My priority for the first half of my training cycle (15 weeks left till taper week) is to develop the basic stamina and endurance to do the distances at a comfortable steady pace, over and over. I feel that I never did enough proper long runs in the past, and never had that "all day" stamina, no matter how easy I ran. That will not happen again!
My long run yesterday was 2:30 total; about 2:20 of that actually running. I have no idea the pace -- pace was not the goal. Just keeping it moving was the goal, and I feel great about the result. I was able to pick it up for the last 20 minutes (pushing HR about 10 bpm higher than it had been throughout the first two hours). I didn't really start feeling leg fatigue until the 2 hour mark.
The run took a lot out of me. The Sunday chores around the house were tough and I needed a nap mid-afternoon. But I felt great by evening and feel 90% recovered today. No running today -- just a nice swim workout and some general fitness maintenance work on the weights.
This is hugely encouraging. I've only been back running for 4 weeks and my feet feel great and I feel great.
The plan is to stay on top of these long runs, pushing them out to 3+ hours on a regular basis. In June, I will start doing a mid-week brick with 2 hours on the bike at a good tempo, followed by a 1 hour run.
I do need to take care of my running pace at some point -- I am still painfully slow. I will start finishing the mid-week runs with quick, smooth strides to re-learn some running economy. That has helped a lot in the past. While VO2max workouts are not essential for long-course racing in terms of metabolic fitness, I favor such occasional workouts for the simple purpose of teaching my legs and nervous system how to run quicker.
To run faster, even at easy effort levels, requires us to spend less time in contact with the ground. That has to be practiced and learned.
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