05 January 2015

First, I’ve made a change in my base training schedule; I have reduced the total number of training weeks from 16 to 13. I was reviewing my full training schedule on Sunday (04 Jan 2015) when I realized that the last three weeks of the schedule are taper weeks–recall that the program which I’m using is for 1st time marathon training (the goal is to finish a marathon without regard to pace or finishing time). Since I am using this current program for base building, I’ll follow up this program with a maintenance training program. Then, if I can find a marathon in November or December of this year, I’ll start training for the marathon. That’s my plan today.

Today was another cool day (48°F) but with a clear, bright sky with few clouds. I was surprised that I still feel fatigued–as though resting yesterday was inadequate, still, to recover from last weeks training runs; my legs were not sore (DOMS) but they were tired throughout the entire session.

Endurance Running – Week 8 of 13 Weeks, Day 1 of 4 Days

Last Saturday (03 Jan 2015), I stated that I lack the fitness to run a marathon–regardless what the pace–but, today, I question whether I still have the fitness to run a half marathon. Yes, I wrote that with tongue-in-cheek; but, after the easy pace run last Saturday, I really expected Sunday’s rest day would leave me fully recovered for today’s run session–it didn’t!! So, the question is: Am I pushing my training too fast (over training)? Or, is it due to my age? Unfortunately, I suspect that the symptoms (and the cure) for either alternative will be the same; so, maybe, it isn’t important which is the correct question. The cure for over training or for tired, old runners is sure to be, I feel certain, add more recovery time between running sessions and SLOW DOWN.

I’ll see how I feel during tomorrow’s mid-week (6 miles) training run. Maybe, I’ll have fresh legs, tomorrow, and find this is a minor issue, not a developing one.

Happy Running!!!