Mon: 7 miles
Tue: 8 miles, including 8X30 sec
Wed: AM: 4 miles; PM: 10.5 miles, including 2X15 min
Thu: 6.5 miles
Fri: AM: 4 miles; PM: 9 miles, including 8X60 sec
Sat: 6.5 miles
Sun: 17.5 miles
Total: 73 miles
This was a pretty good start to the New Year and I’m hoping it puts me in good position to start building some momentum from here. While in some respects I’m sad to see the Holiday Season end, when it comes to training, I’m glad it’s over and a more normal schedule can resume going forward. The past several weeks were a lot of fun, and I especially enjoyed getting to spend some extra time with my wife and daughter (Christmas with a five year old is a blast!), but less rest and poor diet is not a good training combination and I definitely felt the effects of both at times.
I kicked off the New Year on Tuesday with a stride workout consisting of eights sets of 30 sec on and 60 sec off. This was one of those days where everything was clicking and I felt great right from the start. It seems like I’ve only had a handful of those days over the past couple years and I sure hope it’s a sign of things to come. Unfortunately I was back to reality on Wednesday, however, and the 2X15 min with only 2 min recovery didn’t feel nearly as smooth or easy. I hung in there and nailed my splits though, and overall it was a good, solid workout.
After an easy day on Thursday, Friday consisted of a little turnover work with the main goal of shaking the legs out so as to bridge the gap between Wednesday’s workout and Sunday’s long run. It went ok, but I felt pretty sluggish, and the cold, breezy conditions didn’t help. Sunday’s long run was a chore. I’m sure the course didn’t help, as it contained over 2,200’ of total elevation change, but for some reason I’m struggling right now anytime I go over 11-12 miles. It’s nothing specific; I just get to a point where I’m tired in general and want to be done. This is odd for me since longer runs have always been my strength. Even when I’m not all that fit, I’ve always seemed to be able to cruise through a two hour run at a solid pace and feel relatively good doing so. For the past several weeks, 6:50-7:00 pace in long runs has not felt all that easy and my overall average pace has been a good 10-15 sec per mile slower than what I’m accustomed to (this past Sunday was a 7:07 avg, for example). I’m not sure if it’s physical, mental, or maybe just the conditions (it sure will be nice to do a long run in just one shirt and shorts again), but I’m hoping things turn around in that regard soon and certainly hope the way I’ve been feeling doesn’t become the new normal.
More of the same will be on tap for this coming week. Andrew has his marathon coming up in three weeks, so I’ve decided to continue to assist him in his preparation as much as possible between now and then. Doing so will help me get my legs back under me and give me a nice base for some faster work thereafter. The past few weeks have shown me I’m out of sorts and just not all that fit right now, but I’m hoping to change that over the course of this month. By the end of the month and into February, I hope to begin the assault on getting faster in preparation for the spring racing season. Have a good week, everyone!
3 comments:
Enjoyed the extra time with you too!! :)
So that is what yall were up to on the Greenway when I saw yall! I was in the middle of 4 x 5:00, hour easy, 1x15:00
Yep. Andrew actually did 3X15 min, but I wussed out of the last one. After all, he's the one with a marathon in 3 weeks, not me - ha. We weren't paying attention the first time we crossed paths and weren't sure it was you, then I recognized you when I saw you in my c-down. I was thinking then that you must have been out for quite a while. That was a beast of a workout you did!
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