Mile Training: Week 4/6

Week 4/6 of http://www.milermethod.com training

Beginning of the Week Thoughts: 

Monday
Scheduled: 3-6mi easy
Did: 3.12mi @ 9:26/mi
Weather was A-MAZING: 68 degrees, moderate humidity, and a breeze! Come on, September! 

Tuesday
Scheduled: 10-15min WU, 4x45s hill, 4x60s hill, 10-15min CD, 2xcore, ham PT
Did: 2.46mi WU @ 9:50/mi, 40-50' elevation gain @ 8:47 to 7:32/mi, 2.15mi CD @ 9:30/mi
Feeling good and feeling strong. :) We did the "Home Depot hill" today, which was a nice change. Instead of wandering around to get mileage before/after the repeats, we had a solid ~2mi "out", repeats, and then a pretty straightforward "back". I had a bit of a watch snaffoo (only programmed in 2x45,4x60s) so we ended up doing 2x45, 4x60, then 2x45.

I really liked feeling the burn after the 15s and forcing myself to push up the last bit. This is most challenging hill we've done this training cycle, and I'm actually excited about doing the same thing next week. Hill repeats are kind of becoming a favorite... Whaaaaaaat? :) 

Wednesday
Scheduled: rest
Did: rest


Thursday
Scheduled: 15-20min WU, 4x70m strides, 2x200m (40s) with 2min recovery, 5-10min rest, 800m time trial (2:40), 10min CD, 2x strength circuit, 4-6mi easy
Did: 4mi @ 9:30ish/mi, 2x strength circuit
Take 1


Friday
Scheduled: 5-7mi easy 15-20min WU, 4x70m strides, 2x200m (40s) with 2min recovery, 5-10min rest, 800m time trial (2:40), 10min CD
Did: time trial: 3:02 
Take 2


Saturday
Scheduled: 15-20min WU, 10min tempo, 10min CD, 2x core
Did: as scheduled
I wasn't sure what to expect for today's tempo after doing a time trial 25.5 hours earlier, but I know what I got: Redemption. 7:30/mi pace with the stroller, and I felt like I could have pushed through another five minutes if I needed to. Today was a win. 

Also a win: grabbing the munchkin's book from the bottom part of the stroller for him mid-tempo miles. #motherrunner 





Sunday
Scheduled: 7-12mi easy, 2xcore
Did: 12.01 @ 9:48/mi avg WITH THE STROLLER, 2xcore
I'm really proud of this one. After a bit of a wild week of training, it was nice to just go out super easy and literally have one job: get the miles in. Coach's guidance for this workout was: "Time on your feet, not pace, is most important for the long run (for a miler)." 

The potato did GREAT for the ~two hours it took to complete this run, and I could not be prouder of him. Before today, our longest run with him was 10.5, and that included a few breaks and ended with an hour at the playground with friends. Today was all business. We had a few 30s stops to get graham crackers or change out books, but, other than that, ran straight through. 

I had a moment towards the end where I wanted to run an extra mile to hit a stroller half marathon, but talked myself out of it. Part of getting the most out of having a coach is actually doing what he says. It's taper time, and I've just got to trust that I've done enough in the past four weeks to get me where I want to be on the 16th. 

Week-ending Thoughts: 

• I'm training for a mile, yet I've run 130 miles this month. Hahaha. So much for "easing up on running"
• While the TT went poorly, I feel good about EVERY SINGLE OTHER RUN I've had this cycle. That has to count for something. 
• Also, really glad tomorrow is a 3-6mi recovery run day :) 

Time Trial: Take 2

3:02. Not even a 6:00 pace.

Three. Oh. Two. 

This was a complete disappointment.

Oh, hey. That's pretty much what happened. 

I've been so stressed over when/where I was going to do this trial that I didn't do enough planning on how I was going to execute it. It really wasn't until this morning that I knew for sure that the trial would even happen due to weather chaos. 

I had tentative plans on where I'd actually be doing the 800m, but really didn't plan out anything about how or where I'd be doing the 70mm or 200m "warm-ups". I didn't review my assigned paces or gameplan how to execute them. That, obviously, bit me in-run.

When I arrived, the temps were okay, but humidity was a little high for my taste. The worst part was the wind. Sitting in my car, watching the flags blow around, I could hear the gusts. 

