A Passion for Running

Welcome to the home of Mark aka The Running Blogfather – a 40 year-old dad, husband and marathon runner who's beaten injury and is on the comeback trail!

goal+strategy for the next several months

passion for running category: running on Monday, October 16 2006

Miles, miles and more miles. That’s it. Just a steady progression of miles. It’s a bit hard to explain where I am mentally with running so I’m going to try and do it point-form:

  1. I’m finally past my injuries. Well past them and fully healed.
  2. I’ve done the form work and, whatever you think of the Pose Method, it’s made me a much better runner than I was before. The best part of what I’ve become is that now I can tell when I’m not running well. Most people have no idea when their form is off so I feel lucky to have that tool to work with. I’m not trying to sound smug — just grateful.
  3. I’ve been piling on days and miles and the running just keeps feeling better and better. I honestly feel like I could run every day. Some days I have an almost compelling feeling to run more than once a day.
  4. While recovering from the injury and transitioning to Pose, I had a lot of time to think and read, and read and think and the thoughts that kept nagging at me centered around the following:
    -Arthur Lydiard. I spent time quietly watching people like this and this improving by methodically following Lydiard.
    -The people I’m seeing excel among the runners I follow all have one thing in common – they run lots and lots of miles. Want to see examples? How about Chelle?
  5. Yes, I’ve thought about how increasing miles could lead to injury, but that brings me back to form. Right now, I’m 99% convinced that the better your form is, the less chance you’ll become injured.

So, that’s it. My inner voice is telling me that what is needed to make me a better runner is to run lots of miles. And I’m not talking about just being stupid about it – I need to latch onto a system that’s built on miles. Lydiard’s the thing, I think.

Now, I need to create a plan out of Lydiard’s teachings. My plan will be built on patience and, I’m thinking it may just end up in me running another marathon next October or so. That’s a year away. That’s patience.

Who wants to help?




5 Comments

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Comment by Adeel

Monday October 16, 2006 @

If you work at it, you’ll be at Boston in 2008.

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Comment by Mark

Monday October 16, 2006 @

That’s an extremely tall order, Adeel! My PR would have to come down by about a 1/2 hour! :)

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Comment by Pamalamadingdong

Monday October 16, 2006 @

You’re my hero mark.

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Comment by Andrew

Tuesday October 17, 2006 @

There is no doubt miles is the answer. And it is not magic or genetic. It is physics. Only by running daily mileage aerobically can we make the necessary physical changes that allow us to run faster paces with the same effort. The marathon is an aerobic event.

Oversimplifying: marathon times are directly related to the runner’s ability to consume, transport, and efficiently utilize oxygen. Running mileage solves each one of these problems. Focus on anything else and you’re wasting time. You see it everywhere. We’ll do anything but run.

The hang up is “how much??”. Answer: As much as you can. Meaning: BALANCE. If you’re body can’t handle 100 miles per week right now, then run less. If it can’t handle 80, then run less. It will be able to handle 100, you just have to get there incrementally – but get there.

The #1 limiter on how much mileage we can run is speed. Run too fast in training and you’ve just chanaged the race your training for. How many marathoners do we know out there that seem to be training for any race except for the marathon? Speedwork now? I think not. Do more miles.

The #2 limiter on mileage is time. Cutting training short cuts your race short. Devote the time necessary to complete the distance be it 9:00 per mile or 10:00 per mile. Get those miles done. My average training pace for my last marathon was 8:10 per mile. To complete a typical workout I had to schedule 2 hours. How can it be done with less? The race itself is over 3 hours!

Which leads to Lydiard. His secret is not the final weekly mileage number. It is how he shows the runner to get to maximum/optimum training through daily balance. Look carefully at how he structures his daily workouts. Hard/easy/hard/easy. His ‘hard’ is marathon pace and the easy is slower. For me, I have to run ‘recovery pace’ on the easy days. By running within yourself and running the easy days at the right intensity you’ll avoid most injury and the miles will be logged.

If you do the Lydiard mileage rotation at the right intensity (sustainable – able to run high mileage week after week with typical fatigue)you will experience the physical changes in your lungs and legs. If not, then you’re not human.

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Comment by jeanne

Thursday October 19, 2006 @

geeze, i’ve missed a lot!

there’s a nice l’il old race here in d.c. in october. light’s always on, your room awaits you and family.

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