Week Three: Vegetarian Cheesesteak

Things I’ve learned (or re-remembered) since starting this training cycle:

• As annoyingly sensible as it is, things like hydrating, stretching, and getting enough sleep make you feel a lot better.
• Running can be as simple (run around the block!) or complicated (see below) as you want it to be.
• Gasping for breath doesn’t mean you’re done or “literally going to fall over and die.”
• [follow up] As the duration or difficulty increases, as do the dramatics.
• The best cure for side stitches is not freaking out when you get one.
• You’re probably overdressed.
• The scavenge for accessible and palatable food after a long run should not be left in the weary hands of a still-sweaty runner.

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Week Three:

THE WORKOUT

Progressive Tempos + Back-to-Backs [15 min (5/5/5) progressive tempo, 3 min rest, 6 minutes of :15 strides (:15 rest), 3 minutes rest, 15 min (5/5/5) progressive tempo]

Fleshman calls it: The Cheesesteak

Sarah calls it: Can I Sub Tempeh?

Effort:Slightly slower than 2x2 baseline, progressing to slightly quicker than

Threat of puking: 2 – of – 5 (new puke scale, who dis?)

This workout gives you some fancy threshold work, as well as a little speed for practicing good mechanics. - LF

If week three is too early to start feeling worn down, I might be in trouble. My weekly mileage finally exceed the race distance though so maybe these heavy legs and growing desire to take mid-day naps in the conference room are justified? Hopefully?? Anyway, I was slightly less pumped for this workout than I was for the others. Mostly because it seemed complicated, and secondly because I’m learning that Lauren is good at making things that look tame on the surface sneaky hard. Like oh you’re cruising thinking things aren’t that bad you must be in better shape than you thought then BAM your legs have been replaced with cinder blocks and all you can think about is whether you’ll have any energy left to feed yourself dinner later. The approach for this workout was “pace is less important than the spirit of the thing, which is moving a bit faster as you go” and “think of yourself like a car changing gears on a nice open highway, but you're on a road trip, not a racecourse.” Right, got it. Let's do it! (... I did not have it.) When I found myself red-lining at the top of a second surprise hill just as my watch beeped to signal the final change in gear, I knew I was in trouble. I begged my lungs to recover (they didn’t) and my legs to turn over faster (I’m pretty sure they did the opposite) while suffering through those final five minutes of  massive engine explosion. Road trip failure, vacation's over. Lauren’s warning of “the last 5 minutes should be just a little quicker than your 2 x 2 baseline test if you haven't shot your wad” rang in the back of my head as I stood with my hands on my knees trying to recover. Oops.  After I finally stopped feeling like my stomach was maneuvering itself up my esophagus I made my way to a flat’ish part of the trail for the back-to-backs. 15 seconds ended up being the perfect distance between a puddle and a snow patch, so for six minutes (12 strides total including the :15 rest) I just ran puddle to patch, patch to puddle. My oxygen-depleted brain couldn't recall any of the good form cues I'd googled earlier so I just pretended like I was anyone other than a lineman running the 40 in the NFL Combine. And then as I flew through tempo #2 - much more evenly paced this time thankyouverymuch - I realized the return trip to the car was slightly downhill almost the whole way. What a nice surprise. Almost a quarter of the way through training, which is pretty awesome and also pretty terrifying. Is it too early to start stalking race day weather forecasts...? - Sarah

• Soliciting virtual training buddies! Interested in doing an upcoming workout and giving your rundown for the blog? You obviously don't need to be in Bend to do it (but it'd be an extra sweet bonus if you were!) Email me: sarah@pickybars.com