Moving from Pace to Feel

This week I started a new training cycle. I was planning to take a week off after my last milestone race but I felt great, so decided to continue training. In hindsight, I really like the approach I am taking by training for my next furthest event (for the 15K I used a half marathon plan and for the half marathon I used a 30K plan, so on and so forth). As a result, when I start the next cycle, my largest mileage weeks from the previous cycle fit nicely into my current cycle, and the race week serves as a step back week to recover from the cycle. The approach is working perfectly.

Anyway, based on my current training plan I was scheduled to run four, seven, and four on my mid-week runs. I ran all three at the Northshore trail. Tuesday I started at the Boy Scouts trail head and ran to Rockledge Park and back (dailymile map). During my last cycle I really focused on my speed/pace. But this time I am just going to run based on how I feel. During this run I was feeling pretty good and ended up at a 11:29 mpm pace.

From Rockledge Park trail head.

On Wednesday I ran from the Murrell Park Guard shack and headed east until I reached the Boy Scouts trail head, then looped back to Murrell. I still had some miles to finish so I kept going until I reached about half the miles I still needed, then doubled back to Murrell (dailymile map).I ran a little over seven at an 11:17 pace. I was actually a little surprised at this. I was once again running more on feel than on what my watch said. On my longer mid-week runs I would typically slow myself down to a little slower than my goal race pace (12 mpm for the ultramarathon), but I guess I was feeling pretty good on this one.

Small stream crossing between Boy Scouts and Murrell Guard Shack.

Yesterday I did my last mid-week run from Far Gate. At this location, the park is closed to cars, so I ran on the paved road to warm up, did a lap from the park guard shack back to the gate on the trail, then did a handful of repeats on the small rolling hills (dailymile map). I am trying to incorporate a little hill work into my runs this time around to see if I can build up some strength in that area. It was raining slightly during this workout and it felt great. I ended up at a 10:58 pace, I suspect mostly because of running the hills at a faster pace.

One of the small rolling hills.

This weekend I start with the double workouts (in my case, two per weekend, not two per day), a shorter run on Saturday and then my typical long run on Sunday. The purpose of the double workouts is to increase total mileage without having to increase the long run much further than 20 miles. The advantage is that my legs should be a little tired from the Saturday run and that will help teach me to go long on Sunday with tired legs, at least that's the thought.

Do you do doubles? What do you see as the key advantage(s) of this approach?