Saturday, May 1, 2010

April Running Review

April Running Review
Seriously, where does the time go?
And can I get this body please??
January
February

March


"If you run, you are a runner. It doesn't matter how fast or how far. It doesn't matter if today is your first day or if you've been running for twenty years. There is no test to past, no license to earn, not membership to get. You just run."

April Stats

Number of Miles: 95.22 (*highest this year!)
Days Running: 15/30
Days at the Gym: 6
Longest Run: 15.4 miles
Days of Speed Work: 6 (not including races)
Long Runs: 3
Number of Races: 2 (including one PR!)

Average Speed: 7.0
Average HR: 146 bpm

Thoughts:
~Even though I am more or less following the Run Less, Run Faster training plan, I can't help but getting down on myself about the overall number of miles. I have read a lot of conflicting data about the number of miles to run. TMB @ Racing with Babes wrote a great post explaining the importance of logging miles, which is so true. I also believe it is necessary to do quality runs to get faster, which is what my goal is right now. The 'Run Less' plan emphasizes rest and injury prevention which is important because in the past when I did more speed work I always ended up injured. The plan I have been following is 3 quality runs: track, tempo, and long, and the long runs are pretty long (I am building back up to 20) but am I doing myself a disservice by not increasing my total weekly mileage more??
~As the weather gets nicer, I find it much more difficult to get to the gym! I am an outdoorsy person and can't stand to be inside when the sun is shining. I think as summer approaches I will have to get up early to get to the gym before the sun rises :)
~I'm am happy with my two races this month! One PR and one course record. I think I am on the right track. I will find out soon enough because I have 4 races coming up in May.

2 comments:

TMB @ RACING WITH BABES said...

Don't get down on yourself about the mileage. There are lots of different ways to approach training. And not every way is going to work for every person. From just looking at your PRs you are obviously much faster than I. And it is possible that you have been able to build your endurance to hold those paces on less miles. I would note that building your base also stresses injury prevention as the large majority of those miles are supposed to be run at 80% effort, putting less stress on your body than fewer faster miles.

Good luck finding the plan that works best for you!

All Things Jaime said...

I still have mixed feelings on the "junk" miles. I like to see them add up on my running log (I'm not going to lie) but I often wonder if they're necessary or not. Not to mention, I wonder if they take away a little from my important/quality runs!

For San Diego, I'm hoping to BQ. I'd love to run closer to 3:35 but I will be happy with anything under 3:40:59 :)