Monday Training Update (Week 6): Week Ending 11/5
This was the plan for the week:
T - 4 miles @ EA + Strides
Th - 1 mile @ WU, 8x400 @ 10k w/ 30 sec RI @ WU, 1 mile @ CD
F - 4 miles @ EB
Sa - 8 miles @LR
This was overall a good training week. I got out and did my 4 miles outside on Tuesday, and it was beautiful weather. I'm trying to build my endurance on hills a little more, so I'm picking kind of repetitive segments that have some hills in my neighborhood, and then heading to a "back stretch" that has the very end of my run on a bigger hill. It isn't the most exciting route, but I can feel my endurance getting better. I've been wearing my new Brooks for these EA and EB runs, and I'm really happy with them. I've noticed myself feeling much less sore after I run, which is probably both a function of being in better shape and possibly some benefit from the shoes. I'll take it. Pacing was ok: 12:37/mi, was supposed to be doing 13:02.
Wednesday into Thursday was another difficult sleep night. These are getting old, fast. It was game 7 of the World Series, and
@MoanasPapa is a born-and-bred Dodgers fan, so he was up late watching the game, woke me up when he came in, then had a hard time getting to sleep and kept me awake with his dejected tossing and turning. So of course had a nightmare a couple of hours later and I couldn't get back to sleep after it, so... you know... a 5AM wakeup call was not welcome. I ended up finding time during the day to do that workout on the treadmill here at work. As I wrote earlier this week, it was much tougher on the treadmill, and I was running at brand new paces to boot. But it got done. One thing I JUST realized though - I'm supposed to be running my RIs at WU. I've been (quickly) walking them. I tried to run the first couple on the treadmill but decided to go back to the typical walk given the unexpected challenge of the workout. I'll start running RIs outside, where I'm a little more comfortable during speed workouts.
Thursday's workout was somewhat uneventful. I picked the same route I had done Tuesday. I made a tactical error and had laid out cooler-weather clothes (capris and a long sleeve tech shirt), but didn't want to go change because my in-laws are in town and I was trying to be quiet. Oh well. It was fine. Pacing was much better: was supposed to be doing 12:11 and did 12:13. I also ran 1/3 of a mile longer than I was supposed to because I miscalculated one of the loops. That's ok, I felt good.
I was not sure when I'd get my Saturday 8-miler in. I ended up being able to go after kiddo's gym class. Weather was great. It definitely took me a while to settle in to the run, though, and I had a lot of random stops in the first couple of miles. I was actually really glad that the discussion about stopping at intersections had come up on the main running thread last week, it helped me feel ok about my stops (intersection, troubleshooting wireless headphones, pit stop). Around mile 2, all the distractions were done and the other 6 miles were all straight running, and they felt good. It was a pretty run that was partly paved trail and partly neighborhood. My new LR pace is 11:47 and I ended up at 11:13, but it's my fault (for some reason I had it in my head that my new pace was 11:27. I think my old one was 12:27.). One fun thing: I noted how much better my endurance is than when I did my 8-milers last cycle. Those were done on a trail that's a less hilly, this one was done on a hillier route. Last cycle, I would have been really working hard beyond mile 6, this time, I was surprised to still be feeling fine at 8. Last cycle, I never in a million years would have wanted to do the route I did on Saturday because I would have worried about the hills too much. This cycle I didn't really even think about it. I was tired at the end of the run, but I wasn't depleted, and I could have easily kept going. So, that's great!
Shoe alert: I ran that 8-miler in my NB 1400s, and they hit over 200 miles on that run. I felt a little more achy in my Achilles and hips after the run (felt fine during), so I'm wondering if maybe they're getting towards the end of their usability for long runs. Maybe time to relegate them for speed only and find something else for LRs. I like the Brooks and have had very little residual soreness after my runs in them, but I'd like something with a little more spring/cushion than that particular model for longer distances. Time to do some research.
Also, I have a race on Sunday. This'll be my first sub-30 5k attempt. I have no idea what the elevation situation is for the course (it's a low-key race series for a local running club, so details are scant), so I'm not entirely sure what to expect except that I will go out and run hard and there will probably be pizza and beer for dinner that night.