Hey friends! Here is what training looked like last week:
Monday – 5.0 mile run (8:00 pace)
- Temperature: 75℉
- Humidity: 100%
- Listened to: The Rambling Runner Podcast Episode 461: For the Love of the Run with Carolyn Su
- I ran after dropping Ward off at school.
- My legs felt really good! I had an 8 a.m. work call, which put a little bit of extra pep in my step. My easy runs are typically a touch slower, but I had to get the run done and get back home asap.
Tuesday – 9.0 mile run (8:10 pace) w/ 6 X 30 second strides (5:25 pace)
- Temperature: 73℉
- Humidity: 99%
- Listened to: The Flourishing Experiment Podcast Episode 348: 22 Ways to Get Happier and Get Energized
- My legs seemed to be a bit more tired today, which I think makes sense both given the volume and intensity of my training over the weekend and the fact that it usually hits me 48 hours later instead of the next day.
Wednesday – 8.0 mile run (7:35 pace)
- Temperature: 73℉
- Humidity: 97%
- Listened to: Nothing! No podcast, no music, no nothing. I was giving a work presentation at 8:30 (a three hour long presentation at that!), so I wanted to run with just my thoughts and not put too much other noise in my brain. I’m not sure if that is how that works or not, but it definitely seemed right in the moment.
- I did a baby workout of 2 X [90, 60, 30] second repeats. I was supposed to do a three mile warm up before the intervals and a three mile cool down after the intervals, but somehow I misread that on my training plan and only did a two mile warm up. I knew the total run was supposed to be 8 miles and it didn’t hit me until I was partway through the intervals that I was only going to have 6 miles if I did a two mile warm up and a two mile cool down. I tacked the extra miles onto the cool down. No harm, no foul.
- However, I don’t think I was quite warmed up when I started the workout, so the extra mile might’ve helped me. My average pace for the first set was 5:54 and my average pace for the second set was 5:18. So yeah … not quite warmed up for that first set!
- I ran a little bit quicker overall than I typically would as well due to the above-referenced presentation. This was basically the equivalent of my 8 a.m. call on Monday because I actually had to be showered and presentable by 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday. It is kinda sad how infrequently I get presentable these days, although this week was certainly an anomaly.
Thursday – 7.0 mile run (8:10 pace)
- Temperature: 74℉
- Humidity: 100%
- Listened to: The Some Work All Play Podcast Episode 114: VO2 Max Power, Training, Quirks of Evolutionary Biology, and Start-Up Ideas!
- I ran back and forth on the paved portion of our road 14 times! Sheesh. Not the most fun route by any means. The traffic is absolutely insane in the mornings if I try to drive anywhere else and the non-paved portion of our road was too muddy to run on, so back and forth and back and forth some more is what I did.
- I was actually supposed to run 8 miles, but thought of another out and back just really seemed like too much. Ha!
Friday – 5.0 mile run (8:20 pace)
- Temperature: 75℉
- Humidity: 95%
- Listened to: Nothing!
- More back and forth on the paved portion of our road.
Saturday – RACE
- Temperature: 73℉
- Humidity: 100%
- I did a two mile warm up, ran a two mile race and did a three mile cool down.
- I hadn’t raced hard in almost two full years!
- The two mile state record for my age was 12:10, so I definitely wanted to go for that.
- The plan was to start out at close to 5:40 pace and then pick it up in the second mile. My main concern was not going out too quickly. I really didn’t want to crash and burn in a two mile race!
- I ended up running splits of 5:40 and 5:32. The [certified] course had several turns and I apparently didn’t run the tangents all that well because I ended up with an extra 8-10 seconds tacked on at the end!
- My official time was 11:22! Well under the previous state record. I was super pumped!
- I am able to see my splits per 800 on Strava and they were 2:54, 2:52, 2:49, 2:37. Was definitely booking it at the end.
- Oddly enough my heart rate on the warm up (running an 8:15 pace) was higher than during the race! Not sure how accurate that is, but I definitely had some pre-race nerves that I think must’ve contributed to that metric.
Sunday – 13.0 mile run (8:40 pace)
- Temperature: 73℉
- Humidity: 100%
- Got in another Sunday long run with Rebecca! I met her at her house and she mapped out a great route for us.
- Random story of the day is that we had a dog follow us for almost 5 miles and across a very busy highway! Neither of us had our phones to call the owner when he first started tagging along. At some point, we decided that it would likely be best if he followed us all the way back to her house so that we could give him some water and try to locate the owner. Thankfully we were able to call the owner and he was able to come and get him, but that little guy was quite a long way away from home! The owner said that he had gotten calls about his dog being out “several times” that week, which was baffling to me. I would be a wreck if Brooks ran away once, much less several times.
Weekly Total – 54.0 miles (8:07 pace)
Thanks for following along!