Don't cheat your training

Admit it: you saw that title and figured this post would be about one of two things -- 1) make sure not to skimp on speed or duration of your workouts "just because" or 2) something related to nutrition. Nope, not this time. It's actually a warning to make sure that you always treat your "easy" days as "easy" (don't do anything extra or difficult on them, even if you think you have it in you), and to make sure that your scheduled "off" days truly are just that -- off from exercise.

As infuriating as it can be to just sit around the house watching TV, reading a book, or working a tricky puzzle at a moment when you actually have the energy and drive to go out for a good run and expend that energy, planned days off (typically after a long run or a particularly difficult "something of substance" workout) are extremely important. It is when adaptation occurs and improvement is made manifest. And it is something to *not* talk yourself out of.

This week's long run was only 10 miles at 7:30 pace (where goal marathon pace will be 6:52), and I had a day off following it, setting me up for the first SOS day of the week -- intervals, mostly ½-mile each at 9.8mph with only 90 seconds rest in between. It was great; HR didn't get too high during the intervals and it dropped sharply during the rest intervals -- exactly what it was supposed to be. Today was an "easy" day to help recover from yesterday's effort, setting me up for tomorrow's 7-mile tempo run. While my legs clearly weren't "fresh" (after all, how could they be after yesterday's effort and my standing at my desk all day today, as per usual?), it was still a comfortable 8:00 pace.

Yes, my goal (still) is sub-3 for Chicago, but running all training miles only at goal marathon pace (what I did when I first started marathoning) is not the best way to go about it. Not so dissimilar to Galloway's run/walk method to hit your goal, so too is alternating training days between hard efforts and easy ones the best way to train to achieve your time goals, IMO (and that of my coach).