Mileage: 61.3, with a small fartlek, a set of strides, a double, the Hardest Workout Ever© (not actually copyrighted, but it should be!), a strength workout, and a bootcamp workout. This was also a solid week of wind resistance training!
Monday - Cross-training Monday at home (because Jon was out of town) with 40 minutes elliptical and 40 minutes of strength training.
Tuesday - 8.7 miles, including a 4 mile fartlek of 3', 2', 1' with recoveries equal to the next push (6:48 average for all 8.7 miles; pushes were 5:45, 5:37, 5:30, 5:53, 5:53, 5:33, 5:49). This workout felt so short, and I really wanted to extend it, but I followed the schedule and was conservative due to still recovering from bronchitis (I was on Azithromycin and Prednisone January 21-25) - and also due to having such a hard Saturday workout slated. And also due to just trying to follow the schedule my coach puts in place for me in general! It was nice to run sub-6:00 again though! Danielle and Missy ran with me some on this one, but we were all doing slightly different paces. Afterwards I did about 5 minutes of calf raises and step-ups, as I forgot them on Monday.
Wednesday - 14.7 miles; 10.4 base pace (7:29) with 6 strides at the end in the morning, with the first 8 miles with Missy and Danielle. We played around with our course on this one to minimize running into the powerful west wind! 4.3 miles at lunch (7:37)...yep, still windy! This day ended up making me really happy, because I realized that I'm in good shape when I can run 14.7 miles in a day and feel like I didn't do much! Proceed to marathon!
Thursday - 8.1 miles base pace (7:13) with Danielle. I felt wonderful on this run, making me hopeful that I was getting back to full strength post-bronchitis. I also did 10 minutes of core work, mainly plank variations, and attended my first Ozark Mountain Ridge Runners board meeting! This was a day I was going non-stop from my 5:00 a.m. alarm until I got home from the long meeting at 9:30 p.m., which also meant I didn't get enough sleep (which I felt on Friday morning).
Friday - 3.5 mile shake out (7:25) plus a 45 minute bootcamp. Jumping lunges never get easier!
Saturday - 20.3 miles total. This was my second go at the Hardest Workout Ever, so it was less intimidating this time - especially because a note came with it stating, "I really don't want you to over-do it on this workout this time. Keep to the paces...I'm trusting you to stick precisely to the paces and not get carried away." Ahem....apparently I got carried away last time I ran it. Some of my goal pace ranges were 5-10 seconds faster this time, however -- but I'd exceeded some of the ranges as the workout progressed last time, I'm in better shape now, and it was quite warm last time I ran it, so I felt good about hitting this one (despite just finishing that round of antibiotics on Wednesday - I was basically pleading denial about that!).
I didn't have to set an alarm on Saturday morning, as I didn't have any time constraints, and which I was very thankful for! I woke up a few minutes after 5:00 a.m. thanks to my internal clock, but then went back to sleep until 7:08 a.m., which was pure bliss! I took my time getting around and with pre-workout fueling, but I didn't want to wait too long to get out because I feared that the already 15+ mph wind would pick up as the day went by (it did). I ran a lot of loops and out and backs during this workout in order to stay on flat terrain, split up the wind, and practice my fueling (drinking and taking gels while on the run), but since the wind was northwest it wasn't possible to avoid a headwind and keep it to the side like when it's straight north or east. I also ran this one solo, but it's seriously the shortest 20 miles I've ever run, and I have a much easier time running this workout alone than 20 miles base pace alone. The different segments split it up, and I was always thinking about hitting my times on the portion I was on, and not about the entire distance.
Here are the stats!
The workout plan:
20 miles total
2 miles warm-up
5 miles at 6:35-6:45
4 miles at 6:30-6:40
3 miles at 6:25-6:35
2 miles at 6:20-6:30
1 mile under 6:20
(with 0.5 mile recovery jogs between tempos)
1 mile cool-down
The actual workout:
20 miles total (6:41 average for all 20 - I did end up running 0.3 more to get back to my house, but I stopped and saved before adding that little jog)
(average pace for the 15 hard miles was 6:27)
All considering, I was extremely pleased with this workout! Having done it before went a long way in regards to knowing I could do it; last time before I ran it I worried that I wouldn't be able to hit the paces later in the workout, but this time I approached it more assertively. The 4 and 5 mile paces felt brisk but sustainable; they had me asking, "Can I maintain 6:3X pace for a marathon?", and when I got to the 3 mile I told myself, "These 6 miles at 6:25/6:20/sub-6:20 should be nothing; you even get two recoveries, and you've done 13.1 straight at 6:12.7 pace!" I would not call the end of the workout easy by any means, but the bottom of my pace ranges felt do-able throughout. To be completely honest, beforehand I was hoping to run the final 1 mile push under 6:00, but I'm going to blame my inability to do so on the wind wearing on me throughout the workout and on not being quite 100% post-bronchitis. By the time I got to that point in the workout, I knew I didn't have that kind of finish left, but I gave it what I had and was happy with that!
