Breaking Down

This morning I woke up around 8 am and stayed on Gavin's couch for an hour or so. While laying there I felt a little dehydrated but was too lazy to get up. Sometimes a warm blanket is just to cozy to throw aside.

We started our warm up just before 11 am in my new Brooks Ghost 4s. It was another absolutely frigid day with 22 degree air and a gust of 13 mph. Despite the cold, there was high pressure and clear skies. After we finished our one mile warmup in 7:15, we rope stretched inside and grabbed some last minute hydration. Then, we were on our way. After beginning to go up the hill near his street, I commented that I felt weird. I wasn't exactly sure what it was until about 1.5 miles in. I ended up running a broken 6 miles with too many breaks. I was really taking to the past two days poorly. I felt exhausted on what would normally be an easy effort. This is what I call breaking down. Occasionally, I'll have a poor run but they usually aren't this bad. When you go from low mileage to high mileage quickly, you can often find that on individual sessions, you can perform very well. However, I've always said that to be a distance runner doesn't mean that you can go out and run 9 miles, it means you can go out and run 9 miles everyday. Consistency and volume work are really what define a runner. By developing your base volume, you are able to get in more quality work. Like anything in life, you don't develop a base volume over a week. For me, it takes roughly 6 weeks to get to 60 mile weeks. And even then, they may not be fast miles. So how can you go about getting more consistent and avoid breaking down? Breaking down is pretty difficult to avoid but by obtaining a high mileage base, you can help minimize the affects of breaking down. But how do you develop a high base? Well there's a few things I like to keep in mind during base building phases.

• Consistency
• Nutrition
• Sleep

Between sessions, it is important that you rest. When you enter deep sleep, or REM sleep, your muscles become extremely relaxed. While they are relaxed they become much more heavily oxygenated which in turn helps buffer junk out and synthesize muscle fiber repair. Additionally, eating right really does make a difference. Eating the appropriate foods is going to allow recovery time to be cut and have you feeling fresher for the next session. The importance of protein often overshadows the need for carbs. Once your body runs out of glycogen, you start burning fat which is far less available to burn due the chemical nature of the stored energy in fat. One of my favorite meals after any session is a tall glass of skim milk along with toasted whole grain bread topped with organic peanut butter and honey. You'd be surprised how well peanut butter and honey mix.  Finally, stay consistent. If you're thinking of taking a day off, go out and get a short, easy run in. Short easy runs go a long way in base building and actually help you recover.

Now, we're sitting on the couch watching tv. I hope my mom is making dinner tonight. I could really go for some chicken parmesan right about now.