AM: struggled to hit 7:10 pace for 4 of the 5 miles
PM: Felt good went 6:40 pace for 5 in 88 degree weather. Probably too fast. After reading some more of pfitzinger I am thinking about splitting my 'easy' runs into recovery runs and general aerobic runs. Mornings could be recovery at 8+ pace insuring that I get a recovery run before and after every workout. And afternoons that don't have a workout could be general aerobic miles at about 7min pace. Want to read pfitzingers road racing for serious runners. Right now all i have is his advanced marathoning book which is not really what im interested in.
Even Jack Daniels puts my 'easy' pace at 7:10-7:22. Then again he puts my marathon pace at 6:12 or something like that lol. These are based on my mile and half marathon PR's. And I think that I am nearly in the shape I was in for both of them.
AM: Ugh horrible. 'raced' 5k in 19:16. After the first mile in 5:35 I just gave up entirely due to heat. Cruised it in. Probably my 6:40 paced 5 mile yesterday didn't help. I do think im in good shape. But I didn't try and the heat is oppressive. Can't wait for monday when I move down to Birmingham and get access to treadmills. Also thinking I will do that plan of recovery vs aerobic runs. Also think im gonna forgo racing until its below 70 degrees.
Think im gonna jump back to 75-80miles next week with recovery runs in the morning and aerobic runs in the evening when there is no workout. Of course this is assuming that I can fit this stuff into my schedule. Starting an away rotation at UAB in cardiology electrophysiology.
AM: 8 recovery. But focused on form and naturally fell into what was probably about 7:30 pace but relaxed (no watch). Best temperature for a run since ive been home. Probably like 70 and 50% humidity but was heating up towards the end of the run. I know, I said I would do recovery vs aerobic but this really was easy and relaxed. Just the low temp and the low mileage week made 7:30 very easy. Today and tomorrow are gonna be iffy on if I can double but that's fine. I'll hit decent mileage but nothing insane. I think I have been pushing the volume of training too much compared to the quality (up until this past week). On a plus side. My hips don't hurt at all right now which I think might be due to getting new shoes yesterday. They were 25 bucks and got 2 pairs. Probably should have gotten all 4 they had in my size of that type. What a bargain. I should really change shoes more often than I do. I probably had 1k miles on both of the pairs of trainers I was wearing before. But anyway should be good for at least a few months now.
PM: no time but did 4 sets of squat jumps not totally to exhaustion because I know from experience these could make my quads jelly for a week.
AM: 6 in birmingham. Recovery effort. Hilly hilly down here. Went to a park with a 1 mile trail loop and did laps. Tomorrow the gym will be open for me to get a membership and use the treadmill.
PM: 6 again. Aerobic conditioning effort. Listened to my body, no workout in this heat and with how my legs feel. The squat jumps yesterday did their job. Not hurting really, but definitely feeling it and don't want to overdo the stimulation. This course has 2 MASSSSSIVVVE hills in it. It is a little under a mile to the park and that mile is half up and half down. Probably 300+ft elevation climb and then the same drop. And its steeeeep. And when you think that you are almost done you turn a corner and it gets jenkes steep for the last 30-50m. The trail has some little hills nothing crazy.
PM: 3x2miles on this weird indoor track. Finally a good workout. First I have to say that based on my times it was probably measured from the outside lane (lane 4) and I ran it in lane 2 passing people on the outside. So based on that its about 50m short each mile which is about 11 seconds per mile more. Times were 11:38 (5:49-corrected->6:00), 11:28 (5:44-corrected->5:55), 11:03 (5:31-corrected->5:42). So corrected 5:52 average. Maybe worth a 1:19 low (adding 8ish sec/mile to get half marathon pace). Felt sick from the very beginning. But am happy with the times. Felt very controlled even on the last one could have gone significantly faster. Still wasn't as cool as I would like it to be and had to wear a shirt and got serious nipple chaffing but acceptable. Ill just wear bandaids when i go back.
AM: 4 recovery pace at freaking 4:30am because i had to get to work at 6. Had to run roads because too dark for trails at this ungodly hour.
PM: 6 aerobic miles on the indoor track at just under 7 pace. Was supposed to do a workout but after 12 hours on my feet and 6 hours of sleep I just couldn't. Would have been worse to try and do poorly then get discouraged than it is to just recover a bit more and try again at a different time. This rotation sucks. Im just watching procedures all day which isnt very useful. And the hours suck and im standing all of the gd time. Oh well, 3 more weeks.
slept late, tired, drove home so had to run in the heat 97 degrees with heat index in the 100s. Got sick during the run and cut it short at 5. At least i got 70 for the week. Gonna shoot for a bit more next week.
no morning run. Water skied pretty hard though which works the legs as well as several other less likely muscles.
