Week 1 of my training is in the books and after a nice day of rest yesterday, it’s on to week 2.  Although I was awfully tired Saturday after my run, I made sure to keep moving around all day.  As a result, I didn’t feel much soreness on Sunday, except for a little bit in my left calf.

This week’s plan will have to be adjusted somewhat for the Independence Day holiday on Wednesday.  I’m thinking it’s better to run on Wednesday morning, then take Thursday off than it is to take Wednesday off and have to run on Thursday. 

Anyway, here’s the plan:

Monday: Interval run 5X800 at 6:45 pace with 400 Rest Intervals

Tuesday: 30 minutes cycling level 7

Wednesday: Tempo run 2 miles at 7:35, 1 mile easy, 2 miles at 7:35

Thursday: Off

Friday: Strength trainging (upper body)

Saturday: Long run (7 miles)

I knew today’s workout would be a challenge.  Although I wasn’t feeling sore this morning, I knew that there would be some underlying fatigue left over from Saturday’s run.  As soon as I started jogging during my warmup, I knew I was right.  I ran the first 800 m interval at 6:44 pace, but I was very tired at the end.  I recovered enough in the rest interval to run the next 800 m at 6:44 pace also.  By the end of that interval, I was breathing very heavy.

After having a little conversation with myself during the next rest interval, I decided that I’d try my third 800 m interval.  If I couldn’t make 800 m, I would stop at 400 m, then run 5 more 400 m intervals to round out the same distance as planned.  By the time I hit 400 m, I was beat, so I finished up with 5 additional 400 m intervals at 6:44 pace.

It was a little disappointing that I wasn’t able to run the workout as planned, but finishing up the same distance felt good.  I did improve on the total distance run over last week’s interval session, so hopefully that will help next week’s session.  I think that when a workout doesn’t go as planned, it’s important to finish it any way you can (unless you’re injured).  Anything you can do to complete a workout today will help you down the road.  Here are the details:

Planned workout

10-20 minute warmup

5 x 800 m at 6:44 pace with 400 m rest intervals

10 minute cool down

Actual workout

15 minutes walking/jogging warmup

2 x 800 m intervals at 6:44 pace, 5 x 400 m intervals at 6:44 pace with 400 m rest intervals

10 minutes walking cool down.