Go-in target range: 40-45 miles
Coach Alan's plan: 45, w/ one off-day
Workouts:
- Tuesday: 4 mile tempo at 6:50 pace, 4 mins recovery jog, 2 mile at 6:30 (threshold) pace, 3 mins recovery, 1 mile at 6:15 pace w/ warmup & cooldown
- Sunday: long run of 16 miles at 7:30 pace w 6x2 min pickups to finish.
Pace for the week: 7:30
The one (physical) bothering me the most: I would say my right glute/upper hamstring, which feels tight when I'm not running. Close second would be the outside of my left knee, that started feeling weak towards the end of the long run this week.
Weather sort of cooperated this week...well, not really. Early in the week we had decent weather, and I had a nice Monday recovery hill run up to BC from work. Tuesday, the wind came, and was a factor most of the rest of the week. Maartje was recovering from her race early in the week and was on Yasso duty, so Alan came out to NB to run the Tuesday session with me along the Charles. Wind was racing, 15-20 mph with gusts that definitely seemed stronger than that. That helped us most of the way out through our warmup and the first few miles of the 4 mile tempo, but after 3 miles it was time to reverse and face the music. The last mile was a lot of effort to barely move at times, but thanks to the downwind sections, we hit 6:35 for this segment (vs target of 6:50.) The 2 miles then came all into the wind, and we pushed hard to hit 6:40 pace (vs target of 6:30.) As Alan put it midway through the run, given the conditions we were running into, this was about effort more than just pace. By the end of that 2 mile section, Alan was basically asking me if I was OK because I was struggling to keep up with him and the 6:40 pace. For the final fast mile, we did a bridge to bridge loop that had us half with wind, half against it. The bridge in the middle was a pace hindrance though...a touch of elevation and people to dodge. We hit 6:15 for that mile though, which I was happy with. Alan smartly had us moving close to 6 min pace for the whole downwind section to start it out, and the return trip was like running into a wall. For the entire 11.7 miles we managed 7:10 pace-happy with that effort!
The wind kept right on blowing the rest of the week, followed by a few inches of snow on Saturday! I didn't do anything hard in this portion of the week, but I did finish every run with a set of strides, and my paces were fine. Saturday in the snow, I hoped to find PJP runable, but it really wasn't at all in the far west section (I think it has been drifting up there all winter) and I bailed hard coming down a decline when I couldn't see what was beneath the new snow (it was solid ice.) I don't know when I'm going to be able to run hard and fast in PJP again, but my guess is not for at least a couple of more weeks. Disappointing, as that is a comfortable spot for me to run in after kid bedtime on weekday nights and I'm expecting a need to be out there doing work as I enter into the next buildup phase prior to our Europe trip.
Maartje and I were able to connect for the long run this week, thankfully. Esteban joined us also, so I was fortunate to have strong company. In an effort to get in some downhill work as practice for the significant downhill I'll be working through at Sugarloaf, we drove one car out to Ashland to run 16 miles back in to BC on the course. We had a really nice tailwind the whole way, and we were clipping off low 7:20 miles for the majority of our run, at an effort level that felt (to me) more like mid 7:30s, but I do believe I was working harder than I realized, since midway through the 6 2 minute pickups, my legs crumbled on me. Strong pace for the run (and the week) but not pumped about my finish to the long run. At 16 miles, I was still about a mile away from the car and I decided to split the runs and treat the surplus mile as cool-down. I took my sweet time climbing heartbreak (and descending as well.) Here's the link to the longrun.
The conclusion of that week brings me to halfway through the 16 week training program, and I'm happy to say that so far, I feel as though things are on track towards a BQ. My workouts have gone almost entirely to plan, and both my overall training pace (7:39 average) and long run pace (7:27 average) are in good shape. I've put in 411 miles, which is over 30% more than the 314 I had run for Philly. Here are two of my favorite graphs capturing the progress, miles per week and pace per week from the three training period of the last year.
And here's another good one!
Good trends on those graphs, hoping they continue on moving in the right directions.
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