PM: 4x5x400 in the indoor gym. Was short on time because gym was gonna close. Stupid parents held me up leaving home and hit some traffic. So warmed up 1 mile, did the workout hitting adjusted 77-81 throughout mostly 79-80 and closing the last one in 74 but was falling apart trying to do that lol. But I kept the recoveries pretty quick so I probably worked the vo2max quite a bit hopefully. Im not where I could be with vo2max but hopefully this will be the turning point. I felt like I started pretty slow but didn't really speed up just kept it stable. The gym was pretty hot today so I started feeling that and it probably held me back a bit. Next week is when I should be starting the intense vo2max stage of the training. All weeks in that stage have 3 workouts (or 2 workouts and a race) and some have 2 vo2max workouts in a week like 5x1k monday, threshold wednesday, and 4x1200 friday wtf. I am gonna warm up well for those workouts and start slow like 5:30 or 5:35 pace and try to pick it up throughout the workout. On the plus side my legs feel better than they have since I started training for this race. I guess that is because of the 63 mile week and the 70 mile week but I have been going significantly faster on some runs since that decrease. Got kicked out of the gym right after i finished the workout and decided to cool down at the trails but once i got there I just couldnt run at all so i just stretched and said 8 is good enough for today.
am: woke up and went to indoor gym instead of running around here outside. The temps make so much difference for me and since my goal race is gonna be cold I figure no reason to heat train if I dont have to. 7 easy
PM: 8 indoor gym. Very variable but all below 7 pace. One mile this dude passed me and then I stuck behind him and put the hurt on him as he tried to pull away and was entirely unable to. That mile was 6:10.
AM: Breakthrough workout. Henry's 4 mile tempo got me scared. So I had to beat it lol. 22:50 (5:42.5 pace) adjusted for track length (turns out exactly 1 extra lap per 4 miles). Splits were dead even give or take 1-2 seconds but didnt obsessively check my watch, I mostly ran on feel. But it shows you that I was pretty much red line comfort zone. But definitely not racing. I could have pretty easily kept it up for another mile and it still be a workout.
PM: 16hr day guy almost died twice. got 4 miles in at 10pm
PM: 10 miles very comfortable but did it in 67 min. I feel pretty good about the faster running on easy days. But I don't feel a need to do 80-85mpw with it just yet. My legs feel great and the runs are so much shorter in duration and its pretty fun.
AM: 6 finishing with a slightly sub 6 min mile cause it was just feeling good.
PM: 4 was planning on 6 but my right calf was hurting and I opted for a core workout instead of the final 2. Hopefully this gets better soon. Doesnt hurt bad but needs to not get worse.
PM: 5 mile tempo in 29:36 (5:55 pace), 4 min recovery then 3 mile tempo in 17:35 (5:51 pace) all of it slightly negatively split starting at 6:04 pace for the 5er and 5:54 pace for the 3. Was wanting to do an 8 mile tempo but went too fast, gym was hot, and needed to poop lol. Gym must have been 80+ degrees today wtf. Next time I do just a 5 mile tempo I will PR for that distance. Sub 29 is gonna be a cake walk right now. Also I wish to god this damn rotation would end. 2 more weeks. This coming week Im gonna do more vo2max work. Should have today but since i didnt run this morning I wanted a long workout to get some miles in. Warmed up 2 and down only 0.5 because I was getting sick to my stomach. Funny the 2 mile warmup started around 7 pace and got to 6:12 by the end. I think my form and efficiency is really improving because of this faster running. And im not really straining to hit that speed Im just getting my turnover right, knees high, posture and arm carraige good and the speed comes with very little effort. Hopefully this improvement continues.
AM: 6 at 7:30 pace. Trying to go slower to recover but I think the real problem is that Im not getting enough sleep.
PM: 4 super long day (13 hours okay not sooo long but long considering running on either end) hate this rotation such a grind... must... keep... going... but also I need to get a workout in sometime. blah
PM: workout 3xmile with 800m recovery, 2x800m 400m recovery. Unfortunately before I actually did miscalculate the track lane distance assuming that this track is measured from the outside lane which I still dont know. All I know is that I am improving from the begining of this month. But you may want to add 11 more seconds per mile on those previous times. Today I was shooting for 5:30's for the miles and 2:40's for the 800s. Hit 5:27, 5:22, 5:24 (all adjusted running the extra half lap needed)
