Weekly Focus: Volume/Quality Mix
Mon: AM – 4.5 miles; PM – 9 miles
Tue: AM – 4.5 miles; PM – 9 miles
Wed: 10 miles, including fartlek
Thu: AM – 4.5 miles; PM – 8 miles
Fri: AM – 4 miles; PM - 10.5 miles, including aerobic intervals
Sat: 7 miles
Sun: 16 miles
Total: 87 miles
The quality of this week got hurt a bit by work related circumstances that were totally out of my control, but it was still a pretty solid week and close to a model of what I would like my “moderate” weeks to look like going forward. I’m definitely still adjusting to the increased volume (the last 4 weeks’ mileage has gone 95, 81, 100, and 87 for an avg of 91), but overall I feel like I’m handling it well. I’ve had no major aches, pains, or soreness, and while I’ve been tired, it certainly hasn’t reached zombie-like proportions, which I know all about from the days when I ran consistently high volume over extended periods of time. It’s much too early to say at this point, but I honestly feel like I’m on the right track towards turning my running around and getting faster again.
Getting down to the specifics of the week, the first couple days were just logging the miles in some very humid conditions. The weather finally broke on Wed, and it was actually a perfect evening for the workout, which was two sets of 3/2/1 min on with 2 min recoveries on the Hanging Rock Battlefield Trail. I had actually wanted to do three sets, but two was definitely enough. In fact, after what was a VERY long day at work, I considered myself lucky to even be out there, much less running a workout. However, once I got going, the second set actually turned out pretty well. It was the first time in a while were I felt stronger as the workout went on and left me thinking that maybe the higher mileage I’ve been running is starting to have some positive effects.
The next two days of work continued to be very busy as well as stressful, so by the time I got to the workout I had planned for Friday (aerobic intervals of 10, 5, and 5 min with 3 min between), I was pretty well fried. In fact, had I not had a good group to run with that evening, I probably would have just run easy and not even tried to pick up the pace. As is, I was a little disappointed to not run faster than I did, but at the same time I really didn’t run poorly at all, especially everything considered, and it turned out to be a pretty good workout with all the intervals being in the 5:40’s and the pace getting slightly faster as I went.
After a much needed recovery day on Saturday (physically and mentally), the week concluded with a solid long run in the hills of Fincastle, and when I say hills, this one had 2,160’ of total elevation change according to Garmin Connect. Even at that, we ran a 6:44 average for the last 6 miles and closed it out with a sub-6:30. Not a bad cap to the week!
This coming week will be a cutback week before starting another three week cycle next week. Part of me doesn’t really want to cut back, but that’s what has gotten me into trouble in the past and I know I need to. I had actually wanted to race this weekend, but that’s not looking possible at the moment. I realized the one race I was looking at has a really early start that would require a ridiculously early wake-up time, and the other has what I consider to be an outrageous entry fee for a 5k (plus a slow course), so I’ll probably just take a pass and look to race in a few more weeks. While I feel like I’m headed in the right direction, honestly all indications are that I’m still pretty far away from where I’d like to be before racing anyway, so perhaps it’s best to just continue training for now. In fact, it might be optimal to hold off racing until early September after I’ve gotten through three cycles of my current training plan. I’ll just play it by ear, seeing what races are out there and how my training is going. Onward!
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