Warm-up: met up with Birgit for an easy 1.5mi out, dropped a few mini cones on the side of path to help give me visual cues for the 200s

Strides: didn't even think about pace on these, just a "go fast"; felt like they ended really quickly and I never got up to feeling like I needed/wanted to them to end

200s: no idea about pacing on these, just kind of ran 'em; relied on watch instead of the cones I'd dropped because it was pitch-black (except for my flashlight) and I couldn't see much off the path

Took a 7min rest (5-10 prescribed), stretched, tried to remember where I was supposed to start the 800, and ended up just deciding to go for it on the next straight shot I found

800: 

• felt good enough for the first 200
• HATED the mental struggle of not knowing how far I was into it/how my pace was (I had no way to seeing my splits due to how my watch works, so there was zero opportunity for any corrections)
• started wanting to slow by the 400m mark, letting myself think I was on-pace or maybe even ahead of it
• hit a major headwind between 400-600m and just felt like giving up; I didn't completely give up, but I certainly wasn't feeling strong
• forced myself to up my effort for the last 200m, drawing on my confidence that I have a strong kick and that 200m is NOT that far

Cooldown: finished the 800 feeling dead; I didn't need to sit down or hold onto anything, but still walked a minute and a half before doing a slooooow jog

Again, because of my watch setup, I had no idea how it went until I ended the workout and went back and reviewed things. This was probably for the best, because here's how it shook out: 

Bad Things

• It wasn't even a 3:00 time trial. It was a 3:02. 
• I didn't hit a SINGLE split

Good Things

• Second fastest 800m ever, and the other one was on a downhill part of a race... 
• Didn't get injured

Mitigating Factors

Coach asked us to give him some commentary about things that may have affected our runs when we reported our times. This felt like a bit of "excuse making", but, at the same time, there are a LOT of things that affected my time.

• new location: though the river is one of my normal running places, the last time I ran it in the dark was probably a year ago; I wasn't familiar with the sidewalks, landmarks, or anything
• total lack of planning: I didn't know what my 200m splits were SUPPOSED to be until I created the table above... which was AFTER my time trial
• week-long anxiety about where/when I was doing this
• false start yesterday
• no in-run pacing information
• no focus: I was pretty much in a "just get it done" mindset

and the biggest one:

• running solo

I had Birgit for my warm-up, and some other friends who were running various paces and mileages in the vicinity, but, for the entirety of my speedwork, I was completely alone. This hasn't happened in.... well, just about ever. The last time I can remember doing speedwork solo was mile repeats on the treadmill when I was pregnant (~2 years ago), and, even then, I had people around me 'cause I was at a gym. I knew my teammates helped, but, man, I had no idea HOW much. 

By 7am, I'd talked to my coach. It made me feel pretty good that he used five "u"s when saying wind had a "huge" impact. Based on the fact that I've been rocking the rest of my training, he said "let's assume you hit 2:40 and have you hit 89-90s for your 400s next week". 

Um, what?

I can't say that I agree with it, but I'm trusting my coach. We'll use the 400s as more of a time trial than the 800 was to come up with a better indication of what my mile goal should be. This was the first bad run I've had this training cycle (and, honestly, in quite awhile), so, in the mean time, I'm just going to try to 

shake it off
(this also happens to be one of my kid's favorite songs right now)

Time Trial, Take 1

I’ve been anxious about this workout since I saw it on my schedule a few weeks ago. Hitting splits in a track workout isn’t too nerve-wracking, but seeing “time trial” on my plan had me feeling like a surprise race was thrown into my schedule. “Time trial”? Whoa, but I’m not ready for that!

We’re supposed to aim for half of our goal mile… minus 20s. For me, that’s 6:00/2 – 0:20 = 2:40. I’ve only run a sub-3:00 800m once, and that was during the Braves 1(.25) Mile… and it was downhill. It’s a very intimidating goal, but I understand why we need to be able to run faster than goal pace: we’re only going half the distance.

I’m a week behind the rest of the mile training group due to goal race dates, so I’ve been able to see everyone else’s TT posts. There have been posts comprising the whole spectrum: successes, disappointments, injuries, postponements, etc. All of them have only made me want to get mine done too so I can be ‘part of the group”. It’s a weird sort of FOMO.

Every Sunday, B and I have an email outlining our workout plans for the week. This week, I checked the weather too, and my heart sank a little when the ten-day forecast showed the gulf coast storms coming in Wednesday afternoon. Still, the past few times we’ve had storms forecast, they haven’t showed, and it was still four days away.

