One Weekend, Two Very Different Runs

The transition from marathon to recovery isn't always smooth. I'm someone who hates downtime, much to my wife's chagrin. A lazy Sunday? What's that? I tend to fill my "rest" days with lots of activity, probably as a way to keep my mind off the fact that I'm not running. That said, I learned about the importance of rest and recovery a long time ago and I'm very careful not to rush back to training after a marathon.

After Boston I took four days off of any real physical activity but by Saturday morning, I was itching to go for a run. Expecting to feel a little beat up, I picked relatively flat five mile route by our apartment and headed out at a super easy pace. Well, I felt like crap. Half a mile in I began asking myself, do I have to run? Can't I find another hobby? By mile 4, I decided to stop. It wasn't painful per se, it just sucked. My legs felt like lead, my breathing seemed labored, and I wanted to punch every smiling runner who passed me.

I probably would have taken Sunday off from running, given my terrible Saturday, but I was signed up to run NYRR's Run as One with my wife. We signed up for this race together the last three years in a row so it's kind of a tradition. Even though my wife is in the middle of training for her first Ironman and hasn't run a road race since the fall, she was planning to shoot for a PR. I didn't want to miss the chance to help pace her (and--let's be honest-- I also didn't want to miss out on another race towards my 9+1 for 2015).

Photo credit: The Fit Wanderer

We got up at 7:15 a.m. on Sunday. We were cutting it kind of close for the 8:30 a.m. start, but we both really wanted some extra sleep. This gave us just enough time to eat a quick breakfast and walk the dogs before jogging over to Central Park. The jog to the start felt pretty good, but we were taking it stupid easy so I wasn't sure how I would feel once we actually got started. After some pre-race form drills and a couple strides, my legs still felt considerably better than the day before which made me optimistic.

To make a long story short, the race went very well. We saw a bunch of teammates out on the course, which is always fun. My legs didn't bother me one bit, even though the day before four miles had been a serious strugglefest. Best of all, my wife PR'd by 13 seconds! There may have been a little vomit at the finish, but otherwise it was a great run.

For the next couple weeks, I will be taking things pretty easy and not sticking to any kind of running schedule. Hopefully, the runs that I do will feel much more like Sunday than Saturday.

Getting Your @$$ Kicked By a Cat

Last night was my first speed workout since Boston and, as it turned out, my first set of hill repeats since last year's Boston training cycle (in my usual training I replace repeats with hilly long runs).  Anyway, on Tuesday nights my team--like so many others--meets for speed work in Central Park. With Brooklyn just over two weeks away I figured it was time to get my legs moving again.

Last night's workout? 5x800m hill repeats on Cat Hill. For those of you who (a) don't live in New York or (b) don't run in Central Park, Cat Hill is located on East Drive between approximately E 75thand E 81st. It's called Cat Hill because of Edward Kemeys' bronze "Still Hunt" sculpture of a cougar.* At just about a quarter mile and an average of 3.7% grade it's not the longest or steepest hill in the park--those distinctions belong to Harlem hill which is a third of a mile at 4.4% grade--but it still makes for a good workout. To get 800m we kept going after the crest of the hill, enjoying some downhilll, another rise, and some flat to finish just past the Met.

Our goal was to do the repeats at 10k pace. I haven't run a 10k since last summer but my old pace was around 6:10. Several of the guys said they would be running around a 6:15 pace and that sounded good so I set off with them. The first one felt comfortably hard. Could I have kept running at the end? Yes. Did I want to? No. Turns out we had run it in a sub-6 pace. We jogged back down and tackled the next one--5:45 pace. I joked about doing the third one at 5:30 pace--we didn't, but it was still sub-6. By now I could feel the marathon in my legs.

After three I wanted to stop (the workout schedule did say 3 to 5 repeats) but one my teammates suggested I do the next one a little slower and at least get in an even 4. I heeded his advice and did a 4th, still under 6:00 pace. After that one I knew I had to do all 5 but I took the last one a little easier, right around 6:08 pace--probably my actual 10k pace these days. After the repeats (including a slower 6th one to pace a teammate who still had one to go) I jogged home making it 9 miles for the night. It was a tough workout but I was really happy with myself afterward. I can't say my legs were happy with this morning, but that's why they invented the recovery run.

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* Before Kemeys' statue was added in 1883 this stretch was called Cedar Hill.

