This is my weekly training journal. Including it in the blog gives me a little extra accountability in the mileage department & helps me stick to my schedule. :)
3 Weeks to Bay Breeze 10K
8 Weeks to Oakland Half Marathon
I knew going in that this would be a tough week. Most of the time I take Monday and Wednesday off, but since I was planning to volunteer at Coyote Hills 5K/10K/Half in Fremont on Saturday morning, then spend the rest of the weekend with Don's parents in Sonoma (more on that later), I needed to run every week day this week in order to make up for Saturday & Sunday. This was on top of the four days in a row I'd already run the week before, for a grand total of 9 consecutive days of running -- kind of a big deal, considering that I usually only run 3-4 days in a row.
Monday: 6 miles easy. Surprisingly, I felt great after my 10 miler the day before(first double-digit run of 2012, holla!), and other than a little asthma (which, OMG, I am sooooo over) and leaving me a bit tired for karate, it was a good run.
Tuesday: 2 miles easy + 3 x 10:00 @ 10K effort = 6.12 miles. For all that I adore track workouts, 10@10's are no joke, and they are even less of a joke when it's only your second speed workout in 2 months. As with the 5@5's last week, I was a little conservative with the first one because I wasn't 100% sure what I'd be able to do. I ran the first one at a 7:22 pace, which was not a cakewalk, but I felt like I'd maybe run it a little conservatively & could probably speed up a bit while staying in 10K territory. What felt like more effort on the second one resulted in exactly the same pace, so I pushed a bit more on top of that for a 7:18 pace. I figured I'd have to run the last one with effort like unto the last mile or so of a 10K to beat that; I ended up with a 7:14 pace, but I may or may not have done it by running the last half mile or so at a 6:35ish pace (WELL under 5K pace) which is kind of cheating & probably means I should have started that interval out a little faster. My PR 10K pace from last year was 7:12/mile, so I'd like to get back down to that, if not faster, & have it feel comfortable.
Wednesday: 7 miles easy. Cardiovascularly (is that a word?), it was exceptionally easy, which I knew I needed to stick to given that I was on day 7 of 9 without rest days. But I can't remember the last time my legs felt so tired & heavy! From the first mile, I felt completely out of gas. I thought about cutting it short because I was actually afraid I might reach a point where I was miles from home & no longer had the energy to run, but I managed to power through & finish the whole thing.
Thursday: 2 miles easy + 6 x 800m @ HM pace w/ 400m recovery 2 miles easy + 4 x 800m @ HM pace w/ 400m recovery + .88 easy. Day 8 of 9 consecutive running days! I was really, really tired mentally and very nearly just called it a rest day, but in the end I made it to the track. I got some good advice recently to try splitting up my early-cycle pace runs into intervals (ie, 6 x 800m @ HM pace rather than 3 consecutive miles), so that was the plan. On the very first one, though, I realized I was going to have the same issue as Wednesday -- regardless of the fact that my heart & lungs weren't really working that hard, my legs felt heavy & out of gas & just really couldn't move all that fact. It didn't really bother me, though, because I knew it was most likely just a result of over a week of running with no rest days. In consideration of that fact, though, I decided it was probably smarter of me to just do 4 HM pace intervals (which, believe me, was plenty challenging) & not jeopardize my ability to finish my long run on Friday (moved up from Sunday).
Friday: 12 miles easy 8.5 miles easy. It was supposed to be 12, but then social plans unexpectedly changed & at 4 pm I suddenly had 90 minutes until I needed to walk back in the door. Not 90 minutes of running time, but 90 minutes total, including dealing with stoplights & traffic. So the plan became "Run as far as you can until 4:45, then run back at the same pace or faster." It turned out that, of the 90 minutes I spent outside, 74 of them were spent actually running & 16 of them were spent waiting at lights. That was kind of depressing.
Saturday/Sunday: Volunteering / Sonoma.
Grand Total: 33.5
So basically the same as last week, which is okay. If I'd run everything as planned, it would have been a little over 38, but at least I can honestly say that I did the best I could under the circumstances and that none of those un-run miles were due to wimping or lazing out. I knew going in that it would be a busy week -- the next few should be a little easier.
Happy running! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment