Miles: 42.5 (L2=39,5, L3=45.5)
Days Run: 4
XT: 1ish?
Rest: 2ish?
Intermittent Injuries: light hip soreness is back; light knee trouble (R), some PF issues; sore feet after LSD
Feelings: relaxed, tired, fast, proud, capable, strong, excited, confident
Monday
Scheduled:
Did: 3mi walk with stroller
Went to the park with baby boy :)
Tuesday
Scheduled: 8ONB
Did: 4out @ ~10:35/mi, 4back @ 9:09/mi, .24CD @ 9:58/mi
Didn't have time to blog about this guy on Tuesday, so here's what I remember:
- felt slugtastic on the first bit
- felt a little weirded out for the first time ever running near my house thanks to: creepily parked cars in a neighborhood entrance, homeless guy with backpack being interviewed by police, and freaky "monkey witch" noises coming from the church
- cooler weather was helpful
- didn't break at the #10KTuesday turnaround for the first time in, like, ever
- grateful for Brad leading the way back; it's always good to have someone to set the pace and just have to follow them
Wednesday
Scheduled: XT
Did: 3x10 crunches, push-ups, tricep dips
Thursday
Scheduled: 1WU, 6xmile/400m, 1CD
Did: as scheduled
Got a text last night from Brandi that went something like this:
"Hey, just realized tomorrow's workout is 9.5mi... maybe we should start at 4:30?"
I've known the workout was (6)-mile repeats for awhile. I've even been excited about it for awhile. I just never considered the warm-up, cool-down, and recoveries, which do, indeed, add up to 9.5mi.
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| ...and so my weekly alarms now look like this |
I've mentioned it before, but getting up a 4:XX seems totally reasonable- early, but reasonable. Having to set an alarm that starts with a "3", though... Oof. I keep reminding myself there's only one more "hard" week after this. Still, that 3:55 alarm came early.
I was tired this morning, and pretty crabby as I prepared for the run. It didn't get much better until I pulled into the parking lot and saw Brandi's car already there. At least we're doing this together.
Our warm-up was demoralizing. My legs felt like blocks of concrete (that's right, guys, "concrete", not "cement". Here's a Civil Engineering PSA for you: flour:cake::cement:concrete). We didn't even hit an 11min pace, and, while some of that is probably the fact that we're in high volume training/fatigue mode, a good bit is certainly thanks to our 3:XXam alarms.
Surprisingly, after that, the workout went really well. We had the same goal pace, so it was really nice to run together. There's something really cool with running stride for stride in silence around the dark track before 5:00 in the morning with someone. We took water breaks every two repeats, and started running the opposite way on the track for our recovery laps (to counter the bit of banking we have in Lane 1).
Goal: 7:30-7:45/mi
capable of a 7:36/mi by indicator chart, based on 5K PR (equates to 3:41 marathon)
Mi 1= 7:48/mi
tried to keep it easy, and did a good job of it; really wanted to kick on the last straightaway, but reminded myself this is was mile 1 of 6
Mi 2= 7:41/mi
felt focused, but easy; kept thinking about how short a mile actually is
Mi 3=7:39/mi
felt good; recovery seemed like a total breeze too
Mi 4= 7:38/mi
got a little frustrated when I started feeling like this was "work" on lap 3, and realized that I still had another lap to go of this mile AND two more repeats; made a decided effort to focus on using my arms more and found a whole new strength existed; using my arms enabled me to go so much faster with the same level of leg effort
Mi 5=7:36/mi
felt amazing to start back and feel all the sweat that had sat during the water break evaporate off of my stomach (gotta love SportsBraSpeedwork ;) ); made a decided effort to use arms on back 800 and felt same benefit as before
Mi 6=7:13/mi
I knew I wanted to push on this one, and I did; held with B for the first two laps, then focus on my arms for lap 3/4, and then kicked hard around the final bend and into the straightaway; felt INCREDIBLE-- like I'd harnessed some sort of amazing unstoppable train power and just found a new gear of complete and utter strength
Random thoughts/observations:
- I didn't walk any of my recovery- big change from last time we were on the track
- Miles felt sooooo short after our tempo and multiple mile repeat workouts this past month
- Doing the longer midweek workouts has definitely helped me build strength and stamina
- I've really missed the track
- I negative split my splits! :D
- I am a beast. So proud of myself
- It's awesome to come home and have time to go back to bed for an hour before work.
Friday
Scheduled: 5-6
Did: 6.11 @ 9:52/mi avg
Our normal routes have gotten a bit stale, but there aren't a lot of options starting from my house, which, on days I run but don't WFH, is a necessity. To counter this, Brandi and I decided to run on the opposite side of the street, and it was surprisingly refreshing; it almost felt like a whole new route. Haha. We also journeyed down a new street partway back, and found it agreeable... at least one-way; it was a bit more uphill than we'd expected on the way back, but nothing like the Saturday ATC routes through midtown.
