Jun 8-14 : Training Through - p

I signed up for a 5K.  It's been a month and a half since my last race, a 1-miler, and my last 5K was back in March, about 3 months ago.  I've missed racing, especially in the last couple of weeks.  I want something to train for, to go hard after, to have something to motivate me every day.  I think I've decided on the Philly Marathon.  It was my first Half Marathon, and it would be like circling back if it was my first BQ.  I know the city pretty decently, and I'll know the first half of the course.  I'm sure I'll talk more about Philly later on, especially if I make it official. 

Jun 8 - Friday - Strength
55 min Strength session.

June 9 - Saturday - Long Intervals
8 mi in 1:05:08 on the treadmill.  A couple of weeks before the Albany Snickers Marathon, I tried a long interval/tempo workout of 1 mi warmup, followed by 4 x [2 @ 7.8mph (7:42), 1/2 @ 7mph (8:34)] plus a 1-mi cooldown.  I copied the idea from the kinds of workouts the Brooks Hansons team does.  I do very little tempo and no long intervals (>0.75 mi), normally.  I just do progression runs as my base, with a speed session (and recently, the occasional hill session) and a LR every week.  I wanted to try their method.  I'm amazed by that time now.  I knew I would be not in marathon shape now, so my "on" pace was 7.5mph instead, and I only did 3 reps, with 1/2 mi rests.  Even that was hard, but it's ok.  The 12-mi workout would've been me at my fittest, so this is fine.  I'll build from here.

So today's... 1/2 mi warmup @ 7mph, 3 x [1/2 mi @ 7mph, 2mi @ 7.5mph], stopped after that because that was enough.  I did this workout while watching the Adidas Grand Prix track meet on TV, which was awesome and motivating.  It was a good session.  I might've felt the chips and cheese and salsa that I had an hour before the workout, which may affected my performance a bit.  Afterwards, I cooled down with a bit of dynamic stretching as I watched the rest of the meet.  I stretched my soleus the other day, and that seemed to bring back my plantar fasciitis for a couple of days, but it was better again after that.  8.0 in 1:05:08, 8:08 ave.

June 11 - Monday - XC Base
Still trying to get my LRs longer.   After work, headed out for a longish run, but managed just 7.5 in 1:06:12, 8:50 ave.  It was outside on the grass in the park, so it's expected to be a slower run.  It was kinda cloudy, which was nice.  I drank 3/4 a bottle of lemon and salt water mix, and I could've used more.  I also had a mini-Clif bar @ mi 6 to try to get my energy picked up a bit, but as you can see, I stopped not too long after.  During the last 1.5 laps (1 mile-ish), I used really small steps to relieve the forces and my legs.  Using different muscles is tiring!

It started pouring right after I finished.  I would like running in the rain for its epicness, if it weren't for dirtying up my car.

 

At around this time, I had a dream about my family taking me to a race, and we were running late and couldn't find the start and kept driving around.   Weird.

June 13 - Wednesday - Intervals
Interval session.  It's been 2.5 weeks since the last one (although I did a hill session about a week ago).  I did a moderate session... 1 mi warmup in 8:24, then 3 x [1/2 @ 9mph, 1/4 @ 7.5mph], 0.35 mi cooldown in 2:38.  Not bad.  At my max, the "on" portion at 9mph is 0.75 mi long, so this was decent.  I decided to "train through" the 5K planned for this weekend.  If it was a goal race, I'd do my last speed session 10 days before race day to allow adequate recovery time.

June 14 - Thursday - Strength
60 min strength session.  Real proof that I'm training through.  Normally, it's also about 10 days of rest before a race.