Good evening, Internet! I hope this post finds your tubes unclogged and all the people using you to read this in good health. I had a solid week of training that demonstrated I'm not quite as dense as my second-grade teacher and numerous friends feared. See, I came down with this cold Sunday night, and by Tuesday, felt real ragged. Rather than letting the stupid little sniffle linger and potentially get worse, I just took Tuesday off from running and work and napped before going to bed early. I was rewarded for my bare minimum of common sense with a clean bill of health Wednesday morning. The modification to my week ended up costing me a tempo run and a steady long run, but I was healthy enough to get in a good hard fartlek on Thursday and come back with a solid track workout with the guys on Saturday.
Anyway, here it goes:
Monday- 9mi easy with Elliot, Ken, and Terence, felt pretty sick and was content to just jog today. Strength circuit with Peter afterward.
Tuesday- OFF, as mentioned. At least I made it to class!
Wednesday- 8mi with the first 4 easy w/Rich and the second 4 increasingly moderate through the rain solo. Felt 90% better, still phlegmy and snotty, though.
Thursday- Solo, 3+ steady to Fresh Pond, then a fartlek of 8min hard, 3min float, 4x65 seconds harder with equal rest, 5min starting between 5:10-5:20 pace and increasing intensity every minute until the last minute was pretty much all out. Averaged about 5:30/mile for the whole thing including rest (27:30 for 4.9 miles/2 laps of Fresh Pond, of which the last 3:30 was probably less than a half-mile) then 3mi easy down. I covered just over 12mi (I added on when I got back, since that loop is like 11 and 1/2) in 73min. I knew I hit this one pretty hard when I got jelly-legs doing 7:00 pace on the cooldown.
Friday- 3:30PM- 9mi + with the guys, to Fresh Pond, around once, and back. We were after it pretty good today, since the guys had last worked out Wednesday. We got out to Fresh Pond about 6:20 a mile, ran the lap around in 15:10 (2.45mi) and slowed back down to 6:20/6:30 pace on the way down because we remembered we were working out tomorrow. 700m worth of striding afterward indoors in my milers plus a few min jogging to nab 10 on the day. Unfortunately, I struggled sufficiently with my Applied Stats homework to cause me to miss my Macroeconomics class, which is annoying because Stats is a required class I don't particularly care for and Macro is a class I enjoy a lot. What's an ex-English major taking his first math class since HS to do?
Saturday- 12:30PM: Bruce let me rejoin on the group today as long as I agreed to modify the group workout of 3x(600, 600, 800) however I needed to in order to keep the effort at 8/10. What I ended up doing was 8x600 at the same pace the guys were running (34/lap, or 1:42) with 1:20 jog rest after the 600s and 1:50 after the 800s. I was pleased to be able to handle the paces and stay within the agreed-upon effort limits, though, to be fair, I got an extra ~34 seconds rest after the 3rd and 6th 600, since for the rest of the group was doing 800s on those ones. I figure I was running right about 3k type gear, which demonstrates continued improvement. As much as I dislike missing time, the sharp improvement curve that comes during the first month or two of a comeback is pretty fun. Three weeks ago I'd have been hard-pressed to run 9:00 for 3k; now I think 8:30-8:35 is about where I'm at. In another 2-3 weeks of consistent running, I should be close to PR shape for the 3k, and by the time we start racing in mid-January, I'd like to think I'd be in shape to take a crack at my mile and 800 bests, just like Bruce planned. I just have to avoid holiday pounds and keep using 5th-grade level common sense. . .
Sunday- 2:30PM- 8 mi very slow with James, felt nice to jog along and chat. Beautiful weather for running: high 30s, sunny, no wind.
8PM- After work, 4mi easy with Ken and Peter, then strength before a well-deserved hot shower. Needed gloves tonight!
Tot- 62 miles in 6 days (7 runs) with 2 strength sessions, a good hard fartlek, and an encouraging short interval session. I'll take it over a lingering illness any day. Now begins my last week of regular classes before finals. . . yikes. Have a good week, everyone!
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Weren't you doing 90+ miles a week a few weeks ago? Do you feel like you've been losing fitness by just being around 60 now?
ReplyDeleteCouple things-
ReplyDelete1) I haven't done a 90 mile week since about the first week in September. I missed almost all of October due to bronchitis and a sinus infection. I'm still building up. Last week was only in the low 60s because I took a day off to sleep and get unsick. The general idea is to be about 75-85 through most of the winter, in 7-9 runs.
2) My last couple weeks have included plenty of good workouts and less than a handful of miles slower than 6:30. I don't think a guy training for the 800/mile needs to worry about getting out of shape while running at least an hour of good quality per day.
Have you ever had large periods of time (1-2 weeks) where you just have dead legs and whenever you dip below a certain pace they feel oh so dead and you are breathing hard even though 2 weeks ago that pace was easy?
ReplyDeleteIf 1-2 lower weeks of mileage don't work, can a day off miraculously help in the process?
You seem to be asking if I've ever been tired-- and the answer is that of course I've been tired. Your follow up question seems to indicate skepticism that there is a correlation between resting and feeling better.
ReplyDeleteMiraculous help? I can't promise that, but if you're that beat up, a day off and some easy mileage isn't going to kill you. In general, though, if you're tired and you rest, well. . . you feel better.