Mon: AM – 4.5 miles; PM – 9 miles
Tue: AM – 4.5 miles; PM – 7.5 miles plus hill bursts
Wed: 11 miles, including track workout
Thu: AM – 4.5 miles; PM – 7.5 miles
Fri: 11.5 miles, including tempo workout
Sat: 7 miles
Sun: 16 miles
Total: 83 miles
I really shouldn’t complain about this week, but I’m going to anyway. Overall it was a very solid week. My mileage was really good and I knocked out a couple very solid workouts. Where I was a little disappointed, however, is in those workouts. They weren’t bad by any means, and I didn’t feel terrible doing them either, but I was hoping for a little more when it came to my splits, and as a result, I may need to tweak my plans a bit accordingly.
The first workout of the week was on the track on Wednesday and consisted of 3X200m, 4X800m, then another 3X200m. My coach had written out goals of 35-36 for the 200’s and 2:35-2:40 for the 800’s. I hit the 200m splits without a problem and even went 34-low on the last one. The 800’s were a different story, however. I was hoping to hit the lower end of the pace goal, so 2:35-2:36. Instead, I hit the mid-to-upper end of the pace goal and didn’t feel all that comfortable even at that. Basically I would go through the mid-way point in 77-78 seconds then positive split. I’ve struggled to run extended efforts at under 5:30 pace for a while now and under 5:20 pace has been even more difficult, if not impossible, for me, and this sort of reinforced that. On the positive side, I’ve done a few workouts of this nature over the past couple years that have been slower, so this wasn’t bad in terms of recent history. Additionally, the way I was able to run the 200’s and how I felt doing them was encouraging, as it looks like I’m starting to build at least a little leg speed. However, it appears I’m still at a point where I’ve got the strength to run 5:40-6:00 pace for long periods of time and maybe the leg turnover to run fairly fast for short periods of time, but I don’t yet have the middle ground, which unfortunately is where I will be doing the majority of my racing.
My next workout was a progressive tempo on Friday. This one was supposed to start at 6:10 pace and progress down to 5:45 pace over the course of 25-30 minutes. I hit the first mile in 6:08, so right on track. I then ran the next mile in 5:53, again right on track or maybe just a touch fast, but then I got stuck. I wasn’t feeling that bad and I wasn’t slowing down, but I couldn’t speed up either, so I spent the rest of the way running in the 5:50’s. I then had 4X30 seconds after the tempo and ran those fairly well, hitting just under 5:00 pace for each one. My legs were a little on the tired/heavy side, which could explain part of why I wasn’t able to knock the pace down any further than I did. This workout came towards the tail end of back-to-back 80+ mile weeks, so that’s somewhat to be expected, but also something I need to keep an eye on since quality needs to take precedence over quantity right now. Since I seem to be handling everything well, I think I will adapt and not have a problem running around 80 miles per week along with a couple good workouts, but if I can’t hit the required splits in my workouts, I will have to sacrifice a few miles to see if I can get a little more life in my legs.
After three solid weeks in a row, this coming week will be a bit of a cutback week. Overall I’m feeling good and like the direction my training is going. I believe if I can continue to train like I have over the past month I will have a very good spring season of racing and the USATF Masters All-American standards I’m seeking will be within my grasp. I’ve still got a ways to go though, as evidenced by both workouts this week. That said, I may not make my indoor track debut until January. I was planning on an early season meet the first weekend in December, but I’m just not sure I’m fit enough for track racing right now. Instead I may look for a road race or two between now and the New Year just to keep the rust loose. Otherwise, it will be train, train, train in preparation for big things in 2014!
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