Wednesday 5 January
Week 5, Day 3: 60′ Easy
Keep it easy.
Slow it down.
Even more.
Seriously Nicole, stop running so fast!
Easy runs are really important to let your body clock up the miles and build aerobic capacity and volume, whilst avoiding training overload by always running too hard to too fast.
One of the biggest ‘challenges’ of marathon training so far, has been keeping my easy runs ‘easy enough’. Last Wednesday my legs felt pretty good after Tuesday’s session, and I averaged ~ 4:40/km for my ‘easy’ run. Too fast!
The theme of last week’s feedback on Training Peaks was ‘slow it down’ and today, I really tried.
Luckily, my legs were spent. I decided to get up and run first thing, therefore not having much rest, in real terms, between finishing the session and starting my run. This helped me to keep it easy.
I think I almost passed, though Jo probably would have liked it to be slower still. Unfortunately, my decision to run first thing, and Jo’s WhatsApp messages to make sure I kept it ‘REALLY REALLY EASY’ (which was in capitals) crossed paths and so I didn’t pick her messaged up until I got back home. Luckily I was too busy keeping it easy* to see them.
*Keeping it easy and finishing my bi-annual re-listen of Stephen Fry reading Harry Potter. Oh how a good audio book can keep you going for miles upon miles upon miles. Until next time!