A decade of experience and a massive base of running mileage (28,000+ miles) is an awesome thing. When I started out, I had 20 week training plans. There were build weeks, workouts, long runs, deload weeks, and even some back-to-back long runs thrown in for good measure. As my miles started stacking up, the mental grind got harder and harder to keep pushing through. All this was to build my body and mind up to run marathons and then ultras.
But now? LOL. I just go run.
That doesn’t mean I’m completely unintentional with my running. I have a couple routes that I run daily that add up to 40-50 miles depending on how I structure them. I’ve just added a hill repeat workout into my weekly schedule. I typically don’t do workouts, however apparently ES100 is coming up. It’s been a couple years since I’ve done this workout and I’m just sprinkling them in this year vs going crazy focusing on vert as in years past.
Seeing The Real Big Picture
It’s easy to get laser focused on the minutia of training. How many miles we’re running each week or how many workouts we’re doing. How this week stacks up to the prior week or what we’re building to in a week or two. Our big picture typically only zooms out to a training cycle. Like the miles and work put in before it doesn’t exist or have no bearing on our current fitness or endurance. What I did two years ago might be worth less than the training I’ve recently done, but it’s not worthless.
The basis for my training has always been the long run. It’s the one workout that I’ve prioritized month in and month out; season after season; year after year. Whenever I’ve had more than 6 weeks between races, I’ve typically gotten in at least one 20 miler to maintain my endurance base. This was such a focus of mine that I went 5 straight years with at least one twenty mile or longer run each month. It was kinda my thing.
Well, the streak ended last November when the recovery from my MDT FKT bled into the taper for Devil Dog. I wasn’t too torn up about it. I’ve managed to get in at least a twenty miler each month so far this year, however June is going to be another missed month for me. I was recovered enough from More Miles to get one in last weekend, which is three weeks out from my next race. It would have been the perfect time for one in my maintaining schedule. Instead I passed on it. Based on the current mini-training cycle between races, I should have gotten one in.
Zooming out a bit though.
The whole point of long runs is to build endurance for even longer efforts. You stack 20-25 mile runs into a training cycle so you can push beyond this to run fifty or a hundred miles. But what if you’re already consistently getting in hundred mile efforts? I’ve already done 4 runs at or over a hundred miles in six months. I’m getting a huge training benefit from those. What’s a measly little 20 mile run going to do for my endurance at this point that the 100 miles and 13,000+ feet of elevation gain/loss hasn’t already done for me three weeks ago? I’m not going to lose that endurance benefit in a short 6 weeks. Heck, it’s probably going to take that long for my body to really heal up and incorporate those gains into my base. I’m running long often enough at this point that I may never need to do a long run outside of a race.
Or at least that’s how I’m making it up as I go along this summer.