Training Summary: 3/18 - 3/24

Mon: 7 miles

Tue: 4.5 miles (AM); 7.5 miles (PM)

Wed: 4.5 miles (AM); 10 miles, including Mono fartlek (PM)

Thu: 3.5 miles (AM); 6.5 miles (PM)

Fri: 5.5 miles

Sat: 10.5 miles, including track workout

Sun: 0 – Day Off

Total: 59.5 miles

I’m going to start out by saying something positive, which is the fact that this is the first week I’ve had like this since I revamped my training about 8 weeks ago. That said, this week can best be summed up by two words, frustrating and disappointing.

This has been one of the longest end of winter periods that I can remember. It seems like we haven’t had a truly nice day in forever. I remember a day here and there several weeks ago, but over the past few weeks, glimpses of spring have been almost non-existent. Instead, we’ve had wind, cold, wind, rain/snow, wind, cold, wind. Did I mention it’s been cold and windy? I know there’s nothing one can do about the weather and there’s really no use complaining about it, and I’m well aware of it making you tough, blah, blah, blah. Still, after a while it wears on you and certainly it impacts the quality of your training. Sure you can run hard when it’s cold and windy and you’ll get a benefit from doing so, but you’re not going to get the same benefit you would if you could really get after it on a nice day.

All that said, as has so often been the case the past few weeks, I had to adjust my workout schedule this week to run hard on the days that were most agreeable to doing so, which meant Wednesday was the first reasonable opportunity. It was still a little on the cold and breezy side, but regardless I had a good workout. Andrew, Mike, and I did the Mono Fartlek, which consists of hard efforts of 2X90 sec, 4X60 sec, 4X30 sec, and 4X15 sec, all with equal float recoveries. The general goal is to run the fast parts at 5k pace, and the floats a minute slower, and from what we could tell, we were around 5:15 for the “on” portions and 6:15 for the “off” parts. Altogether I covered 3.45 miles in the 20 min total, which is a 5:47 average. That’s the farthest I’ve ever gotten in this workout and I was also around 17:50 at the 5k mark, which is pretty solid.

From there, the plan was to race on Saturday, and I prepared accordingly. However, after an easy run Friday evening, I got in my truck only to have the brake pedal go all the way to the floor thanks to a hole in my brake line. With no brakes, I had to call Leslie for a ride home, and I wound up very late eating dinner and was obviously pretty flustered on top of that. As a result, I scrapped the idea of racing and texted Andrew to set up a Saturday morning workout.

That workout turned out pretty poor. I know some of it was my lead-up the 12 hours before (late dinner aside I also didn’t sleep good Friday night plus my foot cramped during the night and was sore as a result), but still, I didn’t run well at all over intervals of 1600, 1200, 800, 400, and 200. Afterward, my foot was even more sore, and I spent the day treating it as much as I could in between the work I had to get done. Sunday morning rolled around and thankfully my foot felt much better, but between it being so sore the day before, the frustration of the past 36 hours, and the nasty weather, I just couldn’t make myself get out the door to run. I beat myself up over it some, especially since this made two weeks in a row with no long run, but I hadn’t had a day off since Christmas Day and figured I was due for one. I think I probably needed it mentally as much as anything else.

Anyway, not at all an ideal week, but so goes it, and I’m not going to read too much into it. I’m just going to move on and try to get back on track this week. The workout on Saturday probably wasn’t a totally accurate indicator, but I do believe it was further demonstration that I need to work on my VO2 max, which is best done with intervals in the three to six minute range. My basic speed still needs a lot of work as well, but it’s actually improved a lot over the past few weeks, and I know my endurance is good. What I’m lacking is the middle range (5:15-5:30 pace), which is exactly what I need in order to be able to race well over the 5k to 10k distance. So, it’s time to go to work on that. Unfortunately it may be a few weeks before I can really get on it thanks to several events coming up that are out of my control and will limit my ability to train. However, I’ll make the most of what’s available to me then really get down to business once my schedule allows. Onward!