By last night, the forecast had faded into only rain, starting around 9:30pm Wednesday and carrying into Thursday morning. Maybe things will work out…

I’ve had dreams about the TT every night this week. Last night, I was the worst, though. I woke up at midnight with a jolt of adrenaline: “Alright, body! LET’S GO!.... except it’s midnight, not 4am. Calm down. Chill out. Go back to sleep.”

When I woke up for real, I was pleasantly surprised not to hear anything thunder or rain. I checked the doppler: no rain in sight. I checked the forecast: thunderstorms beginning at 6am. OK. I have time. I messaged the group that I’d be parking at the track (instead of our normal lot a mile away, for warm-up/cool-down), to facilitate a quick getaway when the storms arrived.

And then I started driving.

It's not that bad, right? 

It was pouring before I even got out of my neighborhood. It poured the entire way to the track, and I started seriously wondering if this was a good idea. Then I started thinking about how I should have gotten up and out earlier. If I’d been up at 3am, I could have finished the workout before this mess. (yeah, that actually seemed reasonable to me :P)

I met B at the track and obsessively decided to start my warm-up with a jog around the parking  lot before she even got out of her car; one minute done while she was getting her stuff together was one minute less of a warm-up I’d have to do on the track, and one minute sooner that I would finish. 

We got on the track and did an easy lap around to check things out. While the rain intensity varied during our lap, track conditions didn't. There were several inch-deep puddles and squishy fake grass mats covering lanes 1 & 2 for part of a straight-away, neither of which were going away any time soon.

In spite of everything, I felt this need to do this workout. At the same time, though, I was wondering how much the weather would affect my time. After all, I couldn't expect my coach to have a magic formula that would take my "run in sub-optimal conditions" and convert it to a pure, honest time trial result. I could do the workout, but, even if the time were "good", it wouldn't be accurate. 

B and I talked a lot about this as we continued to warm-up with laps. 

Best case scenarios: 

I have a solid performance. 

I hit my time in the rain. 

Worst case scenarios: 

I hit a 3-flat or higher and do the rest of my training thinking I can't hit the 6:00... or don't like my time so much that I try to do another trial a few days later on tired/stressed legs. 

I have a decent run, but never really know what I'm capable of.

I slip in a puddle, sprain an ankle, and can't run for the next two weeks, miss yet another mile, and potentially have to back out of Bourbon Chase. 

Is that last one a bit of a "slippery slope" argument? Yeah, probably. But, when your super-supportive training partner asks you what you'd tell a trainee who was attempting a time trial in these conditions, and your answer is "you're an idiot", you kind of have your answer.

We ended up running 4 easy miles on the track. The thunderstorm never came. I walked away from this workout feeling something I don't think I've ever felt after a workout: guilt, coupled with failure. 

I feel guilty that I didn't do the workout on my schedule. It doesn't seem to matter to me that I ran four miles in the rain. That seems completely worthless. 

I feel guilty that I didn't plan things out better. I could have done the time trial Wednesday morning instead, but chose not to. I could have looked at the weather and gotten up earlier. I could have swapped any other workout with today, since this is the ONE workout I can't possibly replicate to any extent on a treadmill.

Coach said it's not a big deal if I miss it, but I don't want to miss it. I want to do it. I want to know. <whines> Everyone ELSE got to do a time trial. I want to do one tooooo.

Here's hoping the weather clears and maybe I can swap out Sat or Sunday's run with a trial instead... or that I just "get over" this and move on with my training. 

Until then, I'll have a little more in common with my one-year old.

Mile Training: Week 3/6

Week 3/6 of http://www.milermethod.com training

Beginning of Week Thoughts: I'm tired. Bleh. 

Monday
Scheduled: 3 easy
Did: 3.04 @ 9:23/mi avg
Sick kiddo = no sleep = bailed on the AM run. Decided to run during the solar eclipse instead. It was a complete and total letdown. Barely noticed anything different, except some moderately interesting shadows. 

Tuesday
Scheduled:10-20min WU, 8x45s hills (60-100% effort), 10-15min cooldown, 2x core circuit
Did: as scheduled; 6.24 @ 9:44/mi avg
Man, today was one of those workouts where I finished feeling like such an athlete. 

hill repeats!

My day started off with two times through the core circuit around 4:30am. I feel stronger on most of the exercises, but the back plank with leg lifts are still incredibly challenging for my right hamstring and the scissor legs are rouuuuuuuuugh. I still need a quick 1-3 second break in the middle of each of those.

