Miler Method #4: Week 3/6

Week-beginning Thoughts:

• I need to plan better this week. I'm going to identify all my target paces the night before my runs and determine when/how/where I'll get my core/strength circuits in. 

Monday

Scheduled:  5mi easy

Did: 5.04mi @ 9:30/mi avg
Oooh, I got over seven hours of sleep and woke up to beautifully crisp, fall air. It felt a little strange to put on a shirt to run (not even a singlet, like, a real short-sleeved tech shirt), but the wind was howling. Felt good, and was even showered before the rest of the family got up. Win.

..of course, I also started feeling sick again halfway through my work day. Blergh. 

Tuesday

Scheduled: 2 sets of Core pre-run, 5-7mi easy, 6x100m strides,

Did: 5.59mi @ 9:31/mi avg, , 6x100m-ish strides, 2x Core
Had a 2am-3am wakeup with baby, but was able to get back to sleep afterwards (hooray, that's a rarity)... though my 4:10am alarm wasn't welcome. I'm used to sleeping in my running clothes, because it's one less barricade to getting out the door in the morning, but didn't do that last night since it was chilly. 

That was the wrong call. I struggled for another ten minutes to get out of my nice, warm bed, and probably would have delayed too long had I not been meeting my 10KTuesday crew at 4:50am. Lesson learned: always wear your running clothes to bed, and just throw sweats over them if it's too cold to sleep in shorts and a singlet. 

Pacing was consistent for most of the early miles. I planned on doing 5mi easy and then using the rest of the 10KTuesday route for strides, but we got to talking and I ended up delaying my start a bit. Still got in the strides, of varying lengths and paces, since I didn't have a track, but they felt good. Oddly enough, my recoveries were about as long as the strides, and not very slow (relatively). 

I wasn't really feeling like doing my core workout when I got back in, but, with my family still asleep, it was hard to justify NOT doing it... so I did. 

Wednesday

Scheduled: rest

Did: 3.12mi easy @ 9:36/mi avg

Couldn't pass up 62 degrees and no wind... While I didn't have time for a full 5mi (my shortest prescribed "optional/easy run"), I figured something was better than nothing. 

Thursday

Scheduled: 15-20min WU, 10min tempo, 5min rest, 800m (2:56 = 1:28/lap = 44s/200m), 2x300m @ 67.5s, then 600m all-out.... then 10-15min CD, 

Did: as scheduled = 5.83mi @ 8:52/mi avg, 2x strength circuit

Today was a good day. I knew today was going to be a really hard workout, especially when I did the math on Sunday (weee, planning ahead) for what my splits needed to be. It was also going to be a really awesome day, though, because days are always great when you do something hard first thing in the morning. 

I cut the warm-up a little bit shorter than prescribed (because it lined up well with where I happened to be on the track/where I wanted to start intervals), and was about to set out for my 800 when my training partner said, "Don't you have tempo today?"

Oooh, yeah, I do.... Whoops. 

Tempo felt sluggish today. Normally, I feel pretty free on these, but today, I just didn't. Still, Garmin had me at 1.38mi (Garmin overestimates distance, but, for consistency, I'm comparing this value week-to-week), and I was only about 20-30m short of my usual distance. I chalked it up to poor eating and a stressful yesterday (two deadlines and a webinar presentation for 130 people during my 10+ hours at work), and mentally moved on. 

Previously, I've been taking the 5min "rest" as actual rest, jogging over to the start/finish line and just hanging out until my workout began. After reading a FB Q&A post with our coaches, though, I opted to turn it into an easy jog today. 

Soon, it was time for the 800. I knew my goal splits, and was ready to go. I was a little nervous about today. I mean, I haven't run a fast 800 since my last miler camp, and that was for a Time Trial. Today, I was supposed to run an 800m four seconds faster than what my mile pace would be... and it wasn't even Time Trial week (that's next week, btw). 

