[I only now realized that I never posted this post! It's from two weeks ago. Oops.]
I'm a little behind on this training re-cap--this is last week's training!-but it was a busy/tiring weekend and it's been a busy week. Better late than never, I guess??
Monday - Cross-train
45 min. spin
Coached swim practice was cancelled due to the weather, and though I could have still gone that morning and done a posted workout on my own, the pool opened on a delay AND my kids had a snow day, so I stayed home and rode the bike. While I rode I listened to the end of the latest Serial podcast--which I had started on my last spin--and updates on the last Serial season, which made the time go by more quickly. Spinning is tied with the elliptical as my least favorite form of cross-training. I like doing a spin class, because there is lots of variation there--and I enjoy biking out on the roads, but at home on my trainer I simply pedal in place and it. is. so. boring. I've been looking into some workout videos for the bike (NYC Running Mama has mentioned The Sufferfest series), but I haven't taken action. Hopefully the colder temps will move on soon and I can ride outside!
Tuesday - Speed work
1 mi. warm-up @ 8:49
2 x 1200 @ 6:44 w/ 2 min. rest intervals
4 x 800 # 6:35 w/ 2 min. rest intervals
.5 mi. cool down @ 9:13
Total miles = 6
This workout was kind of a bitch. Because of slick roads, I did the run indoors on the treadmill instead of out on the track--which always makes the intervals seem longer. And I was running by 6:15 a.m.--which made the workout tougher for me, because while I don't mind running early in the morning I have a hard time being motivated to run fast early in the morning. But this was the only time I would have to get the run done, so I sucked it up and gave it my best shot. Maintaining the pace for these speed intervals, surprisingly, wasn't necessarily the difficult part--it was that the intervals seemed to last FOREVER. I never felt like I couldn't hold on to the pace for any of the intervals--I just wanted them to be over with faster! The two 1200s were tough, and I spent the last of those two rest intervals completely off the treadmill gulping down water. At that point I was feeling a little nervous about my ability to run 2 more miles at a faster pace, but those rest intervals really do make a difference and I started each speed interval feeling refreshed and ready to knock them out. My go-to song got me through the tough spots. I hopped off the treadmill one more time during a rest interval to drink more water halfway through the 800s, but otherwise all the rest intervals were done at a 10:00-12:00 minute pace.
Wednesday - Cross-train
30 min. strength/core
1600 yard swim (about 40 min.)
By the time I got in the pool Wednesday, it had been two weeks since I'd swum. Ouch. It seems if I miss even one week then I have to start all over gain, so it's a wonder I didn't drown. It was freezing outside again today, and I was going to be swimming in the pool that is always freezing, so it was really hard to motivate myself to go, but I made it. Since it had been a while, I knew I would need to break the swim down into sections, rather than try to swim all those yards without stopping. So I did 6 250-yard intervals with 1-2 minutes rest in between, just taking it slow and easy. When I got out of the pool, my lips were blue and it took every bit of 1.5 hours in front of a space heater to warm up again. Brrrrrr!
Thursday - Tempo
1 mi. easy (8:32), 5 @ tempo (7:28, 7:21, 7:18, 7:13, 7:02), 1 mi. easy (9.03)
Total miles = 7.25 @ 7:44
I am super stoked about this workout! The scheduled tempo pace was 7:38--my tempo miles averaged 7:29, plus the entire workout including w/u and c/d was just six seconds off from the scheduled tempo pace! I don't know what got into me, but when I hit my first tempo mile at 7:29 and felt like I could maintain that pace for the entire five miles, I decided that instead of slowing down to match the scheduled pace I would just go with what felt natural. I know it's important to follow the schedule, because the distances and paces have been carefully designed to ensure that I will have enough rest and energy to complete each training run without over-doing it--but then again, it seems that every tempo run I have felt like I could give more, and I don't want to short-change myself. So I kept the pace, but after the second mile I was beginning to think that maybe I had spoken too soon--my legs were feeling a little tired already and I still had more than halfway to go--and I thought about taking it a little easy and cutting back the pace, but then a little ways into the third mile I got my second wind and decided to see if I could knock some time off not just the third tempo, but the fourth and fifth as well, for a pyramid tempo. Despite fighting wind (I tempo-ed in the park, where it's always windy), each mile was ticking by faster than the last. But at the end of the fourth mile I had doubts I could top the pace in the final mile, and for the second time considered slowing down and simply meeting the required 7:38 pace--but I am nothing if not determined, and also a bit stubborn, and one of Prefontaine's quotes floated through my mind: "Don't let fatigue make a coward out of you." I was tired. I didn't want to be running a sub-7:13 pace anymore. But letting it go would have been the same as quitting. I did not want to be a coward, afraid of facing the discomfort and pain that would come with maintaining that pace, and the potential failure if I wasn't able to hold on. When I line up at Louisville I want to know that I trained my very hardest, that I gave it my all, so that no matter what happens I will know I did everything I could. No regrets. So I pushed for that last mile, which was really more about hanging on than feeling strong and paced like the previous four miles--but I made it.
And this is what happens when your six-year-old takes your post-tempo run photos : )
Friday - Cross-train
Elliptical (10K)
Saturday - Rest
My husband had to work all day starting at 7:00 a.m. and my daughter had an activity at 4:00 p.m., so I had known going into the weekend that I wouldn't get a chance to run and had decided in advance to make it a total rest day. I spent the morning tidying up around the house and coached my son's basketball game that afternoon (which was a first for me--it was a lot like herding cats), then went with my daughter to sell Girl Scout cookies at their cookie booth (shameless plug: if you want Girl Scout cookies my daughter would love to sell you some!). It was such a warm day and we took the opportunity to open some windows and air out the house!
