Easing Into It

I am on a roll. It was another good IM training weekend with a good long trainer ride/brick and long run. I got in a good 4 hour trainer ride at ironman intensity followed by an easy run. The trainer rides are much more fun with company! The IM motivation is really starting to gain some momentum.

Behold the man cave at the Wilmoth's home. When it is 20 something degrees outside, this is my workout venue of choice!A view from my bike with the Green Lantern as our movie for the day. The chosen movies definitely catered to the guys. I swear one of the movies was soft porn disguised a comedy! I am used to talking throughout the entirety of a bike ride, and it was hard for me to pay attention and not be chatty.

Alisha was the best host. I had to be on the bike the longest, and she brought me coffee and gels, let me borrow clothes and towels, and had muffins waiting for me at the end!

I try not to post a lot of training advice on this blog as there are many, many more blogs out there with outstanding athletes and great training tips. But, I do want to bring up something today about easing in to a training session.

The other day I heard someone say that our group run had started off too slowly. (And this group has some really fast runners, so it blew my mind to hear that comment!) I guess it was ruining their overall average pace for the day? I also often ride with female triathletes that start their rides at the fastest speed that they hope to maintain through the ride. Again, is the quality of training all about that average mph at the end of the ride? (you know my answer to both of these questions is No and No).

I have been taught and I firmly believe in warming up. We have always done this in soccer. Watch any field sport, and you will see the slowest warm-ups on earth that build into intensity. By the time we play, we are sprinting hard. Warm up pace is different for everyone, but for me it is almost always 9 min + miles. So, it doesn't matter what type of run I have for the day, I can guarantee you that at least 1-2 miles, if not more, will be at 9+ min. I don't even look at the pace or care. I just let my HR slowly elevate. Sometimes I am having an off day, and my pace stays there. My body is not warming up or responding, and I listen to it and accept the day for what it is. I am not embarrassed one little bit to run 9+min miles. I have run much, much slower. I have also run faster when it counts. (and that is the point, right? to run fast when it counts!)

If I choose to NOT do my warm up slowly, I will push the HR up quickly, and it will usually remain overly elevated for the duration of the training session. I find that when this happens, I run slower at higher heart rates, which is not the point!

So, for example, today I ran 17.5 miles. The run included 7 miles worth of tempo work divided into two different sections for the run. But, my first mile was around 9 mins. My next few miles were 8:45ish. But then I was at 7 min pace for a few miles. I backed off when the plan said to slow, and sped up when the plan said to run harder. I had a great run, but I had no idea what the average pace for the run would be, nor did I care. It was the quality of the work I did- when I was supposed to do it- that matters. I would never sacrifice the warm up thinking I would have a better "number" at the end of the run.

I read a good post a long time ago by Beth Walsh that touches on this topic a bit and offers some good tips for runners. Way more so than I, she can back up her ideas with some stellar running results. I identified with this post...maybe because we have shared the same mentor. Regardless...it just makes sense, and I think if you really love and study the sport, you understand the difference between quality training and ego.

Don't let your need to see an overall mph or pace prevent you from taking the time to ease into your workout. Save the huffing and puffing for the real work and spare yourself from burning all of your glycogen up too soon. Know the purpose of your workout and don't just blindly run/ride to see some arbitrary average number. Don't be too proud to warm up.