Trail Running Granny

Hey girlfriend! What a way to start the week...10.22 miles?!!!! At our age, we just wanna have fun. No worries about Ogden. Think of it as a long run with hundreds of your friends. Be proud that you're out there doing it. Yes, keep the faith, plug along. You're strong and beautiful and you can do it!!!!

Yeah, I agree!! Great start to your week!!

I think you will do fine in Ogden. Take it easy and have fun and all will be well!!!

Thanks girls, not sure what is going on, but I will get thru it. Thanks for your positive comments.

Hello my dear!!! Do not worry one little bit :) Just take it easy. Eat really well... seriously, really well and get some good sleep it and PRESTO, you are going to do just fine :) I can't wait to see you :)

Tell you what - I plan to start at the gun instead of early. You can motivate yourself with not allowing me to pass you. :-)

Maurine, you will catch up to me, but hopefully not too soon. That will keep me going.

Leslie,

I've been thinking about your conundrum (like that word?) and wonder if it is because you are not doing any low mileage days. You are taking the 2-3 days off of running, but are doing medium to long runs only on the other days and that might be taxing your system.

Perhaps if you only did 2-3 miles of running or some other cardio equivalent workouts on your light days and dropped the medium to longer runs a little bit - it might have better results. Just a suggestion - but it seems that some of the tiredness stems from when you dropped Tuesdays and Thursdays from running.

Maurine, that could be it, but I need to get the miles in, I have been thinking M. to do 10, W. 12-15 Fri. 4-5 and a long run Sat. I need to start building my miles up and I really need to take a break on Tue and Thur. and Sun, my body is slowing down. I feel like I should be getting close to 40 a week, I don't know,you know me, I am not very scientific about the whole thing, I just fly by the seat of my pants. What do you think?

I think Maurine might be on to something. What not lower the miles M W and F and just do maybe 2-3 on T and Th, along with some muscle work and yoga??? I think those shorter runs will make getting the miles in easier and will lower the other days.

Here's my 2 cents. You can't pile up the miles all of a sudden. Cramming in the miles in a short period of time invites injuries or fatigue. If you're used to 30 miles a week; then make those 30 miles count rather than simply increasing the mileage for mileage sakes. I wouldn't try to make up for miles now with 12 days out from Ogden. You will only deplete your glycogen stores at the least or have sore muscles/tendons come race morning. I would run no more than 16 with 10 days out. 10 days out is the minimum time to taper down. Run less miles for the next 10 days but try to run them faster. Take one day rest in between the hard days.

Here's another approach after Ogden which will be your longest run so far, right? Recover well with some water jogging/swimming and lotsa walking the first few days. After that go into a reverse taper. Run 2 to 4 mile at recovery pace.

I think you can maintain a 30-40 mile week throughout the year by running 4-5 days a week. I'd include 3 major workouts, one tempo run of 4-6 miles, one interval run, one long run, one easy recovery run, rest days in between the hard workout days. Build up the mileage gradually with the 10% rule.

I'm gonna get the Run Less Run Faster book and try the FIRST program. It makes a lot of sense to me especially with older runners like myself who don't need that much mileage to beat our bodies to the ground. The END!

Maurine, Kelli and Smooth, thanks for all your comments, they make sense to me, I am going to re-think things and try and see if I can get my body to behave. You guys are awesome,I appreciate your help very much. You are great friends!! I was just talking to Kelli, we need a Cheesecake Factory lunch!!

YES WE DO!!!

Hey, I just finished reading the Run Less, Run Faster book. That is some hard core training!!!! It takes less time, but it hard core. I can not wait to hear how it goes for you!

YES WE DO!!! Please make it a Friday, and then I can come :)

The only way I could do Friday would be to do it at 4:00, I do all my standing appts friday, is that too late?

Bummer :( Oh well...

Leslie, do you take walk breaks? If I were you, I would do Ogden ala Galloway, with maybe a 4/1 or 5/1 ratio through at least mile 20 in order to *have fun!* Why resign yourself to hours of suffering? I did lots of marathons that way in my early days when I was running only 20-25 mpw.

With all our 2c, you must be getting a good pile of pennies here... ;)

I think that is a GREAT idea.