Relentless

You and I both know Bryce is a beast and if your not on your A game it's not going to be a good one. It's a lot harder than it looks on paper. Saying that you ran well and had you been able to push out he last three miles your time would have been a lot better. Your base is there man but spend the rest of the summer trying to get the speed back up or even trying to get it faster than ever. I know it's harder to do than say but if you could run nothing over 100 mpw or even 90 you could get the speed you want to PR big time at STG. Time to train smarter and not harder. But you still did great so don't beat yourself up.

Great report Holt.

Yeah Dave, don't get discouraged. There's lots of good races ahead for you.

A few unsolicited observations from an outsider looking in: (and these are meant as encouragement)

*You just ran an all-out 50 mile debut on hard terrain about a month ago. I usually don't feel recovered from a road marathon for a good month or so, and seeing as to how Squaw was longer, harder, and a new distance for you, I don't think you are recovered either. Plus, you only took about one week of real recovery before launching back into it. Take that into account when you evaluate Bryce.

*On a similar note, you are probably still in "ultra shape", and not in half marathon shape. In other words, your top speed and turnover are likely not there, and when you pushed to those old speeds, you probably red-lined faster than expected. Sure, you did a few workouts before Bryce, but not enough to shift over to true half marathon shape.

*You've been doing really high mileage for what seems like a long time. Perhaps time for a break? You rather bitterly joked about doing 60 mpw, but I actually think that's a pretty good idea. You won't run much slower in races, if at all. Personally, I haven't done anything over 74 miles in a week all year, and I've set 3 lifetime PR's, so 60-70 mpw isn't the death of your running or anything. Come to think of it, all my PR's, from 400m to the half marathon were set at 60-70 mpw. Marathon is a different story, but it doesn't take much training volume to kill it in the shorter races. As Clyde said, maybe time to trainer smarter, not harder.

Take a breather, and keep at it, just from a different angle.

Dave, I think your a little too hard on yourself. Yes thats good and bad, but you really have been logging crazy sick miles. Maybe the body needs a little breather. The speed will come back. I don't know from experience, but seems hard to go from Ultra to Speed in a couple weeks. Keep your head high, you are one heck of a runner. I know you will be back stronger & faster than ever. It's just how you are, you can't help it.

Dave, Great report on the race! I am so amazed at the ability that you have. I am sure that it was the smoke in the air...lol Talking to Logan this morning helped me out a bunch. Take a look back and look at the accomplishments and the great things you are doing with the sport. I sure appreciated your kind words after my disappointing race....YOU ARE THE MAN!!

Thanks guys -

Paul/Clyde you guys are right (and I've had the same thoughts about just not being in race shape) but it doesn't make it any less discouraging. But to fix it (hopefully) I am going to stick to the 100 mpw as a general rule and do my big workouts (at least the speedier ones) on the dreaded treadmill to force myself to hit the pace (since I have no group or "Circle" to run with and push me), maybe that way the base will result in some speed.

I need to just take the attitude of Mike Vick. He had a major struggle (two porta breaks) and he just simply let it roll off his back as one of those days and you can't control that.

Some great advice already and you are beginning to really process it for you. I think Mike V. has it right, some times you just have one of those days.

Keep running and training smartly and you will get your STGM goal.

I would second Paul's comments. There is a difference between training for an ultra and training for a half. Consider this - Canova says "You can go out and run for 3 hours and you are no good for the marathon". This stood out to me because I had done just that on several occasions and found myself no good for the marathon. Now if ultra training does this to your marathon, you can only imagine what it will do to your half.

A properly run half is a very painful sprint that lasts a little over an hour, for the ones blessed with speed who have been thankful for that blessing a little less than an hour. Some aerobic conditioning is necessary to support that sprint. Thus you do the mileage. But there is another component - you must have something to support with your base conditioning. Mileage builds the stage, but a stage is no good if there is no actor to perform on it.

To have the actor, first you need base speed. If a 70 second quarter hurts, or you cannot do it at all, that's bad. That needs to be fixed first. So you do some shorter intervals at that pace until a quarter in 70 is a comfortable relaxed coast. Then if 5:00 mile hurts or you cannot do it at all, that's bad too, that needs to be fixed. You try to make that 70 quarter last, so you can coast for four of them at 75 - so some 800, 1000s, 1200s, all fast, no slower than 5:00 pace, stop the workout or cut down the interval if you are not sustaining the pace, do not drag through 1000s at 5:10 or slower just to get in the target number of reps. Once 5:00 mile does not hurt, then it is time to learn how to run 5:15 forever. So you start with something mild, maybe just 2 miles in 10:30, then maybe do it twice, then maybe run 3 in 15:45, gradually extend it to 5, and learn to close your 10 mile tempos at that pace. Once you get there you'll be able to run an honest course in 1:08.

During all of that base mileage is necessary, but 70 is enough, 90 or more is OK if you feel good and the speed is improving. If you feel tired and the speed stagnates cut back as far as 70, maybe even 60.

Make sure to get good sleep. They asked Mark Nenow (27:20 10 K runner, had the American record for a long time) about the most important aspect of his training. He said - "sleep, sleep, sleep." For a good reason. To sprint for a long time you need a healthy nervous system. Every time you run fast, you tax it. Every time you sleep you rebuild it, and hopefully rebuild it past the level of what it was a week ago. If you succeed, your speed improves. Otherwise, you feel stale.

All of that, of course, applies if you want to run good halves, and to some extent good marathons. If your focus is ultra, it is a different story, the halves would have to be sacrificed on the altar.

I agree with all those more learned in the art of training. Your an awesome runner with the drive to accomplish your goals. Stick to it and train smart.

Sasha hit on the nail Dave.. Cut back for a while then regroup and run like a wild animal. Within reason of course..