Sunday - Long run
20 miles @ 9:02*
*The overall pace was skewed for this run due to my watch running continuously during an 8-minute stop for inclement weather
This goes down in the books as one of the craziest long runs ever. It seemed doomed from the start, beginning late Saturday afternoon when my husband reminded me he was going to be out of town all day Sunday starting at 9:00 a.m. What??!!?? I had totally forgotten about it and had totally failed to plan my long run around it. Since my husband worked all day Saturday and my daughter had her late-afternoon cookie sale, I had deliberately discounted Saturday as a long run day and was planning to do the run Sunday morning before church at 11:00. But now I was going to have to have it done by 8:00 a.m. so my husband could be on time for his event. That would mean starting the run no later than 5:00 a.m. Ummmm, no. I just didn't see that happening. Not only is that way earlier than I prefer to get up and run, if I'm being honest, I also just didn't feel comfortable running at that hour, in the dark, alone--it didn't seem very safe. Luckily my husband was able to postpone his plans until 11:00, which gave me some extra time. My plan was to get up at 5:00, hopefully be running by 5:30, and be done around 8:30 so my husband could get to his event without being too late.
After the logistics for the run had been worked out, it was time to make my usual pre-long run pasta dinner...only I was one important ingredient short. Grrrrr. After stressing about what to eat instead of pasta but not coming up with anything that would be carb-ful but not stomach-upsetting, I finally scoured the pantry long enough that I came up with a suitable substitute for the ingredient I was missing. So, after a lot of angst and hanger, pre-long run pasta dinner--check.
When I went to bed I checked the weather forecast. I knew it was supposed to be rainy Sunday and wanted to know how the weather was looking for the window of time I would be running. Outlook not good. The weather from 5:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. showed lightning bolts. Grrrrr. So I went to bed grumpy, sure that my long run was going to be sabotaged.
At 5:00 a.m. my alarm went off, and no sooner had I sat up and hit the snooze button than I saw a bolt of lightning out the window and heard the rumble of thunder. Grrrrr. So I re-set my alarm for 5:30 and laid back down but didn't go back to sleep, just waited to see if the weather was going to break and fretted over getting the run done on time...or at all. I went ahead and got out of bed ahead of the alarm and got moving so I would be ready as soon as the weather broke. By the time I got dressed, ate breakfast and got my water and fuel lined up, there was no more thunder/lightning. I was on the road around 6:20.
I had planned to do a ten-mile out-and-back on another side of town, stop by the house for fuel, and head to the other side of town for the last ten miles--but with the weather being iffy I decided not to venture that far out, as there was no shelter along the first 10 miles I had planned. I decided to hit up the track for the first few miles, get a feel for what the weather might do, and bring my office key with me so that, if the weather turned inclement, I would have a place to shelter. (My office is a mile from my house, and the track is right behind my office.) So I ran the mile to the track and then did three miles on the track, at which point I decided to venture out on the roads since there had been neither rain nor lightning. I got a little under a mile down the road when it started lightning again, so I turned around and headed back to the track. I was about 7.5 miles into the run when it started raining, and I was drenched within minutes. Once back at the track I decided to go ahead and take a water break and fuel, since I needed to get out of the lightning anyway. I went into my office, used the bathroom, ate some Clif Shot Blocks, drank some water and Nuun, shot an email to my husband letting him know that I was out of the weather, and checked the weather radar. All of this took about 8 minutes....and when I got ready to go back out to continue the run, I realized that my watch had been running the whole time instead of going into auto-pause mode. Grrrrr! That meant that entire mile was going to be way off in terms of pace (and, indeed, that mile showed a 14:xx pace, which affected the overall pace of the run). Grrrrrrrrrrr!!!! It was still lightning a little, but no thunder; and I didn't want to delay any longer so I headed on back out to the track where I did a few more miles. Once it cleared again, I ventured back out on the road. This time, it remained clear enough that I felt comfortable running the 2-mile loop through the park. It was pretty windy in there and I had one mile that was a little over nine minutes. Once out of the park, I headed back to the track to fuel (I'd left my fuel in my office), and decided to hop back on the track for another mile or two, just to see what the weather would do. By then I had run 15-16 miles and it seemed to be clearing up a bit; I felt confident that I could finish the last 4 or so miles away from the track, and finished up the run on a route that was towards my house. At about mile 18, I began to experience a little knee pain, along with a shooting pain from my ankle up my shin to the side of my knee. Not sure what that was all about, but luckily I didn't have much farther to go and my knee didn't bother me any afterwards.
So that was a rather long-winded recap of my long run--normally the long runs are a lot more straightforward and boring to describe!--but really the run itself felt long-winded so I guess it's only fitting that the recap would be also. All that on-the-track/off-the-track, having to think so hard about where to run in order to get in the miles, hoping I wouldn't get struck by lightning--it was exhausting. Afterwards I kind of felt like I'd been beat up. When I got home the kids and I went to church, and when we got back I immediately put on comfy clothes and parked myself on the couch, in front of the fire, with a blanket and a book. I stayed there all afternoon/evening and didn't feel an ounce of guilt!
Looking through this week, I feel it was a pretty solid week of training--except for the glaring lack of strength training : \ I only did one strength session, which is disappointing. I wish I could say I did better this week, but so far this week I've also only had one session. Gotta get on that! A strong core is essential for maintaining good form, which in turn is essential to maintaining pace, particularly when you are feeling tired.
Does anyone have any tips for fitting in short strength/core sessions? What are your go-to strength moves when you are short on time?
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