After training seriously since June for Philly half and the Chicago marathon, it's almost that time. Philly is next weekend and Chicago is three weeks later. What that means for training is that all of the hard work is basically done and there just isn't much more fitness to be gained.
Philly will function as a serious, all-out race, as a final blow-it-out workout before Chicago and as a marker to see where I'm at. I am very curious to see what I am able to run at Philly, because it will be my third time there. Since I've done it before, and last year ran well, I can compare this year's performance against last year. Hopefully the weather is comparable so that I can eliminate as many variables as possible to really see where I'm at.
Speaking of comparing Philly to past races, I really can't make an accurate prediction of what kind of shape I'm in. On the one hand, my workouts have gone well, probably better than ever as far as half marathon and longer specific fitness is concerned. The workout I did two nights ago (5 x 2 mile @ 10:10 w/ 400 jog/2' rest) is something I have never been able to do, and even though I did it on a slightly faster course than the bike path (where I have always done that workout) I believe it is still better than what I have done in the past. For reference, last fall before Philly I ran 4 x 2 mile w/ 3' rest @ 10:10 and that was very difficult for me, even though I ended up running 5:00 miles for the half.
With all that positive talk out of the way, the one variable that I am a little worried about is overall mileage. Last fall I was putting in 105-110 a week consistently in training for Philly. Now that I'm working full time, I have time commitments from 7 am when I leave for work to 6 pm when I get home. I just don't have the time to train as much as I did when I was just bumming around. I am still able to get in 80-90 a week (athleticore tells me I've run 347 miles in the last month). This is where the analysis of how mileage affects fitness gets tricky in my opinion.
Benefits of higher mileage: Undeniably, there is some more fitness to be gained just from putting more easy mileage. Particularly running doubles often; two stimuli a day are great for keeping metabolism high, keeping your racing weight low, producing beneficial adaptations via hormones and other stuff. Another good side effect from higher mileage is that it gets you used to training and working out (and racing, if you choose to train through) on tired legs, which allows for a more dramatic gain in racing ability during a taper.
Costs of higher mileage: One thing about training that a lot of people gloss over is that mileage is important, but only as a support system for the race specific workouts. What that means practically speaking is that people should run as much mileage as they can handle without it affecting the real training that is directly related to the goal race. To be even more blunt: too many miles is when you are too tired to hit the paces in workouts that you need to run to race well. I definitely fell victim to this in college and I believe I would have run better had I not gone overboard with mileage my junior and senior years. Too many miles = too tired in workouts = not getting the designed benefit from the workouts, especially when you're trying to hit paces. Hard-core lydiard disciples disagree with this, saying that effort is the only thing that matters when you're working out and that the taper will allow you to race well if you've put in the big base beforehand. I believe that a good amount of race specific training is necessary to do well (well is defined as meeting your ultimate potential, not just running fast), and if you're tired from easy mileage you just can't work out well enough to get enough specific work in.
I think last fall I found my sweet spot in training was just over 100 mpw to be able to work out well and still accumulate mileage. However, that was in training for the half and I recall the longest workout I did was 11 miles as a tempo run. Now that I'm doing more marathon-specific work, the workouts can be even longer and more intense, so they require more recovery before and after (geeks would call this "modulation"). In this regard I think doing less mileage helps, because it allows me to hit the workouts very hard and try to get big adaptations. But like I said, there is going to be some fitness lost from not putting in those extra mileage. The elusive sweet spot in training, that is different for everyone, is where you personally are able to work out hard while maintaining as much easy mileage as you can fit in without sacrificing the serious work.
So basically, I don't really know where my fitness is because a few variables have changed since last year when I raced a half. I'll find out in black and white where I stand in two weekends.
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