Wednesday
Scheduled: rest
Did: Big 5, ham/glute PT, Yoga on the Square
A work deadline kept me at the office late, so I turned it into a yoga night. I had some time beforehand to do my ham/glute PT before settling into a nice hour of namaste-time.  

Thursday
Scheduled: 10-15min warm-up, 10min tempo, 5min rest, 8x300 (67s) w/90s recovery, 15min cooldown
Did: as scheduled
I've found myself regularly dreading Thursdays because of how challenging and intimidating these workouts are. I'm beyond grateful for B and the rest of the crew for holding me accountable. If I were only training by myself, it would be so easy to bail on these. 

Warm-up: 1.8mi @ 10ish 
felt so sluggish/tired and wondered how I was supposed to go ANY faster for the rest of the workout; opted out of doing tempo run on the roads because I didn't feel like tackling the inclines today

Tempo: 10min @ 8:20/mi
Running tempo on the track was HARD. When I'm on the track, I'm either going super fast (for speedwork) or super slow (for between-interval-recoveries). A tempo run requires me to be in-between those paces, and I found it incredibly challenging to flip the mental switch to run a high-7 while seeing all the normal sights of the track around me. Started too fast, slowed down too much. This was not a true tempo run, but, hey, lesson learned: I can't do tempo on a track. 

300s (goal time: 67.5s =- 22.5s @100m, 45s @200m)
Lap 1 (1:03.8): Pumped myself up with a "you can do this" pep talk, and started WAY TOO FAST. I was at 39s for the 200. Uh-oh. Tried to slow myself (you can see it on the pace graph), but knew I was going to pay for this later.

Laps 2 (1:08.1),3 (1:08.0), and 4(1:07.6): felt good, jogged full recovery after #2 then, for whatever reason, fell into an unconscious routine of walking the first 45-60s of each recovery and jogging the rest; surprised myself that these felt so good since they were so hard last week, but knew the cooler weather (ten degrees cooler, 20% less humidity) was helping a ton


Lap 5 (1:04.7): hit the 100 at 24s and knew I had to pick it up to stay on pace; fought hard around the curve and forced myself to hit it on the back stretch; ended up faster than goal

Lap 6 (1:08.4): tried to hold myself to a 4/4 breathing pattern; fell back to 2/2 at 150m and, again, struggled to save pace on the back half

Lap 7 (1:07.4): felt good about this being the penultimate repeat, but had the same back-half struggle

Lap 8 (1:05.4): same back 2/3 struggle, but with a much stronger push for glory at the end




Overall, I'm really pleased with this workout. I "hit" (within a second) my goal pace on all of them, and that's with a shorter recovery than last week. 5/8 repeats were within a second of each other (and goal), 1 was 1.3s slow, and the other two were 2-3s fast. 
I walked some of the recoveries, had a slower tempo than usual, but still feel pretty good about the workout. Next week is an 800m time trial. *gulp*


Friday
Scheduled: 5-7 easy
Did: 5.0 @ 9:41/mi avg
I'm training for a mile, but it feels oddly similar to marathon training these days. For about the past week, every run feels hard to start. By mile 3, though, I'm in a good, warmed-up state, and perform well. I guess that's what happens when you're running six days for a total of around 35 miles per week. 

Met B early for three, and then finished off the last two solo while she went to bootcamp. Had a nice bit of an unintentional progression-y run, from 10:01/mi down to 9:20/mi by the end. 


Saturday
Scheduled: 15-20min warm-up, 15min tempo, 10min cool-down
Did: 17.5min WU @ 9:50/mi , 15min tempo @ 7:49/mi,  10min CD @ 9:20/mi with the stroller
Felt slow and sluggish during my entire warm-up, but managed a really good pace on the tempo part of the workout, despite having a stroller. Cooldown also felt like a slug, but clearly wasn't. 

Sunday
Scheduled: 8-12 LSD

Did: 10.18 @ 9:31/mi avg, partially with stroller, 2x strength circuit

During marathon training, I felt like my week built up to the long run. It was the day I focused on the whole week leading up to it, ate and slept the best for, and was the most nervous about. In mile training, I feel a huge relief after Saturday tempo runs because Sunday is an "easy day". 

