I’ve always said that you often need a vacation to recover from your vacation, and that definitely held true for our annual spring beach trip. I had a lot of fun, but between fishing, seeing the sights, shooting pool, playing the Wii, and many other activities, I failed to get a lot of rest, eat properly, or do all the little things I generally do to keep myself feeling fresh and ready to run. That said, it was still a good week of training; it just wore me out more than it should have. Also, as a side note, the pace of all my runs at the beach tends to be quicker than when at home. I’m sure this is due to the flat terrain and is a good thing for workout days but maybe not so much on easy days. I tried to keep the effort correct on the recovery days, but I’m still not so sure I didn’t get a little carried away even at that, adding to the fatigue.
Anyway, on to the details. After an easy day on Monday, I ran some fartlek of 1/2/3/2/1 min on Tuesday. Not a lot of work nor was it intended to be. I did, however, run about as hard and fast as I have in quite some time. I’m not sure what pace I was going (Garmin said my best pace was 4:48/mile during one of the “on” sections), but it was definitely a good effort. Wednesday was another recovery day followed by a 30 min tempo on Thursday. That was another good one as I hit all the miles faster than the 40 min tempo the week before, with the average being sub-6. It was harder than it should have been, and it’s pretty sad that I got fairly excited about being able to run sub-6 pace, but when you’re coming from where I am you take every little positive you can get. Friday and Saturday were relatively easy days followed by a hilly 1:45 long run on Sunday, the middle 11.5 miles with Andrew. I’m really glad he joined me for that one because I was definitely feeling the effects of the trip and the travel home. It wasn’t a bad run (splits were in the 6:40’s and 50’s); I was just tired.
Looking for another good week this week to wrap up a solid April. On the injury front, my left knee pain is completely gone now and my shin pain on the same leg has all but disappeared. I’m pretty psyched about that. I’ve been having a bit of trouble with my right Achilles, something I’ve become convinced I’ll never completely get rid of but can usually keep under control as long as I treat it. I just need to be diligent about taking care of it (eccentric calf raises, mainly) and it should be fine. I’m definitely making progress on all fronts but still have a long way to go, especially when it comes to getting the speed back that I’ll need for racing. I’m very happy with the training I’m doing though and pleased with the direction things seem to be headed, so all I have to do is keep everything under control and let the work do its job. Onward!
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