Relentless Forward Progress_ A Guide to Running Ultramarathons - Bryon Powell [29]
Rest
Rest is just that—rest. When training calls for a rest day, either take the day off from exercise or do some light-to-moderate cross training for up to an hour.* Although it may be counterintuitive, a light cross-training day (as opposed to a day with no exercise) is most useful following a particularly demanding training run or ultra. This type of cross training, known as active recovery, is discussed in the “Recovery” section of chapter 2.
* If the activity is particularly light, such as a casual bike ride about town, longer duration cross training sessions are fine. Just make sure that they enhance, not detract from your subsequent workouts.
Tailor Your Training Plan
Despite the greatest care, it is impossible to create one or two training plans for a given distance that meet everyone’s needs perfectly. That’s another reason why some runners like to work with coaches. For the rest of us, it’s often easy enough to tailor a training plan to suit our needs. This section explains ways to modify any of the training plans in this book.
Days of the Week
We all live our lives on different schedules, and each runner’s training fits into that schedule differently. I’m here to tell you that it’s easy to move elements of your training schedule around to suit your needs. One common and easy change would be to switch your Saturday and Sunday runs so that your longest run is usually on Sunday. Note, however, that if your schedule calls for back-to-back long runs, try to keep the longer of the two runs on Saturday. Although it’s okay if you can’t.
As for the rest of the week, it’s all right to move your training around so long as you alternate hard and easy days and avoid logging two hard days in a row on a regular basis. For those who move their speed work and are looking for more detailed advice, here you go . . . feel free to move it to either Tuesday or Wednesday. When you switch your speed work to Tuesday, reschedule your longest weekday run for Thursday, with Wednesday remaining a recovery run. Although it’s less desirable, it would be acceptable to run your speed work on Tuesday, to run your longest weekday run on Wednesday, and then to run the recovery run originally scheduled for Wednesday on Thursday. On the other hand, if you move your speed work to Wednesday, run your longest weekday run on Thursday with Wednesday’s recovery run moved to Tuesday. You do not want to run moderately long on Tuesday followed by speed work on Wednesday.
Days Per Week
Runners are creatures of habit. We find what works and we stick with it. This is often true of how many days per week we run. We are four-, five-, six-, or seven-day-a-week runners. Whatever your preference, chances are you can stick with it through any of this book’s training plans. In general, four-, five-, or six-day weeks would work best for the 50-mile-per-week plans, while the 70-mile-per-week plans are better suited for five-, six-, or seven-day-per-week runners. Indeed, many 70-mile-per-week runners will run six or seven days per week.
For the runner who prefers a four-day running week and follows one of the 50-mile-per-week training plans, there are two options, both of which call for taking Wednesdays off. For those who want to stick to the target mileage, add 3 miles to each Tuesday and 2 miles to each Thursday. For those on a 70-mile-per-week training plan, it would be difficult to remain injury-free running only four days per week.
Any training plan in the book is suitable for a six-day-per-week approach. To make it happen, simply scavenge a few miles from both your Wednesday and Sunday runs.