Week 15 with the Coach

Well this week was full of highs and lows! Perfect 10 set me back a bit early in the week up through Thursdays tempo but with two easy days I was back to feeling good for today's 20 miler. PR informed me I was still obviously tired because I was slouching, but I felt good and I am sticking to that, slouching be damned ;)

Rundown: 66 miles for the week

Monday- Rest, about 60- minutes of walking at lunch
Tuesday- Lunch 30 minutes easy, PM Track workout 8 miles
Wednesday- 8.3 miles easy, 8:50 pace (felt much faster, but obviously still tired)
Thursday- 10 miles including tempo effort
Friday- 8 miles recovery, 9:07 pace
Saturday- 90 minutes trails, ~8 miles
Sunday- 20.4 miles average 7:40 pace

Key Workouts:

Tuesday Track:
Whoa still wrecked from Perfect 10 and it was a hot night! Ended up with a nasty side stitch the last two quarters and fell off the pace.

Goal was:
4 laps, push 200, jog 200
8*400 with 60 seconds rest all under 90 aiming for even splits, not necessarily low 80s because of the short rest
2 laps, stride straights, jog curves

200s were all 39-41

400s:
87.69 (59.45)
84.67 (60.94)
84.75 (60.91)
83.76 (58.87)
83.55 (60.80)
83.58 (62.72)
85.71 (60.99)
90.35

100s were just for effort, no timing, likely 19-20

Thursday Tempo:

Goal was the same as three weeks ago: 3 miles aiming for 7:10, 6:40, 6:40 2 minute rest, 2 miles aiming for 6:40 on both, 2 minutes rest, 3 miles aiming for 6:40, 6:40, 7:10

Well my body just said no. Pretty much gave me the finger and told me to go home. Instead of listening I tried to force it and just ended up with some dismal splits and mental exhaustion. This hasn't happened in a really long time so just my body's way of reminding me I am not super human.

mile warm up
7:16
6:51
6:47

2 minute rest

7:00
7:12 (stopped in the middle of this mile because I thought a park I saw would have water only to find none)

2 minute rest

7:19
7:31
7:34

mile cool down

Sunday Long Run:

Had a great relaxing trail run Saturday with Salty and I think that was the rejuvenation needed today. Goal was 20 miles averaging around 7:45 pace last 5 miles at marathon effort aiming for 7:04 pace.

Started early at 7:20 and got in 5 miles with Frank, Salty, and NC before doing the 15 mile loop.
Started a bit behind the group on the 15 which worked out perfectly. Kept us from pushing the pace and just ran comfortably. Last 5 miles I was supposed to go for marathon effort aiming for 7:04. PR kindly came back for me and ran the last 6 miles with me today because Salty had to do a fartlek type effort to finish up her 20. I told him to let me know where the 10 mile marker started on the course and we would start in the effort there. He asked what the effort should be and turns out we were already running 7:05 pace before we even got to the 10 mile marker so we just stayed there and continued the effort from there and PR kindly used his garmin to give me the splits after the run. Felt really good and just tried to run strong. There are some rollers the first 2 to 3 miles here but thankfully the last mile or so is flat. I had been drinking Heed today and I think it must be helping because just like my last 20 I really started to feel stronger later in the run. We hit our last 5 miles in 6:49, 7:00, 7:02, 6:44, and 6:39 to finish out 20 miles in 2:33 and then did a 3 minute cool down easy to the cars. The pace felt comfortably hard like you would expect during training and I am so happy Thursday appears to have been a fluke and just an off day. Really getting excited about my marathon fitness now.