Mileage: 53.7 with 2 speed/strength workouts, 1 set of strides, 1 double, 1 long run, and 2 bootcamps (also 1 extra child for a few days). Although my mileage decreased a little this week, it wasn't low, and I mainly felt my taper in not having a Friday run and with my long run being significantly shorter. I am NOT one who looks forward to tapering, but with running in the 50s still I didn't yet encounter taper madness.
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| This week was also school picture week! |
Tuesday - 8.1 miles base pace (7:22) with Missy. For some reason, the farm roads that are usually deserted on our early morning runs were busy-ish on this one! She made me jump into the ditch twice when there was traffic coming from both directions. I also did 5 minutes of planks.
Wednesday - 10.2 total (7:24) with 2.1 warm-up, 6 x 0.25 hill repeats straight into a 2 mile tempo (6:11, 6:06) off of the 6th repeat, 3.1 cool-down. I've never done this workout before, and although the beginning of the tempo sucked coming off the hill repeat, it was also fun to do something different. The hill I run is so steep that running 7:30 pace up it is HARD (the hill reps are effort-based luckily), and then barely-putting-effort-into-running recoveries going back down are pretty much the same pace. I hope I get to do this workout again sometime so I can compare splits. I couldn't think of a course where I could run a long hill and then go onto a flat 2 miles for the tempo, plus this hill is just 1.5 miles from my front door, so the tempo was rolling also (although MUCH less so than the big hill I used for repeats).
Thursday - 11 total, with 8 recovery miles (7:52) with 6 strides towards the end a.m. and 3 miles (7:31) late runch. I was in Kansas City for work, staying by Weatherby Lake, and the route I ran in the morning was not ideal for a recovery run the day after hill repeats (or any recovery run really)! I'm used to running hilly routes, but this was different than those around my house - maybe more steeper hills instead of the rolling that I'm used to. I did my strides with recoveries back and forth across the dam (the only flat section around). Runch was done on my drive back to Springfield in Clinton, on the Katy trail. This was the flattest run I've had in awhile! It was nice to break up the drive, but logistics weren't the best (hello changing in the trailhead bathroom!). At work we have started saying that running is my third job; I love all three of my jobs though (and yes, I know how blessed I am to feel that way!)!
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| Recovery hills? |
Friday - Cross-training Friday (a 5-day running week - ensue panic!), with bootcamp strength after a warm up on the elliptical. Ironically, two things that I was scared of adding - a 6th running day and 2-a-day runs - are now what I'm having a hard time with giving up! But I trust my coach's plan and also know I'll get to do them again in my next build-up since they've been helpful to me. It's also great to know that I can do them and stay healthy.
On Friday afternoon, we had a 6-year-old foster child come to stay with us for a few days. She lives in a therapeutic foster home with a couple we went through foster parent training with, and although we haven't been fostering recently we still have our license and agreed to watch her for the weekend for her parents to have some time to themselves. Children placed in Missouri therapeutic foster homes are only allowed to stay with other therapeutic foster parents (no babysitters or family members watching them, etc.), so it's difficult to have a date night or what not. Anyway, she and Albani enjoyed playing at times, and it sure showed me how grown up Albani is in comparison. It also showed me how much we are into our routines, as having another child sure threw that off. I honestly personally struggled with that part of it, but kept reminding myself not to be selfish. We have been given so much and we need to give back! Albani did tell me repeatedly through the weekend that she doesn't want a sister any longer (for awhile she thought she really wanted one!).
On Friday afternoon, we had a 6-year-old foster child come to stay with us for a few days. She lives in a therapeutic foster home with a couple we went through foster parent training with, and although we haven't been fostering recently we still have our license and agreed to watch her for the weekend for her parents to have some time to themselves. Children placed in Missouri therapeutic foster homes are only allowed to stay with other therapeutic foster parents (no babysitters or family members watching them, etc.), so it's difficult to have a date night or what not. Anyway, she and Albani enjoyed playing at times, and it sure showed me how grown up Albani is in comparison. It also showed me how much we are into our routines, as having another child sure threw that off. I honestly personally struggled with that part of it, but kept reminding myself not to be selfish. We have been given so much and we need to give back! Albani did tell me repeatedly through the weekend that she doesn't want a sister any longer (for awhile she thought she really wanted one!).
