Mon: 6.5 miles
Tue: 4 miles (AM); 9 miles, including track workout (PM)
Wed: 7.5 miles
Thu: 4.5 miles (AM); 7.5 miles (PM)
Fri: 4 miles (AM); 10 miles, including fartlek (PM)
Sat: 6.5 miles
Sun: 15.5 miles
Total: 75 miles
This was pretty much an ideal week of training. The total volume was good; I got in the type of work I need; and for the most part I felt good doing it. Time will tell, but if I can string together a bunch of these type of weeks, I’m hopeful I’ll start to see the results I’m seeking.
On Monday, I focused just as hard on my recovery run as I would have a hard workout. I made sure I kept the effort relaxed and easy. That’s one thing I want to be sure to do going forward. If I’m to be able to hit the intensity I want in my workouts, I’m going to have to be sure I recover between them. Otherwise I’ll either be too tired to run as hard as I need to and/or I’ll wind up burned out/injured.
Taking it easy on Monday seemed to pay off, because I was able to churn out a good workout Tuesday evening when I hit the track for 6X400m followed by 6X200m, all with 200m recovery. I ran them hard, but at the same time I tried to make sure I held good form and didn’t overdo it. As a result, my times weren’t fast, but the type of work was exactly what I need. My thought process is that doing this type of workout once a week will allow me to adapt to running faster paces, and over time, those paces will gradually get quicker and I’ll be able to hold them for longer and longer periods of time. That’s the idea, at least.
Wednesday was a bit odd because I followed up Tuesday’s evening’s workout by running that morning in order to avoid the storm that hit that evening. Having not been on the track in as long as I can remember, I definitely felt the effects running just 12 hours later, so it was a bit of a struggle, but I got through it. Thursday was a similar day, just a little faster, but still recovery oriented ahead of Friday’s workout.
Friday consisted of some moderate length intervals on the roads. I did 8/6/4/2 min on, all with 3 min recovery. It was cold and windy, so the conditions definitely made it challenging, but I tried to get after it the best I could. Once again, my times weren’t anything to get excited about, but I ran hard and was pretty well spent towards the end. I felt similar to how I did after Tuesday’s workout, which told me that part of my problem with not racing any faster than I have over the past couple years is simply not doing enough of this type of work in training.
I concluded the week with a hilly long run from my house. The snow overnight left the roads slick in spots, particularly on the dirt road sections, but I didn’t have any major issues. For whatever reason, I never felt good on this run. However, regardless of that, only the first mile wasn’t under 7 minutes, and I averaged 6:40 for the last five miles, with 14 and 15 both in the 6:30’s, so it was a solid effort that I felt pretty good about when I finished. It was definitely a nice way to close out a good week of training.
This week will be more of the same as I attempt to reinvent myself as a runner. I learned a couple of things from week one of the process and that is as follows. First, this isn’t going to be easy. For a long time now I’ve let myself off the hook when it comes to running hard workouts, so I’m going to have to learn to do that again. The second thing I learned is very much related to the first. I just haven’t been doing the right kind of work for racing distances shorter than say the half marathon. I’m plenty strong, but my body just doesn’t know how to run fast paces because I haven’t trained it to do so in a long time. I realized after both Tuesday’s and Friday’s workouts that it had been a long time since I felt like that, the feeling where you’re gasping for air and feel like your legs are about to come out from under you. Like I said at the beginning of this post, with enough of that sort of work, I’m hopeful I’ll start to see the results I’ve been seeking but failing to get. I’ll conclude with my motto for going forward: “If you want it, you gotta go get it. Nothing worthwhile comes easy, so do what it takes!”
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