Hey-o! I hope everyone had a happy, safe Labor Day! Here is what last week’s training looked like:
Monday – Easy: 6 miles (8:22 pace)
I was |thisclose| to taking a rest day on Monday as I was feeling fairly fatigued after the volume of the prior weekend’s quality work (marathon pace run on Saturday followed by a hilly long run on Sunday). I ended up doing an easy run after work Monday evening. Once I got going, my legs felt better than I thought they were going to and of course, I was glad that I got it in.
Tuesday – Easy: 6 miles (8:50 pace)
I did another short (relative terminology of course) easy run on the driveway Tuesday morning. However, my legs felt way worse Tuesday than they did Monday. I wasn’t ready for more hills at that point I don’t think. It was a bit of a slog.
Wednesday – Quality: 3 mi. WU, 8 X 400, 3 mi. CD
Wednesday morning I hit the track for some 400s! I wasn’t sure how my legs were going to respond to me asking them to run fast given how sluggish I felt the day before. The workout called for a three mile warm up, eight 400s with a two minute walking rest in between and a three mile cool down. The goal was to run them at 4:58 pace (74 seconds per 400). My actual splits were 76, 75, 76, 75, 74, 74, 74 and 74. Whew! I was pleasantly surprised with that one.
Thursday AM – Easy: 6 miles (9:09 pace) + PM – Easy: 7 miles (8:36 pace)
I got in a few easy driveway miles before work on Thursday. I also did an easy double after work. I only intended to do 4 or 5 miles … oops!
Friday – REST
I took a much-needed rest day on Friday. I got my bloodwork done with Inside Tracker and I’m really looking forward to getting those results.
Saturday – Easy: 8 miles (8:44 pace)
I was originally supposed to do a workout Saturday and a long run Sunday, but the Labor Day holiday on Monday gave me a bit of wiggle room and allowed me to shift it to Sunday and Monday. After a day off on Friday, I felt like I wanted to ease back in with an easy run and not jump back in with an intense workout. They nearly took all of my blood on Friday anyway, so I figured I’d give my body a chance to replenish itself.
I went over to see my mom and dad Saturday morning. My mom and I got a nice little five mile walk in and then I headed out to run afterwards. It was a beautiful morning, but by the time I got to the run, it was heating up rather quickly.
Sunday – Quality: 2 mi. WU, 3 X 2 miles at threshold, 2 mi. CD
Sunday morning I ventured out to tackle my workout. The workout was originally written as a two mile warm up, 3 X 10 minutes at threshold with a two minute recovery and a two mile cool down. I extended the threshold intervals slightly to make it 3 X 2 miles instead, mainly because I didn’t want to fool with setting up a workout on my watch and thought it would be easier to just go by mileage. I don’t think this changed the intent or purpose of the workout in the slightest, but just made it a tad longer.
My goal pace was 5:50. I averaged 6:16 for the first set, which is close to 30 seconds over goal pace! Woof. So many thoughts went through my head at that point. Clearly my legs weren’t cooperating. Should I just stop? I decided that I shouldn’t atop and that if I averaged 6:16 for all 3 sets, then so be it, that would still be better than giving up. I don’t know if it was purely because I made my mind up not to quit or what exactly, but once I started the second set, I suddenly felt so much better. I averaged 5:54 for the second set and 5:52 for the last set. I am so glad that I fought my way back after a rough start. This was a huge victory in the mental category for me!
My biggest takeaway from this workout was, “Don’t judge a workout by the first set.” This is similar to “don’t judge a run by the first mile,” but with a little twist.
Total – 53 miles
That’s it for now. Have a great week!