I'd planned on doing all today's miles with the stroller, but baby boy is entering the terrible twos phase, and derailed our morning schedule. Fortunately, Jerry was able to take the kiddo along on his later run so that I could still make my date with B. In the chaos, though, I may have forgotten to eat anything. I realized this around mile 6. :P 

Bummed some Froot Loops off of B at the 7mi marker (when I picked up the potato from Jerry and continued on with the Running Mamas), but they were way sweeter than anything I usually eat. Had a Gatorade, mentally chastised myself for setting off for double-digit miles without anything to eat,  but made it through the run and 45min of playdate afterwards. 

Week-ending Thoughts: 

• I didn't think about my hamstring at all on Sunday's run. I think I've hit a turning point :)
• I definitely have a miiiiiild twist in my left ankle from Tuesday's hills. The sidewalk of the repeat hill terminates early, and having to run across roots/grass and curb hop at the speeds I was hitting did something, because I've been feeling it all week long. I can stand, walk, and run without noticing anything, so it's not bad, but I definitely won't be using that hill for the longer durations
• pretty proud that I can still knock out a double digit run without any issues
• getting nervous about Thursday's time trial... it's been comforting to read about the other training group participants' experience, though

Mile Training: Week 2/6

Week Beginning Thoughts: Is it Saturday yet? 


Monday
Scheduled: 3-5mi recovery run
Did: 3.08 @ 9:38/mi
definitely feeling last week's training and looking forward to rest day Wednesday; 
did 20min PT before bed



Tuesday
Scheduled: 10-20min WU, 4x30s hill, 4x45s hill, 10-15min CD, core circuit
Did: as scheduled, 6.25mi @ 9:29/mi avg
My core circuit takes 3 1/2min. I think I'm going to start doing it every day, first thing. I still struggle a LOT with the back plank leg raises (weak R ham is lingering), and have to fight through the scissor legs. I'm down to only taking a single 3s break, though. 

This workout felt SO much better than last week's. Ham was still a bit weak, but, oddly enough, felt totally fine on the hills? I'd have expected to feel it more on them. Kept my pace to 40-60% on the first 5-6 repeats, and then let a bit loose on #7 and felt amazing.  Switched to a different hill for 8, but started too early, and that one ended up being flatter than expected. Oops. 

Had some residual soreness/discomfort sitting for the rest of the day, but knocked out another 20min of PT over lunch, which includes:
3x20 double leg glute bridge
3x10 single leg glute bridge
3x10 standing hamstring "catch", then curl
3x10 isometric contractions with 5-10lb ankle weight
3x10 single leg deadlifts
3x10 lunge with 10lb DB
30x prone position, contract glute and raise leg ~6" off ground, hold, lower, disengage, repeat

10 nordic hamstring things, only whenever I can get Jerry to help






Wednesday
Scheduled: rest
Did: yoga and PT
So, my downtown office has free yoga classes every Wednesday. I've been wanting to take advantage of them, but that requires me saying, "Hey, Tall, I know you've got speedwork today, but can you go do your speedwork after a full day's work, then pick the kid up from daycare, make dinner for him and yourself, give him a bath, put him to bed, and then, and only then, shower and recover from your hard run so that I can stay in midtown and relax with outdoor yoga? I'll be home after all the hard work is done." :P

got my yoga mat, and my flippy-floppies

We worked it out, though, and I got the chance to enjoy it yesterday. I LOVED getting to take advantage of the city. Even though my commute is like two hours a day, working down here makes it worthwhile for me. I love being in an urban environment. There's so much culture and awesome stuff that happens down here.

view from my office window of the green we yoga-ed on

I got my spot a little early and had time to run through my hamstring PT on the green before our class began. I can't say that I'd pay money to have that instructor lead me through another class (her style just wasn't what I prefer), but it was an hour well spent. 

namaste, midtown!

Thursday
Scheduled: 15-20min WU, 10min tempo/5min rest, 4x200@MP/2min recovery, 4x300@MP/2min recovery, 10-15min CD
Did: as scheduled
These workouts are the hardest part of my week, and I'm so glad I've got my #SpeedworkThursday crew to help me out. Coach Nick had this to say about the workout: "The 200s will feel fairly comfortable, but the 300s will get tough."

Man, did they ever. It's like he's a pro at this and knows what he's talking about.

My tempo was a 7:49/mi. Again, I went by feel on this. I still wonder if I'm going too fast, because I feel like I "couldn't" hold that pace for another 5-10min, but it's slower than my current 5K PR, so that tells me I can (I just don't want to). But that's what tempo is all about, right? Forcing yourself to push when you don't want to... just like a race. FinalSurge's training calculator tells me my "anaerobic threshold" is a 7:33. For now, I'll just keep running by feel, since I think I'm definitely getting something out of it. 