What Recovery Run?

The day after a long run I usually like to do a recovery run. I know many people take a rest day after a long run, but for me, getting a recovery run done the day after feels better. With this in mind I decided to meet up with Dashing Whippets folks for my run yesterday. On Sundays the group meets at Grand Army Plaza. It's a bit of a trek, but it's always nice to run with other people and to get a change of scenery.

There were two groups yesterday--the group doing a recovery run of about 3 miles at a 9 minute pace, and the group doing a long run at around 7:30 pace. Three miles sounded too short and 9 minute pace sounded too slow so naturally I went with the long run group. Initially the run felt tough but doable. I asked one of the guys with a Garmin for our pace and he said 6:50! We slowed it down later but I felt pretty good for being able to keep up the day after my Boston 21.

The run yesterday followed part of the new Brooklyn Half course before heading down to the Brooklyn Heights waterfront. I stuck with the group until we crossed the Brooklyn Bridge. With 10 miles under my belt I called it a day and hopped on the subway back uptown (convenient because the ride to Harlem is much shorter from Chambers St than from Grand Army Plaza!).

It may not have been the best call for me to have pushed the pace yesterday but it did give me a nice confidence boost. If I could maintain a good clip on tired legs for 10 miles, hopefully marathon pace on race day shouldn't be so bad--at least not until Newton.
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Yesterday's Run:
10.1 miles at 7:26 pace. 

Misunderstood: The Recovery Run

Yesterday I ran what felt like a pretty tough 15.2 miler. Probably what made it feel so tough is the fact that my legs are still recovering from Sunday's half-marathon. Needless to say, I was happy to have a simple 5 mile recovery run on tap this morning. As far back as I can remember, "recovery runs" have been a part of my training schedule. For those non-runners out there, a recovery run is a relatively short, slow run done after a harder run (like a speed workout or a long run). Sometimes they're done the following day, sometimes they're done only a matter of hours after the hard workout.

These shoes look pretty beat up. I bet they could use a recovery run.

The old school explanation for recovery runs is something like this:

The recovery run will help you to recover faster by increasing blood flow which brings recovery aid in the form of oxygen, clearing away lactic acid, and helping you replenish your glycogen stores.

These days, most experts say that recovery runs do not help you recovery faster. According to running guru Matt Fitzgerald, lactic acid levels return to normal within an hour after even the toughest workouts and lactic acid isn't even the cause of muscle fatigue.  There also is no scientific evidence that light activity like a recovery run promotes muscle tissue repair, glycogen replenishment, or any other physiological response that actually speeds muscle recovery. 

So why bother with recovery runs?  They're not junk workouts, they actually help you work on two things: overall mileage and running on tired legs. First, speaking to mileage, or training volume, the benefit is easy to explain: within your own physical limits, the more running you do, the fitter you become, even if your workouts are relatively easy. Recovery runs also help you to work on your running economy because you do the run in a pre-fatigued state without creating enough additional stress to necessitate more recovery time.

I wish someone had explained the logic behind these runs to me in the beginning because it can be difficult forcing yourself to run slower than usual, but there you have. Recovery runs are a valuable part of any training regime, even if it's not for the reasons you may have thought.

A recovery run, or my favorite Harlem route.

Here we are at the end of another work week. After doing 30 miles in three days (which will seem like nothing once I hit 70 mpw but seems like a lot now that I've been doing 40 mpw), I was ready for a recovery run today. Given the forecast, I was prepared to do the run on the TM at the gym, but thankfully, I woke up to mist instead of rain. With temps in the mid-40s, it was downright pleasant out.

I have a route I do for recovery runs that's mostly flat. I'd say about 80% of runs involve Central Park but when you live on the north end, you can't enter the park without tackling the Harlem Hills. I didn't want to do that today so I stuck to my flatter recovery route. It takes me through Morningside Park, along St. Nicholas Park, through central Harlem and back along 5th and later along Lenox.

I love this run though because of all the stoplights I don't do it often. It's great to see Harlem in the pre-dawn hours. Each time I pick different side streets and notice new buildings. For those who haven't spent much time in Harlem, it has some of the best residential architecture in the city. With rows of preserved brownstones and dozens of churches in all manner of styles, it's a real visual treat. On days like today, I feel privileged to live in such a great neighborhood.