This is what happens when you cross an engineer with a runner:
You don't just get a Tuesday workout schedule and a Saturday long run schedule, you get a color-coded spreadsheet outline of a training season, which might look very specific, but is actually ripe for tinkering and adjusting.
It has always irritated me how poorly the 7 day calendar week works with a good training schedule. Maybe there are real people out there in the world that typically only need one day of recovery between workouts, but I am not one of them. I need two. I think most people need two. And I also need my longest runs to be on the weekend. And while I'm at it, I definitely do not want to do a workout on a Friday. I'm useless on Friday nights. An easy run and relaxing is about all the effort I can muster.
So, after much fussing around, I arrived at the following logical conclusion: a two-week microcycle. Ta-da! Problem solved. Ok, technically, you still have to do a workout every other Monday (almost as bad as Friday, but not quite), and every other weekend the long run is on Sunday instead of Saturday (and EVERYONE knows that it's way better to do your long runs on Saturday in order to have some enjoyment of the weekend), but... wait, is this 2 week thing even a good idea?
Well, who knows, but I'm finally giving it a try.
I am now in the throes of training for Boston. I just got through my first Monday, Thursday, Sunday workout week, which culminated with a 20 miler. Closing an 87 mile week. Highest mileage week in two and a half years.
Oddly enough, the week was aweomse. I killed it on the 20 miler. I expected fatigue and instead got smooth, effortless cruising at a (long run) pace faster than I have run since 2009.
It's hard to explain how awesome that run felt after two years of injuries and illness and never quite getting back on my game. I want to bask in that feeling without letting it go to my head. Jack Daniels has famously said that injuries sometimes keep a runner going, because it gives them a reason to come back, something to fight against. I couldn't agree more, but it also makes you really appreciate how amazing it feels to be firing on all cylinders. In 2009 I felt like a finely tuned, high caliber running machine, and I thought I might never feel like that again. Now I think... maybe, just maybe...
Here's to lucky 2013.
