Hey-o!
Here is what my training looked like the week of 04.30.18 – 05.06.18:
Monday – Easy: 8 miles (8:51 pace)
I started the week off with a solo, hilly eight mile run!
Tuesday AM – Quality: 10 miles (7:40 pace) + PM – Easy: 5 miles (8:23 pace)
Tuesday morning the Daniels and I hit the track again. Track Tuesday has become a “thing” again and I’m so glad! This week I did a different workout than they did, but as always, it’s just nice to have company out there.
My workout was 15 X 2:00 hard with 1:00 easy jogging recovery between each set. It was a tough workout! 30 minutes of “hard” running is no joke. I wanted to run this one by feel, so I programmed my watch to “workout mode” and I didn’t look at my paces or anything during the workout itself. I was really tempted to stop after 10 repeats, but I’m glad that I stuck it out. After looking at the data afterwards, my average pace for the repeats was 6:11. I am definitely pleased with that. It would sure be nice if I could run for thirty minutes consecutively at that pace, but hey, maybe one day …
I did an easy loop with Daniel Holley Tuesday evening while my Daniel did a group ride at Pro Cycle.
Wednesday – Easy: 8 miles (8:16 pace)
Wednesday evening my students turned in their final exams! Woo! It worked out for the Daniels, Cody and I to do an eight mile run around campus after I collected the tests. The change of scenery was nice and I enjoyed running in a new (to me) location. Both Daniels went to college at the school where I am teaching and so they were familiar with the campus and the route that we ran. Cody and I were clueless and were just along for the ride.
Thursday – Easy: 5 miles (8:53 pace)
I made the mistake of drinking a caffeinated drink Wednesday after our run (only because I was so thirsty and Daniel happened to have a drink in his car). I honestly thought that caffeine had little to no effect on me at this point, but as it turns out, it most definitely does if I drink it in the evening! I was up until after 1 a.m., which made for a less than stellar run Thursday morning and caused me to skip the afternoon group run altogether.
Friday AM – Easy: 8 miles (8:49 pace) + PM – Easy: 5 miles (8:04 pace)
Daniel and I ran a few easy miles Friday morning and then I tacked on a few additional solo miles afterwards. I procrastinated my second double for the week (which ideally should’ve been done Wednesday (or Thursday at the latest)), so Friday afternoon it was time to make that happen. Luckily Cody wanted to run Friday afternoon and I so I was able to get in an easy loop with some good company.
Saturday – Quality: 15.5 miles (7:35 pace)
Saturday morning it was time for a quality long run. The prescribed workout was a two mile warm up, four miles at pace, half a mile recovery, three miles at pace, half a mile recovery, two miles at pace, half a mile recovery, one mile at pace and a three mile cool down. The pace miles were supposed to get progressively quicker as the workout went by (ideally starting out at close to 7:00 pace and working down to 6:30 for the last set). Writing that all out made me a little bit tired, so you can imagine how running it actually felt.
I thought about doing this run on the treadmill, which likely sounds terrible to many of you, but I know that if I run on the treadmill, I have the discipline to “make myself” do whatever the workout says. If I run outside, I am more likely to “give up,” or bail on a workout, especially if I don’t have anyone to run with. However, I know that doing workouts outdoors is more beneficial and Cody actually agreed to run with me and pace me for most of the workout, so outside it was! The temperature was nice when we first got started, but it definitely warmed up as we got towards the end.
Our splits for the first four mile set were 6:57, 6:59, 6:50 and 6:51. We then had half a mile to recover (which unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it) was up a big hill) before it was time to start the second set. The splits for the second set were 6:36, 6:41 and 6:45. We had another half a mile to recover before the next set. The next set should’ve been a little bit faster, but all I could muster was 6:52 and 7:06. I was definitely on the struggle bus at this point, but Cody was able to finish out those two miles really strong. I still had one more mile to run hard for the last set, but my legs really just wouldn’t even go by that point. I told myself that I could try to get one more mile under 7:00 pace, but once I started that mile, the goal changed to trying to get one mile under 8:00 pace (which I did (but barely)).
All in all, it was a great workout! I got some solid effort in and I know that the strength I am building in workouts like this will help me in everything from the 5K to the marathon.
Sunday – Easy: 12 miles (8:30 pace)
I got in a medium long run Sunday morning with some of the usual suspects. It felt great out and my legs felt surprisingly good.
Total – 76.5 miles
That’s it for now! Have a great week!