Darkwave (et al.) - I would like to take advantage of your expertise once again. I am planning to get my ferritin levels checked out on tuesday. Anything else I should get tested while I am there?
OR: I've been thinking about your every-other-day schedule of late. Hard-Easy has long been standard training, but is this the first you've ever REALLY tried it?
During your Stonecutter training you were arguably in the best shape of your life. He scheduled easy days, but my recollection is that even then you always pushed easy-day pace harder than he prescribed.
Seems now you are responding very well to having TRUE recovery days. After this marathon cycle, do you think you might try incorporating EASY RUNNING recovery days?
Allen - You pretty much have it here. Yes, with Coach Stone in 2019 I was arguably in the best shape of my life. To me, his take on that type of training is the best. I did push my easy days a little harder sometimes, but I would not say that I always did that. As he got me into better and better shape, those easy runs really felt “like nothing”…as I would say at the time. However, you are right about TRUE recovery…a rest day is true recovery, and that is what I am getting with my four days a week plan (only one back-to-back day per week).
It is hard for me to say what I will do after the marathon. Right now, I am REALLY enjoying what I am doing, both physically AND mentally. I like being able to “get into” a run—a run of substantive distance—enjoy being able to perform it well, and then set things aside for a day…let it “brew” or “simmer” in me. The other issue here is my number one issue—injury avoidance. There is something about getting in two nights of sleep before the next run that feels particularly beneficial. A few years ago, a doctor told me that the body does its best “knitting back together” when one is sleeping, and he felt that the every day pounding inhibits this process. I now see his point.
So, perhaps I am getting a little too old for the everyday thing, even if it is truly easy running. Perhaps? Not completely sure. I am watching my left foot very carefully and at any sign of an ache I whip out the tennis ball, etc. Thankfully, things have been okay in that regard.
In short, how can I argue with 20.25 at 6:55 in a cold rain on Wednesday, only to be followed by the following on Friday?…13.85 at 6:47.9 overall…7:23, 7:26, 6:58, 6:56, 6:48, 6:51, 6:48, 6:36, 6:40, 6:38, 6:35, 6:31, 6:21.8, 5:38.5…all in complete control. When I saw that “6:36” pop up in mile eight I actually pulled in the reins some. I also used a flatter route so as to get in some race modeling for Salisbury...wanted to work the quads more, and I did…and go easier on the left heel, too.
I am incredibly excited to be doing this at age 53 after only six weeks of training. As I sit here and watch the snow come down, my main concern now is the condition of the roads and paths around here. I do not want to get derailed from the juggernaut that I sense is building in me.
Darkwave (et al.) - I would like to take advantage of your expertise once again. I am planning to get my ferritin levels checked out on tuesday. Anything else I should get tested while I am there?
- RS
So...(with the caveat that I am not in the medical field, though pretty much all of my immediate family is):
1) If you are going to get ferritin checked, I'd get the full iron panel (beside ferritin, you'll get iron, transferrin, TIBC, and t-sat). Generally when evaluating someone's iron status, doctors look at those #s in combination, not just ferritin.
2) I always think it's a good idea to get a CBC and CMP when you are getting blood drawn - those are the basic panels, and if you have any questions about what your iron levels mean, a doctor is going to want to look at your CBC for the information there about your red blood cells, etc.
3) I don't think it's a bad idea to check Vitamin D if you're being thorough - that's a deficiency that can sneak up on people in the winter especially, though there's a lot of disagreement on where one's vitamin D levels should be.
4) if you really want to go crazy, you could also check vitamin B12 and Folate, though it's extremely unlikely that you will be deficient in either unless a) you eat some crazy restricted diet, b) are an alcoholic, or c) have an inflammatory bowel disease like Crohns or Ulcerative Colitis.
Two points of caution -
a) if you get your blood drawn within 24 hours of a hard workout (or longer for a big race like a marathon) some of your values will be distorted.
b) it's important to remember that blood panels aren't something that you optimize (despite what all these online services would have you believe). If you're within range, you should be good (exception - ferritin, where you can feel lousy on a # that's fine for the general population), and even being slightly out of range may not be a major deal. Understanding bloodwork is really an art - you consider all the numbers within the context of the patient's clinical presentation.
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