Improvement: It’s a Long, Slow Burn!

Last week was the final week of 10K training before tapering for this Saturday’s time trial. The summer heat arrived simultaneously with the hardest training block in this cycle. The week culminated with 13 straight days of running 73.3 miles. 

Wednesday’s 45-minute tempo run set the stage for a training breakthrough/eureka moment. I gather that tempo runs should be run based on effort, ideally over hilly terrain. Interval runs are preferably run on the track with a concentration on pace. However, I find myself getting caught up with the suggested pace for my tempo runs without considering the terrain. This resulted in a tough but good tempo run on Wednesday. In hindsight, I overdid it. 

Thursday was a 12x 400-meter interval session. I could tell from the first interval that it would be a tough day; I missed my split by a few seconds, and my heart rate was already higher than normal. Halfway through the session, I stopped trying to hit my splits. In laps seven and eight, I realized I was shuffling and not running with good form. When I concentrated on proper form, my glutes and quads were sore. They were burning with lactic acid. That is when the a-ha moment hit me. I realized that the cumulative fatigue from so many days of running was setting in. I surmised that I was running with good form, but when I got tired, I regressed toward poor form. For the last three laps, I embraced the slow burn of my muscles and ignored my splits.

Friday was a six-mile base run. Like the interval session, I realized my form was falling apart halfway through the run. I turned my attention to good form and embraced the burn.

Saturday was a 10 Mile 3/1 Long Run - essentially a 7.5 mi. easy run with a fast finish. I was surprised I did not run into any form issues for the entire run. I know you shouldn’t associate an exact pace with Z2, but my easy run was faster than 10:30/mi (my goal) and in Z2. My fast finish was 9:05/mi (not quite the 8:20-9:00/mi. that my training program wanted, but I was happy with it). I wanted to get my heart rate into Z4. A runner passed me, and I noticed he had a quicker cadence than me. Once I shortened my stride, I easily increased my cadence and pace, which increased my heart rate.

Overall, I validated that I have been using good form. I learned I must focus on my form when I notice the dreaded “shuffle.” I affirmed that to speed up I need to take shorter and quicker steps. It was a great learning week for running as I wrap up 10K training. I really wanted to spend the last eight weeks training for a marathon so I could run two more this year. The 10K training was beating my body up, but as the training is coming to a close, I see I learned some important lessons and improved my fitness. Let’s see how this week’s 10K time trial goes.

Have you had any eureka moments this week? I would love to hear about them in the comments below.