It should be noted that this was my first week of all morning runs in way too long! I don’t mind an evening run here or there, but over the course of the last six months, it was definitely becoming a regular thing. It was nice to get back into more of a routine this week. The time change will definitely help me stay on this schedule, as there will be no daylight once I get home from work in the evening. Daylight savings aside, I think my motivation levels are coming back up in conjunction with my iron levels!
Here is what last week’s training looked like:
Monday – Easy: 7 miles (8:27 pace)
I started the week off with a few easy treadmill miles. We got some rain on Sunday night and the driveway was not runnable on Monday morning. I could’ve driven somewhere else to run, but the convenience of being able to run at home is too hard to pass up sometimes.
Tuesday – Easy: 6 miles (8:32 pace)
I got in a few easy peasy lemon squeezy driveway miles on Tuesday morning.
Wednesday – Quality: 2.5 mi. WU, 4 X 400, 4 X 300, 6 X 200, 4 X 100, 2.5 mi. CD
I hit the track Wednesday morning for a fun ladder workout. The workout called for a two mile warm up, four 400s, four 300s, six 200s, four 100s and a two mile cool down. I don’t know why there were six 200s and four of everything else, but I definitely spent way too much mental energy thinking about that during the workout. I was |thisclose| to changing it mid-workout to make all the sets even. I’m happy to report that I didn’t let my OCD get the best of me (not this time at least :)).
The 400s had “moderate” jogging recovery, which made them a bit more challenging than they would’ve otherwise been. My body seems to have really gotten used to standing recoveries and I was working a bit harder than I would’ve liked by that last 400. My splits were 82, 81, 82, 80. The 300s were also supposed to have a “moderate” jogging recovery as well, but I altered that on the fly. In hindsight, I should’ve just slowed my roll down to a regular jogging recovery, but instead I decided to go with a standing recovery. My splits were 56, 57, 55, 56. Side note: I am not entirely sure where the 300 mark is on the track. Obviously I have a general idea, but I never can seem to find the exact mark.
By the time I got to the 200s, I was feeling good and warmed up and I was ready to zoom. My time for every single 200 was 37 seconds, which coincidentally was exactly what the goal time was. I don’t think I could do that again if I tried! Similar to the above-referenced issue with the 300 mark, it also appears that I don’t know exactly where the 100 mark is either. My splits were 19, 15, 16, 19. I’m assuming the first and last one were long and the middle two were short. Who knows. The point was to do a few fast bursts and I did just that.
Hurricane Zeta made its presence known on Wednesday evening. We got the generator back out and hunkered down again, but thankfully (for the most part) the damage in our area was minimal compared to Hurricane Sally.
Thursday – REST
There was no running on Thursday. The only thing slightly active that I did was pick up a bunch of sticks in the yard before going to work.
Friday – Easy: 9.75 miles (8:20 pace)
I went to a nearby neighborhood to get some miles in on Friday morning before work. My legs felt better than expected and the run was very enjoyable!
Saturday – Quality: 3 mi. WU, 2 mi. @ MP, 2 X 800, 4 X 30 sec., 2 mi. CD
Saturday morning’s workout called for a three mile warm up, two miles up-tempo, two 800s, four thirty second intervals and a two mile cool down. The two miles were actually prescribed as marathon pace, but there is a 0% chance that I could currently run a marathon at my VDOT “marathon” pace, so I’m just calling it a tempo-ish effort. I met up with some of the old gang for the warm up miles and then I did my own thing for the workout. My two up-tempo miles were 6:10 and 6:05. Both miles were a tad hilly, so I am very pleased with those paces.
Ideally I was planning to get to the track for the 800s, but that didn’t workout based on the route we ran (and I am more than okay with that). My splits for the two 800s were 2:38 and 2:42. The goal was 2:40, so the average was spot on! I didn’t have a whole lot of motivation (or energy) left for the four thirty second pickups, but I got them done. This was the longest workout in total that I’ve done in a while and it felt great to get it in and to feel good in the process.
Sunday – Easy: 10.25 miles (8:08 pace)
I got in another long (ish) run from home on Sunday morning to cap off a really solid week of training.
Total – 52 miles
That’s it for now. Have a great week!