Monday 9/8: 6 miles. 46 minutes. 3x5 minutes at medium hard effort on a hilly course. This workout felt solid. Not hard enough to leave me trashed, but built a lot of confidence.
Tuesday 9/9: 4 miles. 32 minutes easy plus 12x10s sprints. Really opened the legs up on these, dropping down to sub-4 minute pace on several.
Wednesday 9/10: 4.75 miles, 40 minutes. Easy. Needed a recovery day after the last two. The workouts in this training plan are more intense on a more regular basis than I am used to, but my top speeds and certain heartrates are getting faster. I'm not feeling burnt out or like I'm not recovering, so I will keep going with it.
Thursday 9/11: 4.5 miles (and a bit), 53 minutes. 8 x River Gorge Hill hard. Good, hard hill workout. Averaged about 1:12-1:14 per repeat. Unfortunately, at the bottom of the hill, on the bank of the Mississippi, there was a very dead corpse of some animal. The smell, and the sight of the ribs poking out, definitely motivated me to get back up that hill.
Friday 9/12: Off.
Saturday 9/13: 13.1 miles, 1:57. That's not going to win me any half marathons anytime soon, but it got me out for a long run around the River Gorge loop. I didn't quite break the 2 hour mark with this run, but my next long run should do it.
Sunday 9/14: Off. I did wander around Afton State Park for an hour or so. Probably added a couple miles to the weekly total.
Weekly total 32 miles
Monday 9/15: 4.75 miles, 40 minutes. Easy start to a truncated week of running.
Tuesday 9/16: 6.2 miles. 50 miles. 4x5 minutes hard with a 2 minute rest on a hilly course. Another boost of confidence. These intervals were suggested to match my half-marathon pace based on my heartrate, and I kept them between 6:30 and 6:40 pace, save for one that was particularly hilly and topped out over 7 minute pace. All in all, a solid effort.
Wednesday 9/17: Off.
Thursday 9/18: 5.8 miles, 48 minutes. 5x10s sprints followed by 6x1minute at 5:20-5:30 pace. Some of these were in fact slower than the prescribed pace. I am unsure whether this is correct, as the pace on my watch suggested I was consistently going faster than recorded ultimately. However, as the majority of these were uphill on a trail, I think I'm ok with the results.
Friday 9/19: 3.75 miles, 31 minutes. Easy recovery day before heading up to the BWCA in the afternoon.
Saturday-Monday: BWCA trip. No running, but lots of canoeing and general hiking, with a little bit of portaging mixed in.
I didn't quite get the prescribed mileage in, and got no long run in the second week of this training segment. Even so, I feel like my training is progressing well. My legs continue to recover better than I expect, and nothing untoward is happening with my heartrate, so I don't think overtraining is an issue.
That said, I really need to get my long runs in the next few weeks. This week I will be aiming for 2:30 at the least, with 3 hours the next week and a subsequent double (3+ hours followed by 1+ hours the day after, getting half of my ultimate race time over the course of two days.
After almost two months of this particular training plan, I am not quite sure how I feel about being on a fixed plan again. I love the structure, and I feel that I am definitely improving my speed and general endurance. At the same time, I miss the freedom I had previously. I need to start running more freely on some of my non-specific days. This weekend's long run grants a little more freedom to my heart rate, so I think I will head out to Afton without my heartrate monitor and just let myself enjoy my long run.
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