Easier not faster

Today was the last day of week three of eight for phase four, the final phase of outdoor training. We might push the phase a little longer to do some track meets in Augusta that start in July. Extending the phase means putting off our yearly running break, but it’s not a big deal. To stick with our yearly plan, we don’t have to take a break until September. Regardless, three weeks into a new phase of training means I have started to acclimate to the workload. Today was a prime example.
I repeated the workout of the prior two weekends. It wasn’t that I ran so much faster, which would undermine the theme of this phase of training. Rather, I accomplished today’s workout slightly faster then the previous two, but far more comfortably. Comfort is the point of this phase. The paces that have been established and worked on in the previous months fall into perspective now. The goal is to accomplish workouts with minimal stress while still running the appropriate training times. In some ways, the workouts become like watching a TV show. Its not that you have to really work to pay attention, you pretty much just have to show up and not fall asleep. Ok, maybe it is a little harder than that, the point is now races and time trials are the days for all out efforts, not workouts. Workouts shouldn’t get faster they should get easier.