Mon: 7.5 miles
Tue: 9.5 miles, including 10X200
Wed: 6 miles
Thu: 7.5 miles
Fri: 10 miles, including 12X1 min on/off
Sat: 6.5 miles
Sun: 3 miles
Total: 50 miles
This was a decent week, just with a disappointing ending. I was right on track to do what I wanted to do until Mother Nature had other ideas yesterday morning. Just before I headed out the door for my planned long run of 14-15 miles, it started misting, and that quickly turned to ice. I about busted my butt just getting out of my driveway, but since the main highway didn’t seem too bad, I decided to at least attempt a run. After a few slips in the first mile, I knew the risk was greater than the reward, so I turned back and called it a day after 3 miles. When I finished, I had a thin layer of ice on me such that I couldn’t even unzip my vest until I thawed out. My Garmin glazed over as well, which was something I’d actually never had happen before. I could have headed back out later in the day, but by that point the NFL playoff games were on, and while that might have been a lousy excuse, it was all I needed to spend the afternoon on the couch.
Moving on to the rest of the week, Tuesday’s workout was some of the first running of that sort I’d done in a while, and as such, it went ok. Since I started doing this sort of stuff about 3 months ago, I’ve really been pushing these workouts, basically coming as close to sprinting my way through them as I could. This one, however, I decided to approach differently and it turned out pretty well. Instead of really getting after it, I decided to run hard but under control enough that I didn’t feel like I was sprinting. That resulted in me running the first five repeats in 37, the next four in 36, and the final one in 34. While this wasn’t as fast as I’ve run similar workouts recently, I didn’t feel like my legs were coming off and that was good. I think I may take a more relaxed approach to these workouts going forward and hopefully let the speed come to me rather than me trying to go get it. Time will tell if that’s the right thing to do or if I need to go back to more of an all-out effort. All I know is my legs have been pretty trashed at times after faster workouts recently and they weren’t after this one, so I’ve got to find the right balance.
After easy days on Wednesday and Thursday, the next workout of the week was a fartlek of 12X1 min on/off on Friday. Based on the conditions (wind chill from single digits to around 15 degrees) as well as some spots of black ice on the roads, Andrew and I debated whether or not to even go through with this one or just take it easy. We eventually decided to give it a shot but play it cautiously, and it turned out pretty well. I didn’t get my paces during the fast parts, but we were splitting miles in the 6:00-6:10 range including the rest intervals, so I would say the faster stuff was 5:30 pace or better. It was basically a broken up tempo run, and while it should have and could have been faster, I was glad we went through with it and got some work done.
With the holiday season and some craziness at work now behind me, I can definitely say it’s time to get serious and get to work on preparing to race this spring. I was really hoping for a very solid week this coming week, but now it looks like Mother Nature may wreak havoc once again. The temps the next couple days are supposed to be downright dangerous, and then it looks like a rainy period may set in thereafter. Training this time of year is definitely a challenge, but if you want to run well on the track, you have to find a way to get it done. I’ll do my best to get the work in, and if I can’t make much progress on some days, I’ll try to at least tread water well enough that I can take advantage of the good days when they come around. Onward!
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