Training Summary: 9/30 - 10/6

Mon: 7 miles
Tue: 8 miles plus 2 hill bursts
Wed: 10.5 miles, including AT workout
Thu: 7.5 miles
Fri: 9.5 miles, including specific endurance workout
Sat: 7 miles
Sun: 15.5 miles
Total: 65 miles

This was my first week of training under my new coach, and overall it went pretty well. The only thing I missed was getting in some doubles, and I have a good reason (or at least an excuse) for that. After some thought, as well as a conversation with Coach Carl during my Monday run, I decided to change up when I'm doing my two-a-days. Going forward, I will be running them on non-workout days, so generally Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. The idea is to leave my legs as fresh as possible for afternoon workouts so I can keep the quality of those workouts as high as possible. So, with all the transitions taking place this week, I wound up running only singles, which probably wasn't a bad thing. I also started doing some general strength work this week, basically body weight exercises done on three different occasions.

As for the running, Monday was an easy day and Tuesday was as well except for the two hill sprints done at the end (not that those are hard, but they definitely serve their purpose). That's another thing I will be changing going forward. I'm basically going to switch how I've been doing my Mondays and Tuesdays and start running a little more on Mondays and a little less on Tuesdays, again with the idea of having my legs as fresh as possible for my Wednesday workouts.

For this past Wednesday's workout I did a 3 mile w-up then 15 min at aerobic threshold (AT) pace followed by 3 min of easy jogging then another 10 min at AT. After the second AT segment I recovered for 4 min then did 4X30 sec hard, getting under 5 min pace on the last two, including 4:49 for the last one. It left me a bit sore for Thursday's easy run and my legs were still a bit sluggish while warming up for Friday's workout. However, I still managed to put together a pretty good session that afternoon consisting of 6X100, 4X200, and 6X100. This was a workout unlike anything I've ever really done, and it was NOT easy. I was pretty well wrecked at the end, and not that I ever really have, but let's just say I will never disrespect sprinters and/or middle distance runners again!

I finished the week with an easy day on Saturday then a fairly solid long run on Sunday. The long run was in conditions that were a bit more warm and humid than what I've grown accustomed to, but at least the terrain was flat and for the most part it felt pretty good, especially all considered. The final total was 15.5 miles at a 6:49 avg, with a 6:41 avg for the second half.

This next week was originally planned as a down week, but that was before I changed everything up by enlisting a coach. We decided to keep it as basically a down week anyway and just run singles again while I adjust to my new routine. After that I'll add some doubles back in and get the mileage back up. I'm very excited about the direction my training will be going and there are also several different things going on right now that have me motivated to run well. Perhaps I still have a chance at achieving at least some of my goals as a Masters runner!