Run to Win

Wes is a frequent reader and commenter, and he is not sure what to do after missing a long run. He has worked up to 14 miles, and skipped his 16 miler. His concern was whether he should stick to his scheduled 5 miler this next weekend, or whether he should make up the 16 miler even though that means he goes an extra 3 weeks before he gets to cut back at all (and that cut back is to 16 miles itself!) His long runs were scheduled to be 5 miles this weekend, then 18 miles, 20 miles, and back to 16 miles in four weeks.

Specific Advice

My suggestion to Wes is to just skip the run. He has already run 14 miles, so I would skip the 16 miler altogether and go straight to 18 when his schedule tells him to. If he had only run a top distance of 12 or less miles, then I would say replace the 18 with 16 or 17 miles, but I given his 14 miler I think that he will be fine.

More General Advice

That being said, I would not make a habit of skipping runs. If you miss multiple workouts in your schedule, then you will need to seriously rethink where in the program you are and make adjustments to your training plans going forward.

One workout missed, even a key workout, is not going to mess you up too much as long as you don’t go screwing around with everything else in your running program as a result. Call it a loss, move on, and you will not be too much the worse for wear.

When you skip multiple workouts, though, you will not have the fitness base that is assumed when you get to later stages of the program. You need to be able to get yourself to the point that you are supposed to be at, while still maintaining the proper rest that it is assumed that you are going to have at a given point.

The worst thing that you can do is to make up workouts at random. You will not give your body time to recuperate and will not be able to put forth the effort that you are supposed to when you are supposed to. This makes it difficult to peak at the right time for a race, as well.

Other Suggestions

Do you have any other suggestions for Wes? Head over to his site and let him know what you think that he should do to get back on track (or stay on track) as he builds up his mileage!

While I wrote quite a bit this week last year, I only had four articles worth looking back on:

• I offered some great advice that helps me accomplish my own goals by stating that everyone should plan their workouts. I also provided instruction on how to do a bridge exercise on a swiss ball.
• I highlighted The Bike Shop, a great community program for local children.
• The New York City Marathon happened.

The rest of what I wrote about was Red Sox news, football news with Terrell Owens getting suspended and Ty Willingham playing the race card, and a lawsuit between boxers over doping allegations and money.

For some of the same reasons that I’ve been a bit missing over the past week or so, we did not get the second workout in for missus until last night. Here is what she did after warming up with some yoga:
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I just finished a month and a half of my 3 days a week workout regimen. All in all, I was fairly happy with Monday and Wednesday workouts, but the Friday workouts left me a little stale. I probably should have worked some deadlifts in there, as Scott suggested. I worked the chinups in for a few weeks, but they did not seem to fit either so I went back to my original exercises. If I work that routine in again at some point, then I will probably overhaul Friday’s workout completely.

For the past few weeks, I have been doing a new weekly workout routine. It involves lifting 3 days a week, and works specific muscles a bit more than my last phase of lifting, which was more designed to get my muscles reacquanted with lifting weights.
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Should I lift weights first or should I do my cardio exercise first? The answer to that depends on a few different factors and is most influenced by what you are trying to accomplish. In general, I much prefer to lift first and then run, but that is not always practical and is not always the best option for everybody. These are the factors that play into whether you should lift first or run first:
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This may seem obvious as a workout tip, but plan your workouts before starting. Figure out what your goals are for the months ahead, so that you can figure out the general types of shorter term goals to set. That way you can set specific goals a week or two ahead of time, and have a workout planned out before starting it. Sometimes you won’t be able to follow that workout, but most times you will, and the times that you plan a workout and then can’t follow through will be far fewer than the times you don’t plan a workout and then half-ass it.
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