The last time I ran this workout I had a really great day, my average pace for the whole shebang was 6:52, and my time of 2:17:22 was at that time the second fastest I'd ever run 20 miles. But now 2:13:51 is the fastest I've run 20, on a day I wouldn't quantify as really great. My 20 mile split at Prairie Fire was 2:15:32, and Bass Pro didn't have a 20 mile mat, but would have been a tad slower based on my faster final 10K there (although the 20 mile mark was just before my wrong turn so who really knows). I was really happy to improve my average pace for the whole 20 by 11 seconds this time. I also have some comparison stats this time around, which is that I ran 6:44-6:49 pace for my marathons after the 6:52 average I ran in this workout last time...so as you can imagine I am doing the math. Taken all together, I guess I will publicly say that I hope this means I can manage an average of 6:3X in Phoenix! I am still deciding on exactly what time I want to shoot for there -- aiming for a PR is a given; provided I stay healthy (which is never guaranteed!), the Phoenix course would get me that even if my fitness was exactly the same as it was in fall 2016 -- and it's nice to have the information from this workout to take into consideration. I feel very thankful and blessed to have this one in the books!
Sunday - 6.1 miles recovery (7:51), with Amy R. I surprisingly felt great on this recovery run, and it was nice to have company since I usually run Sundays alone, and sometimes drag my feet about getting out since I'm usually tired from my long run. Amy said it helped her pick up the pace for her Sunday run, so hopefully this was the start of a mutually beneficial run meeting that we'll continue in the future!
4 weeks!
The actual workout:
20 miles total (6:41 average for all 20 - I did end up running 0.3 more to get back to my house, but I stopped and saved before adding that little jog)
2 miles warm-up
5 miles at 6:36 (6:41, 6:38, 6:31, 6:36, 6:34)
4 miles at 6:28 (6:28, 6:28, 6:31, 6:24)
3 miles at 6:25 (6:27, 6:23, 6:24)
2 miles at 6:19 (6:21, 6:16)
1 mile in 6:08
(with 0.5 mile recovery jogs between tempos)
1 mile cool-down(average pace for the 15 hard miles was 6:27)
All considering, I was extremely pleased with this workout! Having done it before went a long way in regards to knowing I could do it; last time before I ran it I worried that I wouldn't be able to hit the paces later in the workout, but this time I approached it more assertively. The 4 and 5 mile paces felt brisk but sustainable; they had me asking, "Can I maintain 6:3X pace for a marathon?", and when I got to the 3 mile I told myself, "These 6 miles at 6:25/6:20/sub-6:20 should be nothing; you even get two recoveries, and you've done 13.1 straight at 6:12.7 pace!" I would not call the end of the workout easy by any means, but the bottom of my pace ranges felt do-able throughout. To be completely honest, beforehand I was hoping to run the final 1 mile push under 6:00, but I'm going to blame my inability to do so on the wind wearing on me throughout the workout and on not being quite 100% post-bronchitis. By the time I got to that point in the workout, I knew I didn't have that kind of finish left, but I gave it what I had and was happy with that!
The last time I ran this workout I had a really great day, my average pace for the whole shebang was 6:52, and my time of 2:17:22 was at that time the second fastest I'd ever run 20 miles. But now 2:13:51 is the fastest I've run 20, on a day I wouldn't quantify as really great. My 20 mile split at Prairie Fire was 2:15:32, and Bass Pro didn't have a 20 mile mat, but would have been a tad slower based on my faster final 10K there (although the 20 mile mark was just before my wrong turn so who really knows). I was really happy to improve my average pace for the whole 20 by 11 seconds this time. I also have some comparison stats this time around, which is that I ran 6:44-6:49 pace for my marathons after the 6:52 average I ran in this workout last time...so as you can imagine I am doing the math. Taken all together, I guess I will publicly say that I hope this means I can manage an average of 6:3X in Phoenix! I am still deciding on exactly what time I want to shoot for there -- aiming for a PR is a given; provided I stay healthy (which is never guaranteed!), the Phoenix course would get me that even if my fitness was exactly the same as it was in fall 2016 -- and it's nice to have the information from this workout to take into consideration. I feel very thankful and blessed to have this one in the books!
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| 20 miles at 6:41, the hard way |
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| Splits 1 |
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| Splits 2 |
4 weeks!
So exciting! I love it when I beat past workout times. You are definitely on track for another PR!!!! I can't imagine sub-6:40 pace for a half, let alone a full. That is amazing!!!
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure I can imagine it either, haha!
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