I took off, repeating the splits I had to hit in my head (44, 1:28, 2:12, 2:56) like a mantra. Oddly enough, I never actually checked these splits during the entire 800m. I felt like I was definitely working. My breathing changed to my race breath about 400m in, and I felt it. God, I have a "whole 'nother lap" to go... 

Having a goal time in my head, though, helped motivate me to push on. I did a 3:00 in my last time trial. Today, I was going for faster than that. 

800m:  2:53.9

HELL. YES. I didn't know it at the time, but, after looking over old race records, I'm pretty sure that's an 800m PR. Weeeeeee. Now I've gotta break that next week. 

I forgot to ask Nick and Sierra what my rest between intervals was supposed to be (it wasn't specified), so I opted to take between 90 and 120s, in line with other workouts. 

I was not feeling pumped for the 300s. These were at mile pace, which was fast... and I'd just run a really fast 800m. Oh well, gotta get 'em done... 

I didn't know what my splits were until I reviewed my watch output a few hours later, but was thrilled to see:

300m #1:  65

300 #2:  64.7

After the second 300, I was beyond glad to not have a "goal time" for my 600. It was just an "All You Got". I wasn't sure what I had to give after the first leg(s) of the workout, but I'd give what I had.

600m: 2:20.7 

This was so hard. I could tell my training partner knew I was struggling by the words she chose to cheer me on with. I felt slow. I felt tired, but I had a small kick on the last 100m... and was SO glad to be done. I'll be honest, though, this was not all I had physically. I could have gone faster, but I let the mental fatigue win by using the "eh, there's no time goal, it's just whatever you have... and maybe this is all you have, and that's okay". 

I could've gone faster. 

While my teammate finished up her workout, I did my strength circuits (check it out-- that makes two days this week where I've done the non-run components of my plan!). 

What a great start to the day. :D

Friday

Scheduled: 5-7mi optional

Did: some light lifting and yoga, but nothing significant

I didn't plan on running this morning. Instead, I used my morning time to tackle a deadline at work. Hopefully the 3mi I did on Wednesday makes up for not running today. It does in my mind, at least :) 

Saturday

Scheduled: 8-12mi long, Core x 2

Did: 12mi @ 9:23/mi avg

I had so many various feelings and thoughts during this run. At 0.6mi in, I remember thinking, "How can we not even be at ONE mile yet?". As we approached the halfway point for our normal ten miler, my husband told the kids, "Mommy's got 12 on the schedule, so we're going past the tunnel today."

Oh, I guess we are doing 12 then....

Around 8mi, I started feeling pretty good. That was about the time my husband slowed down due to some heel pain, leaving me solo for the last four. I remembered my training plan had said something about picking up the pace if we felt good... so I did.

...and then walked another 1.5mi with the fam :) 

Sunday

Scheduled: 15-20min WU, 15min tempo, 10min CD

Did: Core x2, 15min WU, 15min tempo, 15min CD... and then more CD = 6.58mi total @ 9:09:/mi avg

Well, core didn't happen yesterday, but I did a couple rounds today before hitting the pavement for tempo. 

WU: 1.47mi @ 10ish/mi avg

Tempo: 2.04mi @ 7:21/mi avg

CD: whatever's left over... I keep trying to write this blog, but get through, like, half a sentence before the baby starts crying "mamá, mamá"... 

I ended up running a bit further on the cooldown than I'd planned. I wanted to close out with a mile walk post-run, but it started raining, so we had to get the kiddos back to the car. 

Total Weekly Mileage: 39.1

Week-ending Thoughts:

• I ate better this week, and felt better
• Sleep was also a bit better (yay, lower stress and more baby sleeping through the night)
• Still feeling like a near-40mpw is NBD
• I can't believe we're already halfway through this training cycle! I'm loving the workouts and feeling both intimidated and excited by the upcoming time trial. According to my plan, I'm supposed to go thirteen seconds FASTER than this week's 800m PR... Eek.