Monday, April 13, 2009

Training Plateau

Well, recovery run-to-run is becoming evermore difficult. My fitness seems to be decreasing. My mileage is decreasing - out of physical necessity, not for lack of will - and my need for cut-back weeks is becoming increasingly frequent. Time for a break, I guess. Here are my weekly mileages since the beginning of the year... starting with the most recent:

April - 106
April - 122
March - 80
March - 135
March - 120
March - 131
Feb. - 131
Feb. - 127
Feb. - 71
Feb. - 140
Jan. - 129
Jan. - 134
Jan. - 125

The slow degradation... Really, I can trace the start of the fade back to mid.-Nov. I hit a really strong 159 mile week then. My peak fitness was probably back in the beginning of Nov. after peaking with 204 miles at the end of Sept. October was a clean month. In December I put in a 57 minute 10 miler during a 130 mile hard training week. The 2 sub-100 mile weeks this year were out of necessity, as I literally couldn't run anymore miles than that. That is foolishness.

Unfortunately, too often my will is stronger than my body. It is a balance (more than a total life balance, specifically a training balance) of fitness and mind that needs to be struck again. Reality has caught up with me and there is no more denying it. If I were to continue at 120+ miles a week in this state, by the end of May I would be running no faster than 9 minute pace on my tempo runs. No good. This week I will keep it honestly easy. A preemptive cut-back week, finally. No more of this waiting until things get out of control before cutting. No running. 8 miles or less a day, and easy. No more than 50 for the week. Hopefully less. Peace.

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