Today was the end of the first third of my current Marathon training program. With six weeks of the program complete, things are proceeding nicely. However, I do not feel like I’m going quite as well as I was last spring. Max run length to date is roughly 14 miles so there aren’t really any milestone runs to go back and compare against other race efforts. Training per mile times are decent, but not spectacular.
The next two long run distances are 16 and 17 miles. These runs should provide some insight into my fitness as I will be looking for fading per mile times and how far into the run it begins to occur. There are some complications
for both of these runs as each occurs on Sundays after football weekend Saturdays, one of which is in Iowa CIty. As you may have guessed, football weekend == beer. Additionally, I’ve been attempting to swim after these long runs. The idea is that my legs are tired and unable to kick furiously without it being painfully obvious.
So, I may have to find a YMCA in Cedar Rapids and run there.
On the swimming front, things progress. I’m working on my bi-lateral breathing as I developed the bad habit of always breathing on one side. Interestingly, when breathing on the right I’m lower in the water then on the left; so, there have been some interesting attempts to drown myself. Still, today was better then Thursday and so it goes.
The somewhat disappointing thing about swimming for me is that my ability to cover longer distance still seems to be about the same as when I started. When training I tend to do a bunch of 25 or 50 meter lengths, but rarely anything longer. One reason to keep things shorter is to keep the swim time focused on fixing all the crazy stuff that happens with my current stroke. My stroke efficiency appears to have improved and (somewhat) stabilized at around 14 strokes per 25. The problem appears to be that after about 100m, I’m ready to stop. I, as a non-swimmer, do not know if this is because I really need to; or if, as in running, this is something which can be ignored. The longer term plan is to attempt to expand distance in the spring, eventually in open water, with my fundamentally sound swimming form established over the winter. It’s a good plan; I’m going to stick with it.
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Woo hoo! I’ll be watching for a BQ!
P.S. Lots of us fail to become bilateral breathers. Not that it’s the best thing in the world, but it is quite common. I’m pretty convinced the one-sided habit has contributed to past and likely future injury due to muscle imbalance. However, after spraining my back (I’m not kidding) last fall trying VERY GENTLY (seriously) to work on my bilateral breathing . . . let’s just say I remain a one-sided breather. That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it.
EC,
Qualifying for Boston is a bit down the road at this point. My intention is to get under 3:30 and then think about what it’s going to take to move further down. Unfortunately, I think that my ceiling is just around the corner.. So, we’ll just have to take it one race at a time.
A back sprain sound really painful for a swimmer. Yikes! As for my bilateral breathing work, I’m thinking that I can get it done. If I can figure out why I’m lower in the water on the right, then things would be progressing nicely. As it is, I have to pull my head up a bit to get to the surface and sometimes that’s more successful then other times.
You should come swim with us at TWIN for a bit. I think you can come for a week or 2 for free, just to try it out. That would be enough time for our coach to tell you why you’re lower on one side than the other. Whee, free coaching! Have you tried some TI drills to find out what is different in your positioning and roll on the low side?
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