Training Summary: Aug 15-21

Aug 15-21
Mon: 5.5 miles easy
Tue: AM - 3.5 miles; PM – 6.5 miles, including turnover workout
Wed: 9.5 miles
Thu: 6 miles easy
Fri: AM – 4 miles; PM – 9 miles, incl 5/4/3/2/1 min fartlek
Sat: 5.5 miles easy
Sun: 5.5 miles easy
Total: 55 miles

In spite of a number of challenges, from more hot/humid weather to a busy week at work, this week went pretty much according to plan right up to the very last day. The problem is, things came crashing down that day, meaning I still haven’t been able to put together a complete week, and somehow or another I need to get that figured out.

Monday was an easy day coming of Sunday’s workout, and I followed that up with some turnover work on Tuesday that consisted of an up and back down ladder of short intervals (30/60/60/90/90/60/60/30 sec with 60 sec rec). I actually felt pretty good the next day and got in a nice medium long run of 9.5+ miles in 70 min (7:18 avg). I felt good again on Thursday, only to have dead legs on Friday for my next workout, which was a fartlek of 5/4/3/2/1 min on with 2 min rec. I battled through that one though, averaging 5:42 for the intervals and closing the last one at 4:49 pace, which I was pretty happy with. My legs were tired and heavy on Saturday, but I fully expected them to be and I took it nice and easy accordingly. Sunday I had hoped to get in 10-11 miles total with pushes of 15 and 10 min in the middle, nothing fast, just leaning on the pace. I woke up feeling bad, however, and when I started the run I knew it just wasn’t happening. It was bad enough that I felt run down and my stomach was bothering me, but that wasn’t the worst of it. My legs just felt completely dead, especially my quads. I struggled through 5.5 miles at an average of 8:04 and called it a day.

Overall this week was a step in the right direction and a model of what I would like my training to look like going forward. As I wrote earlier, I just needed to be able to finish the week strong and couldn’t. I’m not sure if I overdid it in the Friday workout or what, but Sunday was definitely a struggle and more evidence that I have a LONG way to go, a fact I’m slowly coming to grips with. Essentially I’m going to have to spend the rest of this year just getting basic fitness back. If I can do that, then hopefully I can have a solid spring, which will, in turn, set me up for an even better fall. In other words, at this point the real goal is fall of 2017. That’s the point at which I feel like I can be ready to achieve some of the goals I’ve set for myself. It’s a long way away and will require lots of focus and likely enduring some pretty disappointing and frustrating performances along the way, but it is what it is.