I Forgot to Think of a Title

Hey guys!

Another week of training is in the books! The fundamental phase is complete. Time to move on to the specific phase! Woo!

Here is what the last week of the fundamental phase looked like:

Monday AM – Easy: 7 miles (8:28 pace) + PM – Easy: 5.25 miles (8:27 pace)

I ran easy Monday morning … two miles with Brooks and then five miles on the treadmill. I saw Ryan Monday afternoon and thankfully my hamstring was healing nicely. Of course I asked him if I could run “hard,” as I was really missing workouts. He suggested that I ease back into things a little bit and not try to do some sort of crazy speed work just yet, which definitely made sense.

Several of the usual suspects met Monday evening and so I decided to tag along for an easy double.

Tuesday AM – Easy: 5 miles (8:40 pace) + PM – Steady State: 8 miles (7:09 pace)

Due to time constraints Tuesday morning, I wasn’t able to squeeze a workout in. Even though I wanted to “test” it, at the same time I really didn’t want to “test” it (that probably doesn’t even make sense). I mulled it over a little bit more and by Tuesday evening I decided that it was, in fact, time to do a test run and see how the hammy held up.

My only real plan for the test run was to try to run a few miles in the 7:00 to 7:15 pace range, which is what I would consider to be a steady state effort (10 – 20 seconds slower than goal marathon pace). I did this workout solo, which is definitely not normal. Daniel did a workout on the bike while I ran. We both did an out and back route. I went out 4 miles and he went out 12 or 13 miles. My splits were 7:47, 6:58, 6:56, 7:11, 6:56, 7:03, 7:03 and 7:22. I felt decent and was THRILLED that my hamstring felt fine! Whew.

Wednesday – Easy: 10 miles (8:22 pace)

Wednesday’s run was an easy 10 miler w/ 10 X 1:00 pickups w/ 1:00 recovery. Typically the 1:00 pickups are done at a fast pace (VO2 max or faster), but I still didn’t want to take a chance with the hamstring. I didn’t time the intervals at all and I definitely didn’t push like I normally would on this workout.

Thursday AM – Easy: 5 miles (8:57 pace) + PM – Easy: 5.25 miles (9:00 pace)

Apparently easy five mile runs were my jam this week.

Friday – Easy: 5.75 miles (9:10 pace)

Daniel and I did the standard five mile easy run again Friday morning and I took Brooks for a short trot once we got home.

Saturday – Race: Senior Bowl 10K

Race recap in separate post!

Sunday – Easy: 10 miles (8:01 pace)

I met the group for our Sunday “long run.” Most of us raced the day before, so we didn’t go as far as we would have otherwise. My legs felt surprisingly fresh. I think we were all pleasantly surprised as far as that goes. Of course it was also 10 degrees cooler Sunday morning. At this point, we will take it whenever we can get it!

Total – 71.5 miles

Have a wonderful week!