Mobile Bay Runner

A Blog by Sam Yeager-Allen

Training Log – 08/07/22

Posted on by Sam

Hey friends! Here is what training looked like last week:

Monday – 4.0 mile run (8:20 pace)

Tuesday – 10.0 mile run (7:20 pace)

  • Temperature: 82℉
  • Humidity: I was indoors, but I feel like it was probably still 100% humidity!
  • Listened to: Music! I need to share my playlist at some point.
  • It rained all. day. long. on Tuesday. I was in Mobile most of the day and the streets were completely flooded. I think they ultimately still had the race, but I had zero desire to drive back across the bay to go run in the rain through flooded streets. Thankfully (and unlike last time), I did not register for this one in advance!
  • I decided to do a progressive tempo instead. I am typically really strong on short intervals and not so much on the middle distance threshold type of work, so I am really trying to focus on that. It’s so easy to do the stuff that you are good at and skip the stuff that is outside of your comfort zone, so I am really trying to be cognizant of that.
  • I started out a 6.0 mph on the treadmill (10:00 pace) and worked my way up by 0.2 mph every two minutes for the first three miles of the run before starting the tempo portion. According to Garmin my splits were 6:32, 6:19, 6:09 and 6:04. I don’t know how accurate the footpod actually is, but I think it’s fairly close. The paces were very similar to what I ran on a similar workout outside last week and the effort level felt the same.

Wednesday – 8.0 mile run (8:35 pace)

Thursday – 9.0 mile run (8:25 pace)

  • Temperature: 74℉
  • Humidity: 97%
  • Listened to: Ali on the Run Show Episode 547: Emma Bates, Team USA Marathoner
  • I ran at the mall after dropping Ward off at school. This routine definitely seems to be working at the moment, so I’m hopeful that I can stick with it.
  • They are doing some road construction on the road around the mall, which makes it a bit more challenging to there and get parked. Once I am actually there and running, the traffic is much less than it would otherwise be. I’d say the benefits of the construction outweigh the inconveniences of it at the moment!
  • My legs were a little bit tired today. It’s typically two days post workout when my legs feel the most fatigued.

Friday – 9.0 mile run (8:05 pace) w/ 6 X 30 second strides (5:20 pace)

  • Temperature: 75℉
  • Humidity: 93%
  • Listened to: The Drop Podcast Episode 101: Steve Magness, Coach & Author
  • I ran after dropping Ward off at school, but varied my route a little bit. There’s only so many mall loops a girl can do! The driveway was a no go this week though, so I’m happy to have an alternative route that is close by.
  • My legs felt much better today.
  • Got some strides done at the end of the run in preparation for a track workout tomorrow!

Saturday – 8.0 mile run (7:10 pace)

  • Temperature: 80℉
  • Humidity: 92%
  • Listened to: The Some Work All Play Sexy Shakeout #11! Long Run Length, Favorite Races, and Going All-In! on the warm up and cool down and music during the workout!
  • The workout was written as a 2 mile warm up, 8 X 600 and a 2 mile cool down. I was supposed to push the pace on the last 200 of every other repeat. On the odd repeats, I kept the pace as is on the last 200 and on the even ones I picked up the pace by about 20 seconds per mile or so.
  • The goal was to run these at close to 5k pace, which translated into about 86-87 seconds per lap. This meant that on the odd repeats the final 200 would be close to 43 seconds and on the even repeats, he wanted me closer to 40 seconds. The idea was to work on closing strong and pushing a little bit harder when you are already tired so that in a race setting those things feels like the norm.
  • The recovery was supposed to be half of the interval (300 meters), but I have a really hard time finding the 100 and 300 marks on the track, so I just went with a 200 meter recovery instead to keep it nice and even (and easy for my brain).
  • I split the 400s so that I’d have the data to see the execution of the 200s. Splits were as follows:
    • 85/44
    • 86/40
    • 84/43
    • 83/40
    • 85/43
    • 85/40
    • 84/43
    • 84/40
  • Things got really tough around the sixth rep, but I stuck it out.
  • I really liked the way this workout was structured. Having the 200 to focus on every other time was nice, especially since I like 200s! It was a fun challenge. I also think taking splits at the 400 made it feel like I was only doing 400 meter repeats instead of 600 meter repeats. For whatever reason, mentally it seemed less challenging.

Sunday – 12.0 mile run (8:30 pace)

  • Temperature: 75℉
  • Humidity: 97%
  • I got to run with Rebecca for the first 9 miles!
  • Learned some very valuable information in regards to where you can and can not apply body glide. The secret is that you can apply it everywhere and that there is no where you can’t apply it! I’ve got several pair of spandex shorts that are a dreadful combination of slightly too old and slightly too big and there has been chafing in … let’s just say … some unfortunate areas. But now I know!
  • I got in three more miles on my own afterwards and was able to rescue Rebecca’s visor from the middle of the road. She drove off with it on the hood of her car. I told her it was a true test of friendship, as the visor was very sweaty. Ha!

Totals –
Running: 60.0 miles
Elliptical: NONE!

This was my first 60 mile week since November of 2020! Wowza. I can’t believe it has been that long, but I guess it makes sense given the life events that have transpired! Thanks for following along.