90 miles. Although my fitness is a shadow of what it was ten years ago, this was the best week of training I've ever had, and it came on the heels of the best weekend of training I've ever had. While I'm still coaxing along some little aches and pains, I think I'm managing them pretty well. I was 30 miles away from my all-time high weekly mileage but I've never had a week this high with so much quality.
Sunday, 2/1: 13+ miles, tempo workout (1:36:37)
Beautiful sunny and warm day along Santa Rosa Creek on the Westside Trail (we desperately need rain, though). ~5 mile warm up (Garmin registered 4.2 in 33:09 due to operator error), 3 x 2 mile Tempo with 2:00 recovery walks, 2.5 mile cool down (21:00). I didn't feel nearly as good as last night but I did feel ready for the workout. My times were right around where I thought they'd be but I worked a little too hard for them. I was hanging on for dear life on the last mile. I shut the watch off when I hit 13, but was still about three miles from the truck, so with my jog/walk back and the near mile I wasn't running the watch on the warmup I ran between 15 and 16 miles total. I didn't log it since that would put me within a recovery run of 100 for the week and that may have been too tempting tonight!
1st set - 12:14 (6:02, 6:12) = 6:07 pace
2nd set - 12:06 (6:03, 6:03) = 6:03 pace
3rd set - 12:08 (5:58, 6:10) = 6:04 pace
Average = 6:05 pace
Saturday, 1/31: PM - 5 miles easy, track drills (35:45)
Easy run from home, the long way to the high school track. I felt really good on the way there, averaging 7:13 miles. I did 3 sets of drills out of Hudson's book plus a lateral alternating foot shuffle. On my way out I did a lap and a half on the track that included 3 x 100m strides - I felt tired but efficient; very good news. On the way back it was all I could do to keep from unleashing something really fast. I felt so good!
Saturday, 1/31: AM - 7 miles easy (1:00:49)
Easy run from home. Although it was a bit chilly, the late morning start meant a beautifully sunny run. I got to start out with Erin who was doing her fourth run in six days after a long layoff due to a demanding work routine. I'm really happy she's found the time and energy to run lately.
Friday, 1/30: PM - 5 miles easy (41:03)
Recovery run from home with Shadow - he's been locked up on the deck most of the week with minimal play time so we were both happy to romp around the high school fields together. I was a little tired and the left calf a little iffy but I felt pretty decent otherwise. This was an unceremonious conclusion to a seven day century.
Friday, 1/30: AM - 12 miles (1:28:44)
What started out being an easy 5 - 7 mile recovery run turned into a 12 miler at a good clip. I felt pretty good after last night's workout and just kept going. I ran out of gas toward the end as I didn't refuel or rehydrate but the pace never slowed. Another very cold morning - had to wear the mittens!
Thursday, 1/29: 10 miles, speed workout (1:26:52)
2.5+ mile warm up to a nice stretch of trail in Annadel where I did 10 x quarter mile repeats with a 3:00 recovery jog back and 2.5- mile cool down. This one hurt. A lot. I started out at 3K effort but about a third of the way through that came closer to all out effort during a steeper portion of the trail, then back to about 1500m pace the last third after the climb eased up again. One frustration is that the Garmin measures a quarter mile under the trees so poorly that I never knew where it would let me stop - it varied by about 70 meters! It was also extremely cold - to the point of annoyance with my hands. On the positive side, this is the workout I failed at back in 2000 when I first drafted up a training plan to run really fast at Kenwood. I quit that day after only 2 or 3 reps and didn't run a challenging workout again until my comeback last Spring. I was happy to knock it out even though after two I thought there was no way I could finish all ten. On the cool down my legs had that wonderfully useless sensation you get only from lots of near maximal intervals.
Wednesday, 1/28: PM - 7 miles easy, with hill sprints (55:44)
Easy run from home after work. I knew I wouldn't get myself to do hill sprints on the unlit hill by my house at the end of the run I chose a suitable alternative halfway through to do 5 x 50m sprints. I felt lethargic during them but pretty good after.
Wednesday, 1/28: AM - 6 miles easy (46:21)
Erin and I went to Spring Lake for an easy early morning run. It was really cold! I did my 6 mile route while she went around the lake for a little under 4. I started out really slow; I was pretty tender after all the miles lately, but I was able to settle into a decent pace after a couple of miles.
Tuesday, 1/27: 15 miles easy (2:03:38)
Easy long run from home. Still tired so I just took it really easy. Fortunately I had my Amphipod belt so the fuel and liquid probably prevented a disastrous march home the last few miles. Not that it wasn't ugly anyway.
Monday, 1/26: 10 miles easy (1:23:02)
Easy recovery run after the 35 mile weekend. I felt tired but okay.
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8 comments:
Good luck next Sunday. I'm doing the 5K on my 50th birthday weekend!!
Great training.
Nice week of training. Will you run the half marathon all out? Also, have you ever run Napa Valley before?
See you on the starting line.
Hi TokyoRacer - I tried leaving a comment on your blog last week but blogger wouldn't take it for some reason. Anyway, I hope you have a great trip to CA and have lots of fun catching up with your daughter. I'll still have my long hippie hair at Napa so say say hi if you see me on 2:55 - 3:00 pace through 20 or running 9 minute miles thereafter!
I think I will run the half all out, but I'm still far from "racing fit" both mentally and physically. My primary goal is to run hard and give an honest effort the full distance. I might be able to PR with that (1:23:51) but at the very worst hope to accomplish the scheduled workout of 13 miles at goal marathon pace = 6:29's.
As for Napa, no I've never run it. Although I've run SF twice on whims and CIM just for fun with a friend, I've never focused on the marathon until 2009. I'm looking forward to it - it should be fun. With the weather we've had so far this winter I'm more concerned about it getting too hot than I am about cold or rain.
Ah...so close to a 100. You telling me you didn't have one more recovery run in ya? This is the first time I've heard of anyone under-reporting mileage.
Great tempo intervals on Sunday! Guess that 2nd to last mile running @ 5:58 burned you out for the last one.
Let's see that PR this weekend sandbagger. I believe you'll do better than you think.
That's a big week Sky - and to have some quality running in there bodes well for future races.
Was this week just an experiment, or do you intend to maintain a higher mileage schedule?
Billy - I certainly did have another 7 in me which is why I stopped tallying at 90; a double digit run was too daunting to consider. I hit my 100 on the Saturday through Friday stretch and with a race coming up the 9 day stretch at 100 mpw pace would have been too much!
I think my efforts and pacing were spot on - the route I did was 3 miles out and 3 miles back. Based on my effort and pacing I think the first mile was slightly downhill (and therefore the last mile slightly uphill) while 2 & 3 were slightly uphill (and therefore 4 & 5 were slightly downhill). I think my effort was extremely consistent and the disparity in paces reflects the gradual slope of the path. But I will admit that I pretty much emptied the tank on the last mile!
Ewen - That week was a planned accident. After missing two days the week before I had a huge weekend (35 miles). Erin then went on a three day business trip giving me some time to focus on more running. By Wednesday a 100 mile 7 day stretch was within reach so I just stayed on the gas for two more days. The weekend runs were originally scheduled and left me with the 90+ for the M-Su stretch. This week has been a disaster running wise (I'm viewing it as a forced taper) but yes, I hope to maintain 70-90 mpw through the meaty part of my training in March and April. Then for the Summer and Fall I'm looking at 80-110 per week. Ugh.
Sky- I just stumbled into your blog and it is pretty amazing how you can account for every details of your training. Impressive. Im thinking of doing the same now!
That's serious mileage Sky. Keeping the workouts intact might be a challenge.
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