Rollercoaster Week

Well the past week has come and gone. Not without it's own ups and downs however. I had a feeling this last week was going to be a little tough, but I wasn't sure how or why. For all the runners out there, maybe you can empathize as the first three days of the week I was plagued with all kinds of not fun intestinal discomfort. It's always interesting when stuff like this happens... like what did I do to you small intestine?! I've been eating the same foods that I've consumed thus far--what gives!? Needless to say... it made running hmm... a little more "exciting" some days.

However, I beat whatever was trying to bring me down! Next step was tackling the Yasso 800 workout. I might as well of had IBS... that's how nervous this workout makes me. Why you ask? Well, I guess I put some weight on it. For those who are unfamiliar with the "Yasso 800's," it's a workout designed by legend Bart Yasso, that has been deemed a fairly good predictor of your marathon performance.

Before I continue, I will say, that no, this workout is not a sure fire predictor of your marathon performance. If you google the workout, there will be a lot of haters out there that have too much time on their hands, so they blog or comment on how worthless this is as a marathon predictor workout. What I'll say, is it's pretty good, and probably just as good as any workout one of these people has deemed valuable at predicting marathon performance. At the end of the day, it all depends on the person. In my experience, it has been fairly close at predicting performance--but (if training goes well) I usually race better than the workout predicts.

So here's how it works. You do 8-10x 800. The pace you are able to complete these in is the equivalent in hours and minutes to your marathon time (with some give on either side). So for example, my target is 3:10. So if I can run the 800's at 3:10, there is a good chance I will run near a 3:10 marathon. For this reason, the workout scares me--because it gives you an inkling of where I'm at in training and how much further I need to go.

Here comes the up of the week. One of my former athletes, Joanne, joined me for this workout. Yes, she is just that good to just 'pop' in and join me. And then drill me. It was awesome. It was hard. There was a lot phlegm involved. Running with Joanne really made me miss being part of a team. I also realized how much harder I could work if I had people to push me---it's been a long time since I've done workouts with a group. By the 8th rep, Joanne embraced the role of the coach and encouraging me on--to a 3:09 (as she led). I can't thank her enough for helping me work through a tough workout to build my confidence. Now I need to find a group...so I can rediscover those fast twitch muscles I had in grade school and high school as a 200m runner... ah... so long ago...

By week end, I was ready to put in a big run. Definitely sore from the week, I chose an 'easy' long run route, that could be viewed as mentally challenging or engaging--depending on the perspective. Due to the recent snow and general nastiness that returned to South Bend I ran from campus--a 6 mile loop, repeated three times. Not exactly exciting but it works. The 18 miler pushed me to 57 miles for the week. Still walking--always a good sign :)

7 weeks until Beantown.