Building Rome

Not in one day, eh?

I just returned from a nice night at track. Nice being the temps were not freezing- of course there were the 4 x 1200 awaiting me- nice? Hmmmm....

I am still building on Jack Daniel's program for now- one vDot at a time. I like to read running books. A lot of people have a favorite running author or program- Pfitz, the First program, Lydiard, whatever. I don't really have a favorite, but I have learned a lot from all of them. This year I have learned a lot from Daniels. Here are just a couple of things that helped me tonight- and believe me, there are so many more...I have the book underlined!

1. I don't have to kill myself at track. Go figure? Confusing at first, but now it makes perfect sense. If I do the right track workout, I will be able to do another one or two quality runs in the week. If I blow myself out, I risk injury and sacrifice the quality of everything else. Track is not the end all be all of my running existence- I need to see my week's worth of workouts in its entirety.

2. Know why you are running a particular workout....VO2max? LT? speed? now that I understand this, I feel more satisfaction when I hold the appropriate pace at track. I know what pace to hold and why. To be honest, I never really understood this until recently.

3. Train where I am- not where I was (faster) or where I want to be (even faster!). Lots of reasons for this- but for me, decreased injury and burn out are among the top. Again, Rome wasn't built in a day. I am not magically going to get fast with one track workout, either.

Armed with my interval pace ingrained in my mind, I approached track tonight in the same way that I have for the past month or so. Blinders on, focus on myself and my body, know my pace and keep it. Oh yea, and have fun! (fun includes listening to Joy say "go Damie" under her breath, complimenting Ashley for not looking at her watch every 200, and connecting with friends that I have not seen in a bit :)

My intervals have been nice and smooth. I have a good awareness of my body. I am doing a great job of holding my pace out there. I am just steady, steady, steady! I leave the workout knowing I have worked hard, but not feeling trashed. After all, I have a threshold run to do on Thurs. How do I know that I have worked hard enough? Jack Daniels told me so. He gave me the interval and I followed it.

What is interesting is that I am running a bit slower now by following his vDot paces than I used to run at track. But, I am willing to see where this takes me. When Coach Paul asked me after practice if I was happy with my pace tonight, I didn't even think that I shouldn't be. I could honestly answer that I was happy with my pace and felt that I was right where I should be.

Cool? Cool. But, I know this is not for everyone. We all have to listen to our own bodies and trust that we know what works for us. (or get a good coach to tell you)

So, if you want to add some more stuff to your training toolbox, check out Jack Daniel's book. For a quick calculator, go to www.runbayou.com