Racking Up Small Victories

Slow working my way back up towards what feels like "real" mileage. I think in my schedule this was supposed to be a cut-back week, but because of all the little physical niggles I've had in the last couple of weeks that resulted in missed runs, this actually ended up being the highest mileage week I've run so far this year. Which is fine. Progress is progress.

Also, hey! Not only attempted but COMPLETED all my runs this week!

~*~*~ STOW LAKE STAMPEDE: Week 7 of 14 ~*~*~

Grand Total: 37.6 miles

* 15.13 easy
* 4.6 speed
* 4.87 threshold
* 13 long

Monday 2/18: Rest.

Tuesday 2/19: 2 warm up, 5 x 5:00 @ 5K pace / 3:00 jog, 2 cool down = 8.6 speed

I have a new mathematical theorem which is that if you have to do a workout that is "x by y distance at z race pace, and x * y ≥ z, you are in for a world of hurt. #trainingmath (Corollary: "x by y time period at z race pace" where x * y ≥ the time it takes you to run z is also bad news. #dimensionalanalysis #justdividebyrate)

When you do your track workouts at magic hour you pretty much have to take pictures.

Last week I had to do 6 x mile @ 10K pace, which is getting pretty close to that, & this week the fast intervals amounted to .73 + .74 + .73 + .74 + .73 = 3.67 @ 5K pace which is well over. (Yes, you get longer recoveries, but still.)

As I commented on The Strava, what a huge relief it is to finally run a reasonably tough workout, as written, without any physical debacles. Back in my early thirties, when I was regularly racing the short stuff, 5 x 5:00 @ 5K pace was a regular workout of mine. I got used to doing them at around ~6:40 pace (though I've only ever run one 5K that fast), which works out to just about exactly .75 miles

Later, when I was more often training for the longer stuff, I would sometimes look back on that workout & think to myself, "OMFG. How. **HOW?!?!**" I think there were maybe a couple of times when I ran 5:00 fast intervals, & I was pretty pleased with myself when I could run them at even barely sub-7:00 pace.

This is the first time I've done them in a while, and in keeping with this training cycle's theme, I admit I was pretty darn nervous. Right now we are treating ~6:54 as 5K pace, and part of me thought maaaaayyyyybe I could squeak these out at that pace, MAYBE, but it would definitely be nontrivial and would almost certainly suck.

So, yeah. I'm pretty happy to have busted them out (pace-wise) in 6:50, 6:43, 6:52, 6:46, 6:50. Not 6:40's like in the old days (will I EVER run a 5K that fast again???), but with a goal of 6:54, I'm pretty sure I get to say I #nailedit.

Wednesday 2/20: Rest

Thursday 2/21: 8 easy

A lovely little run. After a really excellent but intense audiobook (The Secret Place by Tana French, LOVE Tana French), I needed to lighten things up, so on this run I started catching up on episodes of the excellent podcast Reply All, and it was just so great. I was engrossed and the miles rolled by like nothing.

Friday 2/22: 1.5 warm up, 10:00 @ MP + 0:40, 10:00 @ MP + 0:15, 10:00 @ MP + 0:40, 10:00 @ MP + 0:15, 1.63 cool down = 8 threshold

These days any time I can complete a workout without feeling like I struggled too much or having any weird kind of physical pain, I call it a WIN, and this one definitely met those criteria. But, it was kind of frustrating because I felt like A) my watch was being WAAAY wonkadoodle and B) a lot of times I felt like I couldn't NOT run too fast.

As for A), I think I mentioned noticing this last week when I was trying to run 6 miles at 8:15 pace and for a good couple of miles it was all over the place, from 7:25 to 9:00. It was a lot of the same this week--jumping around from "There's no way I'm running that fast" numbers to "There's no way I'm running that slow." It was really frustrating because I really had no idea sometimes what my pace was.

As for B), as ridiculous as "I'm TRYING to run slower but I JUST CAN'T" sounds, I felt like it kept happening. Basically I was alternating between 10:00 @ 8:15 and 10:00 @ 8:43, and there were so many times during the slower bits when I'd think, "Well this feels about right" and then see 8:20 on my watch. I'd try to slow down and see 8:30. I'd try to slow down EVEN MORE and see 8:35. I'd briefly, maybe, see 9:00 and try to pick it up juuuuust a touch....then see 8:20 on my watch again. (I dunno, see A above??)

In any case, instead of 8:43 / 8:15 / 8:43 / 8:15, the paces for those 10:00 sections ended up going 8:25 / 8:00 / 8:32 / 7:51. So, once again....I did a thing, I hope something was accomplished!

Saturday 2/23: Rest.

Sunday 2/24: 13 long

Not bad, not bad. Also, my plantar fasciitis & left hamstring issues are NIGHT and DAY since I started seeing a sports chiropractor in December. I can't believe how much better it's gotten.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Traveling this week for work, so the name of the game is whatever I can find time to shoehorn in.