
Wednesday June 9
AM 10 miles, 70min, drills
PM 5 miles, 37min, drills
Thursday June 10
AM 2 miles, 14min, drills, strides
PM 8 miles, 56min
Friday June 11
AM 5 miles, 35min, drills
PM 5 miles, 35min, drills, strides
Saturday June 12
AM 2 miles
PM Race 5000 at NBB Twilight DNF, 9 miles
Sunday June 13
Off
71 miles
On Saturday I raced at the Twilight 5000m in hopes of running a good PR or qualifying for the US Championships. Honestly, I have not felt very good since the NCAA's and going into this race, but still wanted to give it a last shot at it. It was tougher recovering from 5k/10k double physically. Mentally, the fire wasn't there after returning and trying to run fast one last time. On the other hand, I would not have wanted to go any different with regards to preparing for the NCAA's. The first priority was to perform well at NCAA's since it was my last one. I will have plenty of time to chase US qualifying marks in the future.
Speaking of the future, I am taking a short break from training. Sometimes you have to take a step back so you can take two steps forward. Over the past 52 weeks, I have run 4,770 miles or 91.7 miles per week, including time off(1 week between crosss) and a few days off with achilles problem. Out of those 52 weeks, 41 of them were at 90+ miles. That is probably the most productive training stretch I've ever had. Ran PR's in the 1500 (3:49), 2-mile (8:56), road 5k (14:10), track 5000 (13:56), XC 5mile (24:23), XC 10k (30:17), 10 mile treadmill (51:23), 10 mile road (51:30).
Also had some really good workouts. Best workout of the year was the 4xmile w/ short 400 rest of sub 2 min, in which I went 4:29, 4:28,4:27,4:31. In addition, the 10 mile treadmill progression run where I split 5:22-5:21-5:19-5:16-5:15-5:09-5:05-4:59-4:54-4:43 for 51:23. This definitely keeps my hopes up that I will do better at the longer races sometime in the future.
The 5 years at UMass Lowell proved to be different compared to what I had anticipated. Going from being a 4:32 miler to running 13:56 is something I would have never imagined. I would have probably been very happy with running 14:59.99 if you asked me during my senior year of high school about what would make me happy at the end of college. But now that I have learned much more about how my body responds to training, I am no longer just satisfied with breaking 14min. I definitely think there are a lot of things that I still have to learn and improve on, but everything comes with time. The older I get, the more years of solid 100miles I get under my belt, the more experience I will have and the more I will keep improving. The key is to stay healthy and hungry.
Thank you for all of you that have have been supportive of my running the past few years at UML. I am in the process of looking at joining a new club or opportunities to continue training full time. Suggestions and comments are welcome.
12 miles, 1:22min, drills
Tuesday June 8
AM 5 miles, 35min
PM WO 8x300's at 47sec w/ 200 rest, 8 miles
Wednesday June 9
AM 10 miles, 70min, drills
PM 5 miles, 37min, drills
Thursday June 10
AM 2 miles, 14min, drills, strides
PM 8 miles, 56min
Friday June 11
AM 5 miles, 35min, drills
PM 5 miles, 35min, drills, strides
Saturday June 12
AM 2 miles
PM Race 5000 at NBB Twilight DNF, 9 miles
Sunday June 13
Off
71 miles
On Saturday I raced at the Twilight 5000m in hopes of running a good PR or qualifying for the US Championships. Honestly, I have not felt very good since the NCAA's and going into this race, but still wanted to give it a last shot at it. It was tougher recovering from 5k/10k double physically. Mentally, the fire wasn't there after returning and trying to run fast one last time. On the other hand, I would not have wanted to go any different with regards to preparing for the NCAA's. The first priority was to perform well at NCAA's since it was my last one. I will have plenty of time to chase US qualifying marks in the future.
Speaking of the future, I am taking a short break from training. Sometimes you have to take a step back so you can take two steps forward. Over the past 52 weeks, I have run 4,770 miles or 91.7 miles per week, including time off(1 week between crosss) and a few days off with achilles problem. Out of those 52 weeks, 41 of them were at 90+ miles. That is probably the most productive training stretch I've ever had. Ran PR's in the 1500 (3:49), 2-mile (8:56), road 5k (14:10), track 5000 (13:56), XC 5mile (24:23), XC 10k (30:17), 10 mile treadmill (51:23), 10 mile road (51:30).
Also had some really good workouts. Best workout of the year was the 4xmile w/ short 400 rest of sub 2 min, in which I went 4:29, 4:28,4:27,4:31. In addition, the 10 mile treadmill progression run where I split 5:22-5:21-5:19-5:16-5:15-5:09-5:05-4:59-4:54-4:43 for 51:23. This definitely keeps my hopes up that I will do better at the longer races sometime in the future.
The 5 years at UMass Lowell proved to be different compared to what I had anticipated. Going from being a 4:32 miler to running 13:56 is something I would have never imagined. I would have probably been very happy with running 14:59.99 if you asked me during my senior year of high school about what would make me happy at the end of college. But now that I have learned much more about how my body responds to training, I am no longer just satisfied with breaking 14min. I definitely think there are a lot of things that I still have to learn and improve on, but everything comes with time. The older I get, the more years of solid 100miles I get under my belt, the more experience I will have and the more I will keep improving. The key is to stay healthy and hungry.
Thank you for all of you that have have been supportive of my running the past few years at UML. I am in the process of looking at joining a new club or opportunities to continue training full time. Suggestions and comments are welcome.
Ruben, what are the biggest things you have learned this year? I would be interested in knowing. If you had to coach yourself over, what might you change? Anything? Quality too soon, too late… Backing of too much, too little… questions like that. Thanks and congrats on your year!
ReplyDeleteIn the past I have not done very well with tapering for big races. This year was a different story and I actually discussed this with my coach a few weeks ago. One thing that I believe helped me was being able to just train year round doing just consistent training (ie 90-100 miles for a full year) rather than doing the typical 100 miles then bring them down 90...80..70...60 etc for tapering.
ReplyDeleteWhat we did was actually keep the miles pretty high, even before my goal races which were nationals (notice I ran upper 90's leading up to the races), then just take a few days (3-4) easy before the big races. I think this process worked better as my muscles felt stronger.
However, this can only work with someone who already has build a good enough base for years. This would probably not work with freshman or sophomores because even with a few days easy, their bodies will not be able to fully recover. They would need a few more extra weeks. On the other hand, even those extra weeks might hurt them as they start losing their strength.
It's a fine line. You wat to feel strong and you want to feel fresh. If you are not recovering from the training, then you are not going to feel fresh or strong.
This might explain why I went from running 14:47 one year to 14:05 next year without really changing much. ONly thing that happened is that I started recovering better, which mademy tapering a lot better. I can now handle high mileage and racing at the same time which also makes tapering easier because there isn't any big sudden change in mileage or intensity.
Hope this helps
Ruben
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the advice Ruben. Tapering is a tough
ReplyDeletetraining principle to nail down. You're right though, it definitely has to be tailored to the individual. For me, I've always felt like if someone is racing well off high mileage, then to continue it into the postseason. I'm just not too confident that people (myself included) know how best to taper. And I feel like in the longer distances, tapering doesn't matter as much.