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Saving a Workout | |||
| 15 Week Beginner Schedule | 15 Week Intermediate | 15 Week Advanced | |
Today I was certainly not a very good coach or a very good runner. As a coach, I firmly believe that runners need at least one rest day per week, and as a runner I usually follow this plan. Today was not the case. Here's the story: Most of you know that I will be hiking the Grand Canyon June 24-26. We will start from the North Rim on June 24 and hike 7 miles to camp at Cottonwood that night. While at Cottonwood we will hike another 3 miles round trip to Ribbon Falls. On June 25 we'll continue the hike for another 7 plus miles to Phantom Ranch (the bottom of the canyon) for the night. The morning of June 26 we will hike 9 miles out Bright Angel Trail to the South Rim. The elevation change from rim to river and river to rim is about 5000 feet and the average maximum temperature in June is 103. For the past 6 weeks as I prepare for this trip I have become more of a hiker than a runner, although I am still trying to log about 15 miles a week running. My typical week consists of working out in the heat of the day by running 3-5 miles on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday and walking the ramps and steps of Roberts stadium for 1:30-2 hours on Monday and Friday. On Wednesday I walk the hills off Richburg Road for at least 2 hours. Today the coach in me said I needed to take a rest day, but the runner in me said it would be OK to run. The stupid runner won out and at about 11:00 am I headed to Jackson Road a planned 4 mile run. Here's where the theory of "saving a workout" was employed. I find it very difficult to quit a workout once I have started it, but there are times when I am not able to complete it as planned. Today was such an experience. I was able to run only 2 miles when I knew I was not going to be able to make 4 miles of continuous running. At that point I had to walk. The way I saved the workout was that I kept running and walking until my total distance of running was 4 miles. It wasn't pretty and I won't bore you with the details except to say that I did accomplish my plan to run a total of 4 miles. This "saving the workout" technique can be used with just about any type of workout. An example being that at last Tuesday's speed session, one of the participants did not think she could do the 2 x 300 and the 1 x 400. What I instructed her to do was to keep running and walking until she had covered the total distance of 1000 meters of running. In this situation it did not matter so much how she covered it, but simply that she was able to cover the distance in some fashion. I really do recommend that all of you consider using this as you attempt to get into a consistent training program. There are going to be days when you just don't have it and this is a way to save yourself both physically and psychologically. Now, all I need is to find a good coach to convince me that I need to take at least one rest day a week. After saving today's workout, I certainly feel that it will be OK to take that rest day tomorrow. | |||
| 15 Week Beginner Schedule | 15 Week Intermediate | 15 Week Advanced | |
