Back to Spain + 7 Weeks to Giant Race!

Howdy partners! Week 3 of Giant Race 10K is in the books and it was a pretty good one, though I definitely had some moments of fatigue as I stacked two 40+ weeks together for the first time in a while. 

Iberia is once again calling my name, so I'll be flying back to Spain this coming Thursday for about 12 days or so. Actually it is a work conference that is calling my name. But if you have to go to a work conference, Spain is not the worst destination I can think of.

I am hoping to get in as much regular training while I'm there as possible; Coach has given me some dialed-back workouts and easy runs for most of the trip, so I'm planning to just do what I can, whenever I can. I do love combination running/sightseeing but considering it will be triple-digit highs, we'll have to see how feasible that is. 

Enjoying triple digits in Portugal a few weeks ago, obviously it was miserable

Perhaps I see early-morning runs in my future (BARF).... 

*~*~The Giant Race 10K Week 3 of 9~*~*~

Grand Total: 42 miles

* 31.5 easy
* 3.5 speed
* 7 steady state

Monday 7/4: Rest

Tuesday 7/5: 1 hour strength + 8 easy. Ugghhh my friends I can still do one unassisted chin up but two in a row is no longer possible post-vacation. We must chip away. Can I still deadlift 160 lb twice in a row? Hell yeah I can.

After that, 8 easy miles wherein I eff'd up my Garmin hygiene & recorded about 2 minutes of standing around in mile 2 selecting a new audiobook when my previous one finished. 🤦🏻‍♀️ Legs felt a bit heavy but it wasn't all that terrible.

Wednesday 7/6: 2.75 warm up, 3 x (4 x 300m / 100m) / 2:30 jog, 2.75 cool down = 9 total. Legs still feeling heavy and not so snappy today, but the 300m's could have been worse, especially considering the short recovery interval. After a few reps I felt like I warmed up a bit & the pace picked up to maybe around ~3K-5K pace depending on the rep. That is much slower than I've done them in the past (1:12-1:15ish compared to 1:00-1:08ish, gaaaahhh) but hey, it's the beginning of the cycle and you can only ask so much of lead-boot legs.

Thursday 7/7: 3 easy. Mentally, the easiest way for me to get in these short little "rest day" runs is to schedule them around an errand. So this one was to Best Buy & back to pick up a few things for an upcoming work trip. :)

Friday 7/8: 8 easy. Super windy this day -- I averaged about 10:00 pace running out into a head wind on the way out and about 9:00 pace on the way back with a tailwind! 🤣

Saturday 7/9: Rest. I had the option of an easy three miles on Saturday but my body wanted rest, and this early in the cycle I feel like it's definitely better to take too much rest rather than not enough.

Sunday 7/10: 3 warm up, 3 x (2 @ steady state pace / .5 mile jog), 4 cool down = 14 total. A hot one out there today, and windy! Pace-wise I think I had the intervals right (~7:45ish pace) but considering the conditions I was probably working a bit harder than intended--by the end of the last set, I felt like I was running almost all-out which is not how steady state pace (between half marathon and marathon pace) should feel. Ah well, live & learn.

Next training journal hopefully posted from Spain!

Past Training Journals:

• The Giant Race 10K 2022 Week 1
• The Giant Race 10K 2022 Week 2