Mon: 8.5 miles
Tue: AM – 4 miles; PM – 7.5 miles plus 3 hill bursts
Wed: 10 miles, including Specific Endurance workout
Thu: AM – 4 miles; PM – 7 miles
Fri: 5.5 miles
Sat: 12.5 miles, including Bank of Fincastle 10k
Sun: 14 miles
Total: 73 miles
This was a good week of training and a nice bounce back after last week. I started the week feeling pretty run down but began to regroup towards the middle of the week and seem to be back to normal now. In fact, all systems are go at the moment and I’m excited about training for the first time in a while. I like the direction things are going with my new coach, and I’m feeling as good as I have in a while in terms of daily aches and pains. Whether it be the new strength routine I’m doing or something else, my right achilles is feeling the best it has in a long time, and that’s good on several levels. If I can get back the ability to push off with that ankle, I’m sure it will do wonders for my ability to run fast, not to mention making runs a lot more enjoyable.
As for the week itself, the first thing of note would be the workout on Wednesday. After a warm-up that included some drills and strides, I did 8X400 with 200 recovery followed by two hard 120’s and a cool-down. The 400’s weren’t as fast or smooth as I would have liked, but I managed to average 76 and finish with a 75 then a 74. That’s nothing to get excited about, but I took it as a good sign because I’ve been fading on these sorts of workouts rather than closing them out strong. Also, I felt fast on the 120’s. I wasn’t, but it was nice to at least feel that way – ha, ha.
After a couple of easy days, my next workout was the Bank of Fincastle 10k on Saturday. Since this was just supposed to be my second workout of the week and because I’ve literally hurt myself several times running this course really hard, I wanted to keep the effort around tempo pace and that’s basically what I did. The good news is I got in a good workout and came out of the race healthy and with very little in the way of negative side effects. The bad news is I didn’t run particularly fast (36:48) and got beat by around 5 seconds, finishing 2nd to a local high school runner. I wasn’t the least bit happy about it when I crossed the line, but in the end there were lots of positives to take away. I just needed some time to settle down and analyze it. More to come in a race recap in the next day or two.
I concluded the week with a good long run on the train bed in Oriskany. I started to feel the previous day’s effort during the last 3-4 miles and my calves tightened up a little afterward, but overall I felt pretty good everything considered.
Back on it this week with renewed focus, determination, and motivation. Look for a race recap as well as a post on my goals for the next 6-8 months coming soon.
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