First mile was ~10:30, but the rest were solidly in the 9:40s. Had a bit of PF to start the day, and was rushed to get out the door (for the first time in the history of ever I slept through my alarm, and only woke up to the second buzzing, ten minutes later), but this was still a solid run. I'm really proud of myself for doing so many miles "on autopilot" while fatigued.
Saturday
Scheduled: 1WU, 15 tempo
Did: 18 @ wait for it.... 9:28/mi avg!!!!
Slept in my kneebrace overnight to head off any kneecap issues after having a bit of burning on Friday (I had an extended battle with runner's knee in 2013, overcame it with lots of PT, etc. and now know exactly what to do when I feel things creeping up).
Volunteering as a Run Lead meant that I wasn't able to do a true tempo run (since I wouldn't be able to talk to my participants), so I opted to just add a little distance and keep the pace easy. I met up early with B & C for a couple loops around Armour, and ended up feeling really good- good enough to go a lot faster than usual (9:11 and 8:58 mi splits).
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| pic of the ATC Chicago Marathoners (you like my mad MS Paint skills?) |
We had a really small pace group for the main run: 11 RLs, 13 runners. There were a lot of races going on in the Atlanta area this weekend, so I think that's where everyone was. I played pseudo-sweep for the first bit of the run, and was grateful to do so through the hills of the Prado. If I weren't a RL, I'd totally walk some of those hills. It's kind of nice to have the neon yellow visor holding me accountable for putting on a strong face and encouraging participants up the hills. I definitely run better because of it.
After we got through the hills, I realized the group I was running sweep for was all half marathoners, which meant that I needed to pick up the pace in order to hit the half/full split and still have people to run with. We had a bit of a funny moment where the full marathoners were all on one side of the street and I was stuck on the other one-- a nice visual representation of my internal "do I go with them or wait for the 10s?" struggle.
I ended up opting to join the rest of the 9s, even though it looked like I'd probably be running much faster than I wanted. We had four particpants, and two RLs-- the two RLs who were leading the 9:00. Gulp.
I felt good about myself, so I figured I'd hold my own as long as I could. I knew one of the participants was more of a 9:40 runner, having run with him before, and hoped another who'd jumped up with us from the 10:00 might also need a slower 9 RL to go with her.
It was really fun to have more of a conversational pod this run (and, with the exception of one hill on the backside, and I stayed conversational). I had Brandi and Jody as the other RLs, and a good bit of chatter between our participants too. We spread out a few times, but were always within sight of each other. It was so nice to have more of a pod than I've had in the past, and running with friends is always great too.
I enjoyed the middle half of the course a lot. We ran through a part of Atlanta I haven't explored much, and I love running through new areas. My only complaint was that the sidewalks were terrible. I had multiple stumbles, and one that would have been an all-out fall had my participant not literally caught me (hero!). Oh, urban infrastructure budgets...
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| our little 9min marathon group |
Towards the tail end of the run, Brandi and I swapped places, which meant that I had to pick up my pace... at the end of an 18mi run, for the sunny part. I was so proud of myself or being able to do that, and do it well. Last two miles: 8:55 and 9:10.
Other random notes from this run:
- no in-run chafing problems with the Lululemon bra that, previous, destroyed me (low humidty or better preparation? who knows...)
- used GUs to transition myself back to those from the Honey Stingers I've been using for fuel, because they're a lot smaller packages and easier to carry 5 of in a race
- took 2 GUs and 1 stinger pack on the run
- drank almost exclusively water in-run, with a few spurts of Powerade for good measure
- struggled with a lot of stopping/waiting/restarting at the tail end of the run thanks to traffic lights
- found it pretty hard to go to "all-day" show chorus rehearsal afterwards, and was grateful that I only had three hours of rehearsal after my late (noon) arrival
- still awake at 9:12pm (whaaaaaaaaaat?!?!)
Sunday
Scheduled: rest
Did: 5K stroller walk,three hours of SOA front row rehearsal
Walking is really boring. To keep myself entertained, I did an 0.05mi run every quarter mile for the second and third miles of my walk with baby boy. Felt pretty good... except that time we saw a 4' long snake masquerading as a tree branch. Haha.
Front row rehearsal went well. We had it in a garage/warehouse-turned-dance-studio, in one of the rooms with an giant overhead door that could be opened to the outside... because we had no air conditioning. I did something I never thought I'd do: took my shirt off for the last half hour of the rehearsal. (!!!)
I'm definitely one of the fitter people on our FR, but was still pretty uncomfortable with the idea of taking my shirt off. Ultimately, physical comfort won out over mental comfort, though. Honestly, I don't know how everyone else, most of whom were wearing pants and cotton shirts, kept their clothes ON in 92 degrees...
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