Practice as you play

To my legions of followers out there, waiting for the next installment of this riviting blog: here it is! However, I must confess that these last 2 days of running have not been very eventful....however, they have been very necessary. On Thursday I did an easy 8.5ish miles from home to the Fort Henry XC course and back again with Trev. It was nice to have company, especially as he was leaving the next day for home before heading to Ireland to start his Master's. Having not only run with him for Queen's as well as being in the same program as him at (Physical Health Education/Kinesiology) I have logged quite a few hours with him over the past 4 years and got to know him fairly well. I have learned alot from him and shared some great experiences so I am sad to see him go.
Anyway, back to that run....it was nice and steady and just perfect for a post-Michigan recovery. 8-9 miles is now my standard off-day run: nothing spectacular in terms of distance or speed, but comfortable enough that I can do it 3-4 times a week (on top of workouts) without undue stress. I am realizing slowly that success in running comes from the repetition of seemingly ordinary efforts which culminate over time. Kev is a big proponent of me not hitting the wall in workouts and if it looks like a workout might heading that way, he will alter it so as to avoid calamity. It's a classic "practice as you play" situation: you never want to drastically lose form and fall off the rails during a race, so why do it in practice? What we want to do is run fast and relaxed during an entire session and gradually doing this at faster and faster speeds - exactly what we want in races. Plus derailing is just the worst.
Yesterday, as mentioned was also uneventful, although slightly guilt-tinged. I woke up intending to go for a run, but just couldn't get out of bed. Running twice a day is something that elite runners do often and something I need to do more often; it helps to add mileage in small and manageable increments, as well as waking the legs up for a workout later that day. I have been a low mileage fellow my whole life, never really believing that I could handle big stuff and prefering to do quality over quantity. I think those days have to come to an end and that quality and quantity must go hand in hand. Anyway, I had planned to run at 2pm with Braden, but then realized I would be watching the England game with my family at that time. Given their abysmal performance, I should have gone for that run. I ended up only able to squeeze in 5 miles that evening - not enough for an EMIP. It is not a huge deal in the big scheme of things but I need to really get into the lifestyle of an elite miler if I want to make magic happen on the oval!

Today I have a 800m workout planned. I am not sure exactly what, as Kev likes to keep me in the dark for as long as possible, but what it should mean is short, fast and lots of rest. That's a winning combo in my books!

Be Easy.