Running With Jack

…is all I can say about my back-to-back long run from last night and this morning!

It began with an approx. 26K/16M run Friday night after work, combining the 14K/8.7M route that I normally run, with the 11K/7M route from my running club (plus the 1K in between). With cooler temperatures at 5 p.m. (25C/77F) it made for a nice pleasant run. I averaged a comfortable 5:55/K (9:31/M) pace making two short pit stops along the way for refueling and waste control.

This morning (Saturday) I was up early and drove to the neighboring town of Weingarten to run my hilly route. I started running around 6 a.m. – it was a cool 16C/61F, with a drizzling rain. I made two extended loops over my hill route, taking a couple loop backs to tack on extra distance. I ended up running for 3:15:00, I would guess roughly 30-31K (~19M).

So around 56K/35M in roughly 16-17 hours!

So how was it you might ask? Well, it was definitely not easy – not that I wanted it to be. What I didn’t anticipate as I planned this double long run last weekend is that I would to two speed workouts during the week. When I set out on the first long run on Friday night my legs were still not fully recovered from the speed workouts, by the time I finished I felt like I had run much further. This morning when I started running I almost immediately felt the tightness in my legs. I pretty much ignored this the first half of the run, but then my legs just started getting achy, the quads were protesting loudly.

During the last hour of the run my legs felt like I was running with lead weight in my shoes, it was challenging to raise the knees while running uphill – and downhill pounded my legs into a pulp. I ended up taking three 3-minute walk breaks during the last hour of the run and had to call upon all my mental fortitude to keep from stopping all together. I was quite relieved to finally get back to the car. I had actually wanted to run 15 minutes later, but my legs vetoed this idea!

In any case I achieved my objective which was to run a long run while physically worn down – kind of like “getting past the wall” training or practicing the ability to keep going when your body protests.

Although I wouldn’t recommend this method of training for most marathon training programs, I will probably implement this in my training schedule when I train for a 100K/62M trail run next year. I really don’t have time to implement more mileage or training days in my training week, so I am looking for ways to optimize the time that I do have. This double long run method is not easy!

p.s. Somebody remind me not to do two speed workouts next week ;-)