I'll buy the 5K and 10K, maaaaaybe the half, but the marathon? Hahahahahaha

After my five minutes of rest, I set out for my 200s. I'd done the math ahead of time and knew I needed to hit 45s for the 200s and 67.5s for the 300s (22.5s per 100m). I thought these times were faster than ever, but then I looked back and Coach Amy had also given me 67s 300m repeats before my goal 5K, so I have done these before (though I did them without clear track marks and am pretty sure I was too slow on all of them). 

I used some mental tricks to help me break down the eight repeats, messing around with start/stop lines on the track. I'm also proud to report that I jogged at least 1:20 of all of my recoveries (compared to last week's "walk all of the 2min"). I didn't stop for water or stretching at all, just powered through. 

The 200s were fine. It's kind of cool that I don't look at my watch anymore. This seems to be my body's "natural" (speedwork) pace, because I literally just go and, without fail, I'm at a 6:00 pace (disregard Garmin pace output- it's giving me more distance credit than I'm due on the track). 

Lap 1= WU
Lap 2 = Tempo
Lap 3= rest
Laps 4,6,8,10 = 200m

The 300m were harder. First, I had to pass my 200m "finish line" and know that I wasn't even 1/2 way to the end of the interval (because of where I started my 300s). Second, I felt like I wanted to be done with them at the 200m mark. Third, there were four of them. Still, I was able to lock in and hit all of them (I'm calling the 68.9 a 67.5 close enough due to watch stop/start time-- surely it takes at least a second to get my hand across my body to stop the watch, right?). I was definitely tired by the end, and wondering how the heck I was supposed to complete one, much less, FOUR full 400m laps at that pace by goal date. By far, this is the most challenging workout I've ever had... and it's only going to get harder next week!

Laps 12, 14, 16, 18 = 300m
Lap 20 = cooldown

In other happy news, I felt NOTHING in my hamstring today, so I'm going to say I'm officially in the recovery period on that. Going to keep with my PT (at least 3x week) and stretching, but I think I'm in the clear!  


Friday
Scheduled: 3-5mi recovery run
Did: 4.57 @ 9:39/mi avg
Another 4:30am run date with B&B. It's a little hard to get up at 4am for these, but I LOVE being done and showered before my family is even awake. Felt hard to get moving at first, but loosened up and felt good by the end. Also did Big 5 waiting for B to hit her 5 miles. 


Saturday
Scheduled:15-20min WU, 15min tempo, 10min CD, strength circuit x2-3
Did: strength circuitx2, 18700 steps for the day, 4.8mi@8:56/mi avg
Had plans to get up and treadmill my workout at 4:30am to be able to get the kiddo to his race, but I had no accountability partner and no interest in pushing through a hard workout before 5am solo in my basement, so I slept in until 5:30, did my strength routine, and accepted the fact that I'd have to get my workout in later... after the sun came up. *gulp*

Jerry calls me a "vampire runner" since I hate running in sunlight
he's not wrong... 

Took the munchkin down to Atlanta's Finest for his 5th ATC 50m dash. I'm not sure how I did it, but I ended up getting 7500 steps over the course of the morning... and I didn't run at all. It was nice to see some friends and watch my little potato get a new medal from one of Atlanta's Finest (police officers). 

Atlanta's Finest
2015: Most Valuable Potato
2017: Munchkin with a Medal

Got home, realized all I'd consumed today had been a small bowl of cereal, single bottle of water, and a grande frappacino... but wanted to get out the door ASAP before it got OVER 90 degrees (and to give myself as much time as possible to recover before tomorrow's LSD). Handed the kid off to Jerry, chugged a bottle of water, filled my handheld with G2, and headed out the door around 11:30 for a 15-20min warm-up, 15min tempo, and 10min cooldown. No matter what, I just had to get through 40min, and then I'd be done. 

