C Mile Plan: Week 1/6, Take 2

Week-beginning Thoughts:

Kind of serendipitous that I never actually crossed any workouts off of my printed calendar last week... 

Monday

Scheduled: 3-5mi easy or rest

Did: 2.5mi walk

Had a hard time sleeping last night, and ended up tossing and turning on the couch until about 10pm. Got a full night's sleep, woke up at 5:30, but wasn't in a "rush and get sh-t done" mood, so I took it easy and opted out of any workout. Walked at lunch, but hoping I'll be healthy enough for tomorrow's hills + Thursday's push with today's and Wednesday's "mostly rest". 

Tuesday

Scheduled: 10K + 4x30s on neighborhood hill/jog back down, LIIFT4 W2D1

Did: 7.05mi total @ 9:18/mi avg

Another rough night of sleep. Took me until 9 or so to get to sleep, then woke at 1:30am with baby and, even though my husband tended the kid, I was up for another 1.5-2hours with my mind just racing through all kinds of things. Ughhhh. 

Today's run felt harder than it should have, though I'm not sure how much is the bad sleep, how much is that this is the farthest I've run in a week, and how much is that I'm still physically recovering from the virus I had last week. I didn't go as hard as I could've on the hills, but was intentionally consistent. Part of me feels like I crapped out and gave a poor effort. Part of me is proud that I didn't push hard on something that "didn't matter" (too much) and listened to my body. 

Garmin pace on top, Polar on the bottom

Watch GPS is weird, so I relied on landmarks to help me figure out if I was going faster or slower each time. I hit pretty close the first three times, and went a bit further on the last one. Solid.

Wednesday

Scheduled: rest

Did: LIIFT4 W3D1

Woke up without an alarm at 6:16am to my husband checking on me. Guess I needed that full night of sleep? Today was a bit of a crazy day, but I got in a strength workout and felt pretty good about it. I'm finding it interesting that I'm using much lighter weights than I did the past few times through LIIFT4, but seem to be getting more out of it by focusing on my form and contracting muscles, versus just "doing it". 

Thursday

Scheduled: 2mi WU, 4x400(90s)/200, 5min jog, 4x400(90s)/200, 2mi CD

Did: pretty much as scheduled, 7.2mi total @ 9:18/mi avg, 4mi walk, LIIFT4 W3D2

Last week, I was anxious about this workout (until I got sick and then wasn't thinking about anything). This week, I've had so many fires at work and home (not literally) that I didn't even have time to review what the workout WAS before the warm-up began, much less worry about it. Thankfully, my teammate and I are on the same plan, and I'd programmed my watch ahead of time, because my alarms got switched and I ended up waking up only ten minutes before we were going to start.... and, miraculously, I arrived only 1 min late. Booyah.

I really liked the 2mi warm-up today.  I felt ready for the first 400. 

First set: 91,92,92,93 (goal 90-95, ideally getting faster each time)

The first 400 felt like I was coasting. I could've kept that pace forever. It was an easy jog. But then my legs realized it wasn't a one-and-done situation. I had to work at the others. I definitely feel like I could have hit 90s throughout, but I took a more measured and conservative approach because:

1) coming off being sick

2) first track workout in three months

3) didn't want to go out hot on the first 4x400 and crash and burn for the second

Second set: 94,48 (200m), 91,92, 45 (200m)

I felt really fresh after the 5min jog, but my splits say otherwise. Our Coach told us the purpose of this workout was to learn how to feel mile pace, and that, if we weren't able to hit it for the 400s, to drop to 200s, so that's what I did on the second lap. It helped me reset for laps 3 and 4, and then I did an extra "make-up" 200 at the end. 

This was a great workout, and I'm really proud of what I was able to do coming off a "break". Also, my legs are soooooo sore. 

Did a walk with husband at lunch and a lifting session in the evening.

Friday

Scheduled: rest or 3-5mi easy 

Did: 3.27mi @ 9:54/mi avg, LIIFT4 W3D3, 3mi walk

Omigosh, legs are so sore this morning, but the recovery run felt good and necessary. It's been a long time since I've felt so accomplished and really needed/enjoyed a 10:30 first mile. Also lifted and walked. 

Saturday

Scheduled: 10-12mi hilly long run

Did: 11.19mi @ 9:21/mi with 570' elevation gain, 30min yoga for runners/stretching

Ooof. My legs were soooo sore when we started this morning. I made three options for hillacious runs and let my partner pick our poision. ;) I think she picked the least hilly of the three (which isn't saying much), but it came with a "bonus mile" in distance. I kept reminding myself this was a hilly run, not a fast run, or a pace run, and it didn't matter how slowly we went, as long as we got the hills and the distance. 

Turns out, we actually went really freaking fast for this sort of elevation and distance. Weeeee. 

Interesting that Garmin, Strava, and Polar all give different elevation gains off the same route

After spending a good part of the run commiserating about our sore hamstrings, my training partner and I made an accountability promise to each other that we'd do at least 10min of dedicated stretching during the day. I knocked out my obligation with a nice "Yoga for Runners" workout. 

Sunday

Scheduled: 15min WU, 12x1min (~7:10/mi)/1min jog, 15min CD

Did: as scheduled= 5.77mi @ 9:22/mi avg with stroller, LIIFT4 W4D1

At the end of yesterday's run, I had now idea how I was supposed to do another speed-esque workout "tomorrow", but I actually felt pretty good by mid-Saturday and fairly recovered this morning.

This workout wasn't terribly different from my normal Sunday run (15min WU, 10min tempo, 15min CD), but it was such a mental struggle. I hated how many intervals I had to do. I hated not just being able to push through and get it done. 

It was exactly the sort of training component I need, though. While it wasn't 12min straight of "tempo", the mental endurance to keep coming back for another minute definitely felt similar to a tempo workout. 

It's hard to get accurate pace readings on the greenway, and for such a short distance, but minutes shook out like this:

6:56

7:04

6:41

7:06

7:02

7:28

7:15

6:56

7:10

7:57 (had to slow on the curvy boardwalk for other greenway users)

7:33 (hill)

6:40

Not bad for pushing a stroller containing a wailing baby.

I still hated this workout... which means it was good for me :P 

Total Weekly Mileage: 34.5

Week-ending Thoughts:

• It feels really good to be "in training" again. I love the feeling of accomplishment I get from knocking out hard workout before work. 
• Here's to five more weeks of fun challenges!