Distance Decisions

Before you read this, check out this post on Dan’s site: http://primitiveathletictraining.com/2012/01/04/2012-goals/

These are the things floating through my brain today & it probably wont make much sense to you if you don’t really know me. Sorry in advance.

I can’t stop craving what I really want– & that’s 100 miles. I really can’t. Every single day I think about it. It bothers me too, because I’m right in the middle of an intense marathon training program, and there is not any room for 100s.. which obviously makes me want them more- because I can’t have it. Typical. Yet, I also really want my natural speed reflected in the shorter distances I run.

I’m torn here, and can’t decide if I want to sacrifice my plans to PR in shorter distances (5k-marathon) to run a couple of hundreds this spring. I know I can’t do both. I’m just not capable of it. A few weeks after I ran Ancient Oaks, I tested my mile and it was around 5:30. AND THAT’D BE GREAT- if I normally hit 5:30 in my mile. But I’m actually closer to 5 flat, and have gone slightly under 5 on one awesome day. You see, after I run an ultra, I’m still pretty freakin fast, because I recover quickly, but I’m not as fast as I want to be or need to be. & I don’t want half of my potential to show up for a shorter race because I went out and killed some hundred a few weeks before. I have found that after an ultra, I can run the volume that I normally do, but my pace is maybe 30 seconds slower with my best effort for a few weeks. In this intense training, I have to be hitting very specific speeds during my quality workouts for the entire training to be completely effective. So in other words- specificity training is all that works for me, as is the case with most serious runners I believe. I think that you can only run your best time in a certain distance by training specifically for that distance. I want a full PR in all the short stuff. I also want to run a full 100 miles. But then again, you can always have a wildcard performance in either … right?

UGH. SEE? I’m so fickle!!! I can’t even write about it without going back and forth.

I really want the best of both worlds, and honestly I have a hard time understanding that it’s just not possible for me. Maybe because I’m so used to saying “anything is possible” and just doing it. This time that doesn’t work out & it sucks! So I’m not sure which side of my running will win out in the end, what I want, or what I need. (annoyed with myself!)

So. Stick with my plan to tackle the 5k & marathon this spring, and hold off on hundreds– or go ahead and knock out a 100 for fun on the AT & maybe a 12 hour I’m eyeing in the spring?

Either way, I guess I win, because I’ll be running.. which is what I love to do. Hmm.