Much to my surprise, the workout actually went well. I ran by feel, as usual for tempo miles, but especially key today when I hadn't prepared well and was running in unfamiliar conditions. I warmed-up on hilly terrain to get to the greenway (shaded and flat) for tempo, continuously checked my watch and counted down the minutes of my 15min tempo segment, and then ran/walked up the hills for my cooldown. Tempo pace: still a sub-8. :D 

Warm-up: 1.72 @ 9:16/mi
Tempo: 1.88 @ 7:58/mi
Cool-down: 1.2 @ 10:00/mi


Sunday
Scheduled: 7-11mi long run, core circuit
Did: 9mi @ 9:49/mi avg, core circuit
Thank goodness for training partners. B and I met up and checked off another essential Atlanta running route today: Columns Drive. I was NOT feeling this run, and was grateful for the change of scenery, good conversation, cool temps, and riverfront breeze. Made it through. 

That end climb was awful.

Week-end Thoughts: For being 2 weeks into a 6 week program, I feel like I'm already completely inundated in the program. Running six days a week is definitely no joke, though. 

Mile Training: Week 1/6

Beginning of the Week Thoughts: Man, I hope my hammy holds up... 


Monday
Scheduled: rest
Did: rest
Man, I am NOT a fan of Monday rest days. It's such a letdown to start the week so sluggishly. Might be going rogue and switching M/W from here on out... 

Tuesday
Scheduled: 10-20min warm-up, 8x30s hills (50-80% effort), 10-15min cooldown PLUS core circuit 
Did: core circuit, then 20min warmup @ 9:34, 8x30s hills (8:28 to 7:10mi pace), 30min cooldown @ 9:40 (gotta get my 10K) = 6.23 @ 9:42/mi avg
All signs pointed to a sucktastic workout: coming off injury (still injured?), thunderstorms forecast, migraine the night before, couldn't eat anything but three saltines and a cup of yogurt for dinner, etc.

Warm-up went well, as usual with the 10KT crew, and then B and I headed back to do THE HILL as our repeat workout. The workout was prescribed at 50-80% effort, but I probably did it more like 25-60%, because I'm coming back from injury and it's more important for me to stay healthy than to hit all the target paces. If I don't hit a 6min mile on 9/17, so be it. It'll happen when I'm healthy. With a marathon-training husband, I cannot afford to get injured, because: 1) I have to take care of the kid, and 2) I need running for my sanity. 

I was really concentrated on my glutes throughout the whole workout, thinking about engaging them, etc. Seemed to have helped, because I felt ZERO problems with my ham or glute during the run. :) I don't think I'm out of the water yet, but at least I know I can get through a single run without aggravation. 

wee, hill repeats

After the last repeat, we were only at 3.3mi for the workout, which meant I had to slog through the last 3mi for my hashtag. Whether because I'm stressed, sick, or just didn't eat enough last night (all I could stomach was three saltines and a cup of yogurt for dinner), I ended up needing to walk for a bit at the 5mi mark. When the rest of the crew passed us back, I got myself going again and jogged it in to earn my hashtag. 



Wednesday
Scheduled: 3-6mi recovery run
Did: 3.12mi @ 9:18/mi avg plus massage
My morning started off great: 4am alarm after a sound night of rest, 10min of proactive PT, and then an awesome run with B. I was back, showered, and dressed before J's alarm even went off, and out the door before 6:30. :D 

really throws me off seeing commas instead of decimal points

Also had what I hope to be the last sports massage for awhile. 


Thursday
Scheduled: 15-20min warm-up, 10min tempo, 5min rest, 8x200m/2min recovery, 10-15min cool-down
Did: 15min WU @ 10:00/mi, 10min tempo @ 8:14/mi, 8x200 @ 5:21/mi-5:46/mi, 10min CD @ 10:00/mi
This workout was everything I wanted it to be and more. I was nervous going into it, for lots of reasons: thunderstorms forecast, heavy rain forecast, coming off injury,  the thought of having "two workouts" (tempo + intervals), and trying to time things so I could have my SpeedworkThursday crew as backup even though they were doing different workouts.

I love my team. Having B&B around, even though we were doing different workouts, was a HUGE motivator. I went to "long way" to the track for my own tempo run, and found it really freeing to run fast, but without paying attention to a watch, just going whatever pace I felt was "comfortably uncomfortable". The worst part, honestly, was having to find more distance since I needed four more minutes by the time I got to the track. I ended up having to go up a sick, slow incline that made the tempo much harder than I wanted. 