Saturday - Yasssssssssooooooos! 10.6 miles total: 2.2 miles warm-up (7:40), 10 x 800 m on the track with 2:55 recovery jogs, 0.5 cool-down. My goal time range was 2:55-2:58 for the 800s, and my splits were: 2:56, 2:56, 2:57, 2:57, 2:58, 2:57, 2:58, 2:58, 2:59, 2:59 (my average pace for the whole 800s/recoveries/cool-down that was together on my watch was 6:54). This was the hardest workout I've done this year - harder on me than the "hardest workout ever" actually - and I think this was because I haven't run much speed work, and because my legs were tired from Friday's bootcamp and not enough sleep this week. I also honestly think I would have had an easier time running 5 miles straight at 6:05-6:10 pace! I always had a hard time starting back up after the recovery jogs, and dropping under 6:00 pace is a different ball game.
This workout is always a grueling one, but usually the beginning reps feel easy (e.g., 2:58 feels slow on rep 1 but 2:58 feels oh-so-fast on rep 10). That was not the case for this one - it was hard from the gate! I fought a lot of doubts during this run, and you can tell I didn't feel wonderful because I didn't get faster as the workout went on. Reps 7-8 felt like I was reaching with all I had to hit my goal times, and by then I felt basically like I should on the final rep of a track workout. For the final 2 repeats I told myself that this was how the final mile of my marathon was going to feel, and I needed to learn to stay on pace with nothing left. I squeaked in 2:59s for my final 2 reps, with rep 10 being 2:59.9, so slightly missed my goal range on those 2, but based on how I felt it was a small miracle that I stayed under 3:00. I ran this same workout before Dallas with my reps all between 2:58-3:01 (I remember feeling much fresher at the beginning of that one), and my goal range then was 2:57-3:00 but I couldn't quite hit the 3:00 on my final two reps (those were the 3:01s, so very similar to this workout's pattern). I'm glad that I was a bit faster this time. Although I don't believe in Yassos as a marathon time predictor, they are a good workout and were quite challenging for me! My legs were hammered when I finished this. I took the kids swimming afterwards but did not swim myself!
This workout is always a grueling one, but usually the beginning reps feel easy (e.g., 2:58 feels slow on rep 1 but 2:58 feels oh-so-fast on rep 10). That was not the case for this one - it was hard from the gate! I fought a lot of doubts during this run, and you can tell I didn't feel wonderful because I didn't get faster as the workout went on. Reps 7-8 felt like I was reaching with all I had to hit my goal times, and by then I felt basically like I should on the final rep of a track workout. For the final 2 repeats I told myself that this was how the final mile of my marathon was going to feel, and I needed to learn to stay on pace with nothing left. I squeaked in 2:59s for my final 2 reps, with rep 10 being 2:59.9, so slightly missed my goal range on those 2, but based on how I felt it was a small miracle that I stayed under 3:00. I ran this same workout before Dallas with my reps all between 2:58-3:01 (I remember feeling much fresher at the beginning of that one), and my goal range then was 2:57-3:00 but I couldn't quite hit the 3:00 on my final two reps (those were the 3:01s, so very similar to this workout's pattern). I'm glad that I was a bit faster this time. Although I don't believe in Yassos as a marathon time predictor, they are a good workout and were quite challenging for me! My legs were hammered when I finished this. I took the kids swimming afterwards but did not swim myself!
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| Future triathlete |
Sunday - 14 mile base pace long run with a fast finish mile (7:21 average, final mile of 6:31). The day after I have a workout that I don't finish feeling good or that hammers my legs (both of which were the case on Saturday!), my confidence is usually down a bit. I wasn't sure how this run would go, but once I got rolling I felt great! I ran out and back, and usually when I do that I try to come back faster than I go out, even if it's an easy run, to have something to focus on. I looked at my watch at mile 7 and my time was 52:24, then my total time was 1:42:53, so I had a nice negative split (the fast finish mile of course helped that along). I will also say that it's far easier for me to finish a long run with a mile in the 6:30s than to run one 800 m rep at 2:56, haha! This is my last run of any real distance before Prairie Fire - wowzers! Next week I think I top off at 11.
I have thoroughly enjoyed this training cycle and no matter what happens I am extremely thankful for it. I love training and my hard workouts just as much as I love racing! I am so thankful for the friends I've been able to share my miles with. Missy and I have some spring race plans in the works that I'm excited to share when we finalize them, and I'm uber excited that we will likely be on the same training schedule over the winter (as of yesterday, her tri season is over and she won't be biking much until 2017).
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