Mon: 8.5 miles
Tue: 7.5 miles
Wed: 10 miles, including 12X300
Thu: 7.5 miles
Fri: 11.5 miles, including progression run
Sat: 7 miles
Sun: 16 miles
Total: 68 miles
This was a pretty solid week and one of the best I’ve had in a while. I would have liked to have thrown in 2-3 doubles and pushed the mileage into the 75-80 range, but with this being the highest mileage week I’ve had since the second week of November as is, it may have been just as well that I didn’t. I’m a long way from where I wanted to be at this point in time, so I really hope this will be the start of some positive momentum.
The first two days of this past week were basically survival runs. The wind chill was in the single digit to below zero range both days and it was just brutal. I’ve run in worse conditions, but not by a whole lot. I have no idea how those who live in colder climates deal with that sort of stuff all the time. The weather finally broke a little on Wednesday, just in time for my track workout of the week. It was still pretty cold, but mid-30’s almost felt warm in comparison to the previous couple days. I think it was still cold enough to impact the workout though. I completed 12X300 meters with 200 recovery (~1 min) with times ranging from 57-59 sec, and while the efforts were purposefully controlled, they still didn’t feel that easy. Running in the cold is one thing. Running hard in the cold is another, and I’ve been struggling with that lately. I actually don’t think I’ve been quite the same in cold weather since I had double pneumonia a couple years ago, although Andrew said Wednesday night that the cold was getting to him as well, so I think it affects everyone.
After an easy day on Thursday, I had one of the better workouts I’ve had in a while on Friday. I warmed up 3 miles then did a 6 mile progression run followed by a 2.5 mile cooldown. The splits for the progression went 6:34, 6:18, 6:01, 5:54, 5:51, and 5:48. I got a little fast in mile three, so there wasn’t quite as much of a cutdown in the second half as I would have liked, but overall it was still very solid, especially considering it was done in a cold, light rain and over a rolling course. Once I got going, I felt strong, and only towards the very end did I feel like I was really working, which is just the way a progression run should be. The week concluded with an easy day on Saturday and a very hilly long run on Sunday, and when I say hilly, I mean hilly. Garmin Connect showed 2,440’ of total elevation change over the course of 16 miles, and while my legs were pretty well done towards the end accordingly, I still managed to close it out with a 6:29 final mile.
Like I said earlier, I hope this will be the start of a good block of training for me that will last for quite a while. I need to string together a bunch of weeks where I have good volume, good quality, and cover all my bases just like I did this past week. I had wanted to make my indoor track debut sometime this month, but that’s not going to happen. All the workouts I’ve missed, plus the splits I’ve run and the way I’ve felt in the workouts I’ve done, tell me I’m far from being ready to race, particularly on the track. That said, my current plan is to train hard over the remainder of this month and see where I am in early February. I’d definitely like to race at least once next month then really start to get after it in March, including a possible trip to the USATF Southeast Region Masters Indoor Championships in Winston Salem. Time to do work!
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