It was probably so hard because the bulk of my tempo had been downhill until that point :P
green= elevation
grey= pace

...and then I had a 5min "rest". It was strange to take a break, but gave me time to get onto the track, set up my gear, and stretch a bit before the fun started. I neglected to watch the "how to" video about this workout ahead of time, which clearly stated we should start the first rep slow and get faster each time. Instead, I read the written instructions... for NEXT week, which was to do them at mile goal pace.

oooh, HR superimposed on pace... .fun

Because of the way I'd set the workout up on my watch, I couldn't look at my splits, so I had NO idea how fast I'd done each 200. I didn't really care, though. Today was about keeping myself healthy, so I ran by feel and opted to walk the recoveries. I'd planned on changing to a slow jog halfway through, but never had the mental fortitude to make that happen. Note to self: never START walking your recoveries. Oops. 

SO SOLID. SO PROUD.

I'm really proud of that, and also this:

While it was segmented with (7)-2min rest periods, I covered a mile's worth of distance today at a sub-6 pace. This is a good start. Moving on from here, the distances I run will increase and the rest periods decrease, until there's no rest left. Gulp.

Traveled up to Tiger Town for a professional thing, and did about a mile walk plus 30min stretching and PT in the hotel.


Friday
Scheduled: 3-6mi recovery run
Did: 20min weights, 10min PT PLUS 4mi @ 9:20/mi
I crossed another item off my bucket list today: running the Clemson dikes. After an excessive amount of research last night, I finally figured out how to access the trail from my hotel, mapped out a route, and planned a run schedule around sunrise, shower time, and getting where I needed to be by 8am. I enjoyed a nice run through:

• pitch black wood-bordered roads
• a gravel path around a water treatment plant
• sketchy z-gates
• grassy dike along the lakeshore
• a wooded trail whose direction I had no idea of when I went down it
• the dike where my roomie and I went "sledding" senior year when we got 1" of snow

Super excited to finally be able to say that I, too, have run the dikes. :) 

Saturday
Scheduled: 15-20min warm-up, 10min tempo, 10min cool-down  PLUS strength circuit
Did: strength circuitx2, 20min warm-up @ 9:31, 10min tempo @ 7:45, 10min cool-down @ 10:15
Awww, yeah. This three workouts a week thing is intense, and I'm loving it. Well, I'm loving it AFTER I'm done with each run, at least. It feels good to push myself out of my comfort zone on a regular basis, and I really like having someone tell me what to do. Even if my coaches never looked at my workouts, just knowing they could and might is enough to make me want to try my best. 

Strength circuit felt good (30s each of squats, various planks, step-ups, split lunges, mountain climbers, bridges), very similar to what I'm used to doing with Matthew. 

I'd wanted to run to start slow, but it ended up a bit faster because I was anxious about running alone in the dark on some country roads that I really wanted to get off of as soon as possible. Once I made it to the lit roads on campus, I calmed down a lot, and had about ten minutes of actual warm-up before the tempo miles hit. 

 

Good Morning, Tillman Hall!

Tempo was hard. I'm not used to pushing myself like that for long (>800m) duration of time. This is good. I need these tempo workouts. This is the piece of workouts that I've been missing: the endurance building part. This is why I flounder at the 800m of my mile attempts. And doing these tempo runs for the next six weeks is exactly why I won't have the same problem at my next race. 




Sunday
Scheduled: 5-8mi long run plus 2x core circuit
Did: 8.09 @ 9:35/mi avg with the stroller plus 2x core circuit
I was a bit nervous about today's long run. Hamstring has been better this week, but, while I've  been able to do my workouts without any trouble, I've still been fighting glute soreness when sitting for extended periods, and my right ham is incapable of supporting my weight from a forearm back plank if I lift my left one off the ground.... so I know there's still something going on. 

Did my normal pre-run activation/PT, and then headed out for four with Brandi before our Running Mamas meetup. The first four were hot and humid, and I couldn't wait to get to the boardwalk for a little cool air relief. Thought I might've felt something in my right ham, but, when I took a moment to focus in on it, it was just some sweat dripping down my thigh. :P

Took an extended break at the halfway point, to "swap" one B for the other, and ended up having a little reunion with a LOT of our runner friends. There were easily about a dozen people at the river today, which was great. We took off for my second half with a few other runners who had between 2-3 more to do. I felt fine through mile 6.5, and then struggled the rest of the way back. My legs were fine, but I was just ready to be done. So glad it's #YOT5K and I'm not training for a marathon in this hot mess.

post-run recovery time

End of Week Thoughts: Still a bit uneasy about the ham, but feeling really proud of myself for/excited about getting through my first full week of training. Also, #CTSO ("cross-that-shit-off") is awesome.