One Very Long Run or Back to Backs?

So I did something different last weekend.

For all of my previous ultras, I've done 1 single long run on the weekends. The core of what makes a long run for me seems to be about 5 hours or 30-31 miles, though I've done a few at 5.5 hours and as long as 35 miles.

The other school of thought is to do back long runs, but have them be shorter. Until this past weekend, I'd never done that.

I can't say going into it, I had a great reason for doing it, either, other than training plans for 50 milers don't look much different than training plans for 100 milers, and that just scares me, so I decided different might be good.

On the other hand, many runners say that the risk of injury is greater on back to backs, and hey, I'm not getting any younger here, so injury is a concern.

To recap, last weekend, I did 31.1 miles in 4:55 of total running.

For some reason, even though I'm a stickler about running time for ultras, I focused on miles for my btob.

On Saturday, I did 20.3 miles in 2:56. On Sunday, I did 14.8 in 2:15. So, in the end, I did just over 35 miles in 5:11.

On the plus side, both runs were faster than my average pace when I go very long. On the surprising side, the second run was much easier than I expected it to be, as I loosened up nicely after the 3rd mile or so.

But even so, I can't say I was a big fan of it.

I've become very accustomed to psyching myself up for 1 tragic workout over the weekend. It takes a ton of time, I punch the clock, I come home exhausted and sleep great, and then have a wonderful second half to my weekend.

Here, even though I didn't have to really psyche myself up, I still had to get up early and get myself mentally prepared twice. And then afterward, because the runs were still 20 and 15 miles, I was pretty tired. And since I ran on both days, I'm stuck with taking a rest day today (Monday).

I haven't decided if I'll repeat the back to back again on this build. I posted about this at RunningAhead and one of the speedy runners suggested that the back-to-backs would likely help with speed. That makes sense, but it's also not really my focus for my first 100 - survival is.

Either way, it was nice to put another long weekend in the books, regardless of how many runs it took.

Blood-sugar-wise, I fought lows the whole run on Saturday, but finished in the 80s. I was more cautious on Sunday, and finished at 98. Fuel of choice for both runs were the fig newtons.

Comments

  1. Scott K. Johnson11:42 PM

    Fig newtons FTW!

    I smiled when you used the words "tragic workout" only because they do sound totally tragic! You're a beast of a different breed, which is fun for me to read about, but I could never imagine running for the amount of time as you do. Seems like it shouldn't even be possible, which, I suppose, is why I enjoy following you through it.

    Hope the shoulder is still doing well!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The gun in my basement.

Image
In my basement, I have a safe. And in that safe, under expired passports and birth certificates, there's a gun. It's unloaded. Hasn't been loaded in probably twenty years, and yet every time I take it out, I check to make sure. If you're a gun nerd, it's a 9 shot .22 revolver. On this website , it says that "it is true that many people have been killed by a .22 LR in the course of history," but the writer concludes that this weapon is a bad choice for self defense. I didn't buy it for self defense. I didn't even buy it. It was my father's and after he died, my mother gave it me, along with an Elgin watch he'd worn for years. The watch was weathered and worn and I took it to be restored. The jeweler refused, saying it was worthless. Two decades later, the watch is still in my jewelry box. There's no need for it to be locked up. I have no idea if this gun is in my possession legally. No idea if my father had a permit for it, or w...
Read more

Happy D-Blog Day, Uh, I Guess...

So according to diabetics blog-wide, today is D-Blog Day, the day when those of us affected by diabetes are supposed to blog about it. Or draw awareness to diabetes... Or something like that. I'm really a bad poster child for the disease. Not because I'm not in great control (actually, I am), but because I've just never been bothered by the disease so much. Red sums it up well in Shawshank Redemption: "Get busy living, or get busy dying." So if living means three blood sugar tests a day, so be it. If living means being hooked up to an insulin pump, go to it. That being said, I feel for anyone with diabetic kids... I'm a tough guy about the disease. I wouldn't be if my kids had it. If either of my kids had diabetes, I'd be screaming about the politicians who are spending money on wars instead of research, and I'd be yelling about the schools that make it difficult to be a diabetic in the classroom. But my kids don't have diabetes, so instead I ...
Read more

The Bright Side

“ And if you ever get scared, look on the bright side: You’ve got a new life.” – Amos Lee Last month, I was diagnosed with Lyme disease. Since then, I’ve tried to write this essay a few times. The first attempt followed a narrative arc rife with suspense, with a few years of frustrating doctors’ visits, mysterious symptoms that came and went and the all-around sentiment that the batteries that powered my body were no longer able to sustain a charge or be fully refueled at the end of the day. But if you Google Lyme disease, you realize there’s nothing unique about that story. In fact, the reality that my own diagnosis came only two years after all of this started makes this a much shorter story than it is for many. The theme of the second version was more pitiful, tinged with regret about what this had taken from me over the past two years and what it might take in the future. But honestly, that one didn’t get far at all. If there’s a good time for something like ...
Read more