This week brought an increase in mileage and intensity. It brought me back to speedwork and brought me over 50 miles for the first time since December. Here’s how it went:
Monday AM: 10×400 m intervals in 82-88 s. Total: 7.5 miles
Monday PM: 400 m intervals with Alice. Total: 4 miles
Tuesday AM: 6 miles stationary bike + upper and core strength
Tuesday PM: 3 miles easy with Alice (9:45 pace)
Wednesday AM: Tempo with Richie (7:02 pace for tempo) Total: 8.25 miles
Wednesday PM: 200 m intervals with Alice. Total: 3 miles
Thursday AM: 2 miles Easy treadmill at 8:21 pace + upper strength
Friday AM: 3.5 miles at 8:05 pace
Friday PM: 4 miles with Alice at 10:03 pace
Saturday AM: 12.37 miles with Richie at 8:15 pace
Sunday AM: 6 miles with Alice at 9:53 pace
Total: 53.62
Not a bad week at all. I actually got a little discouraged after the tempo run on Wednesday. The pace was very hard for me and felt like a race. On top of that, I only did 30 minutes at T pace instead of the prescribed 40. I started to question whether I was capable of going sub 18 in a 5K (and therefore sub 36 in a 10K). When Richie said he wanted to run low 8’s for the 12 miler on Saturday, I was afraid of being in some serious discomfort the whole way. As it turned out, we averaged 8:15 for more than 12 miles and that includes a couple of water stops. We turned in a few miles at 7:30 and 7:45 pace. I felt a nice rhythm in the last 2 or 3 miles and finished quite comfortably. I did actually feel I was starting to run out of energy after about 11.5 miles, so I’ll be conscious of fueling a little better next time, but fitness-wise, I think I could probably PR a half marathon with a 1-2 week taper.
I’m not just running now. I’m training. It’s good to be back.
you are doing an excellent job of increasing the mileage this path month+. wasn’t this one of the first weeks back to running workouts? i wouldn’t be too worried about paces yet – gotta get back in the groove of remembering how they/the effort feels.
Nice week Brian! I’m supposed to head over 50 this week, but a whirlwind business trip is going to get in the way. Oh well. I need the rest (pant pant) anyways.
Those two a days are really helping you get the mileage in and run faster! I am sure you will be able to run a sub 18 5k…for my race this past weekend I never ran 9 miles under 8 min pace and apparently it is possible with good training.
Looks like a great week.
I am glad to have you back– I love your training– and am learning a lot from it! Is this guy you are running with your coach??
welcome back to training 🙂 you are doing awesome and looks like it was a great week to me!