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Implementing changes

Published by
pjrizzo   Dec 18th 2014, 6:09pm
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A lot of people have asked me about the changes I've made since Chicago. What am I doing? How am I adapting? How drastic of a change is it?

Let's start simple. I'm reducing my mileage to about 90 miles a week (from 120-140). With that reduction, I'm increasing the quality of both my easy days and my hard days. As my body adapts to running quicker, I'll add in more volume again. For the time being though, I need to divorce junk mileage.

The change has already given me a little more “prance” to my step and I feel fresh going out for 6-8 mile mornings instead of 10-12. Of course this isn't a permanent change, volume will have to return before I run my next marathon. This is more of a much-needed down cycle. I tried to take a down cycle this past summer, but with my body not cooperating, it turned out to be more of a “stay alive” than a “get ahead” cycle. Right now, my body needed a rest.

Most people get some sort of injury here and there that sidelines them. Those injuries can sometimes be a blessing in disguise as it lets the rest of your body change the routine and catch up a little. It brings the body back into balance sometimes when you are forced to cross-train instead of run. It may have exploited the weakest link in your body, but you may also find other weak links that almost broke, but didn't. When you come back though, you're usually stronger than when you left.

That isn't my case. I've never been injured in my entire 18 years of running. It can be a blessing and a curse all at once. I've run through some pains here and there, but I've only taken 2 unplanned days off. Any other time I took time off was predetermined following a build-up and a focus race. That takes its toll on the body in its own way. I have now one day every 2 or so weeks that I take completely off of running. I may walk the dog, go for a hike, do core, do yoga, or do nothing. Either way, the day off has freshened my longer term outlook. It's always only 13 days or less of brutalizing my body before I get a rest. Mentally, that helps.

With this drastic change has been a coaching change. I still bounce things off of Brad, but with my own spin and my own details. I still stick to a two workouts a week, one longer and one faster; I still run a medium-long run mid-week and a long run on the weekend. The bread and butter of things stayed the same. I just needed at some point before the 2016 Olympic Trials to give my body a little break and to try something new. If it fails miserably, I didn't want Brad to have this reflect on his coaching.

For anyone wanting to track details of my training, most of my training is on Strava now and I also try to always be an open book on Twitter (@runprizzo). Good luck to everyone in 2015 and have a happy and safe holiday season.

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