First of all, at the end of my last post I was wondering how I would feel the next day. The only results I hadn't yet posted were of my marathon recovery. Once again, I learned even more. Of course I was slightly sore, but the marathon was on Sunday and Monday night I was doing demos of body weight squats at the gym. The first one felt a little creaky, but after that, they felt great. I was in the pool on Tuesday and cycling on Wednesday. Legs felt a little tired in the pool but other than that, the soreness went away much faster than it has in the past.
What now you ask?
Well, it seems that some peeps over at Crossfit liked my experiment. I have been invited to be their guest at a Running/Endurance Cert in LA the first weekend in December! Yeah! What does this mean? Well, I am not sure, but I know I wanted to attend one of these and didn't think it would happen for a long time. This will be a great opportunity to meet more people in the community and just be the crossfit dork that I am with good company!
In the meantime, I am going to enjoy the off-season. I really enjoyed my "marathon training" this year because: a) it gave me the exact variety I need to not get bored; and b) it is time efficient. I would actually like to run more this winter (maybe 20 miles/week); just haven't figured out when I will fit it in.
I've had many follow-up questions regarding my experiment. The most common asks something along these lines: Do you think you could PR training like this? Hmmmm. Great questions. I think the answer might be yes. I think it will take a few more tries and tweaks to my method. This gives me new enthusiasm for the marathon. I was getting bored with the classic training methods. Fortunately, I have a few months to enjoy other things before I put any structured training into practice.
Would love to hear from any of you who have tried or are trying something similar. You know what they say in science: The more data you have, the more valid. This is coming from a former middle school science teacher you know! Please share!!!
5 comments:
Darcy, I think you experiment is/was great!! To add some personal data, for IMOO, Kerry Y and I did a number of bike/run bricks, never exceeding 15 miles running...in any workout. Granted my physical conditioning is better since my last marathon, but at IMOO with my longest run being 15 miles, I PR'd by 10 minutes. That run course is much harder than Grandma's (my previous PR). Marathon-wise, cross training keeps me much more focused than just plain run training. Great job!!
I am still amazed and in awe of this experiment! I would LOVE to chat with you about it because I have (what seems like) 1 million questions! Please email me if you have a chance, I'd love to pick your brain: melody.parry@gmail.com
Congrats again on an awesome race - and being a speaker for Crossfit!
Darcy, thanks for answering my questions after your last post. I truly love the idea of experimenting. From a runner's point of view, my objective is to run as fast as possible. So, for me, the true test will be to see if you can in fact get closer to 3:06.
As I get older, I'm trying to find ways to mix in cross-training without losing running fitness. I haven't been able to figure it out yet.
I can't get past being in LA in December...get a tan for me CrossFit Dork;-)
Hi Darcy...I have never done a full IM and my last open Marathon was ages ago, but on the HIM side I never once ran a half marathon and my long runs leading up to my HIM's this summer were all at a pace that was sustainable and under 13 miles. My run time in my HIM and for that matter in the TCM 10 miler were over a minute / mile faster than anything i had trained at.
Yea i was sore with 48 hr DOMS but the races all were super..no issues.
And no i dont think i slacked on training i think that I just undertrained distance wise!
You did great, so fun!
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