Week 8 summary

I finished this week with a 16km long run on Saturday and a 9km easy run on Sunday, both outside, and the first time outside in our winter here for 2 months. It was sunny and this fair weather runner gave it a thumbs up!

It is much harder to run outside in non ideal weather conditions than on my treadmill, but I did like going somewhere. I was overdressed on Saturday and sweat a lot, and my thighs ended up cramping the last couple of km which brought my overall pace down.

But looking at the past few weeks the consistency has been there, even the last 2 weeks at the same overall distance and being 6 seconds apart. I couldn't have even tried to plan that precision.

This training is making me feel tired though. With school etc I feel like I have a lot to balance and even though I just came back from a me trip less than a month ago, I am already looking forward to the next one in May.

Tempo Thursday

HHM: 1.5 mile warm up, 4 miles @half pace, 1.5 miles cool down, 11.2km total

Me: 2 km warm up, 6km half pace, 1 km cooldown 9km total

I had a great run today for a number of reasons, or maybe none of the following:

1. A great night's sleep. I logged over 8 hours of snoozing!

2. I huge supper. I had a big plateful of gluten free pasta and half a chicken breast.

3. I started my run about 9am, which is hours earlier than the afternoon runs I have been doing. I find my brain is sharpest in the morning, so I need to do school work then while I can still think clearly.

4. I slowed down. My previous race pace runs have been about 5:32/km. I slowed this to a 5:38. The five seconds don't seem like a lot on paper, but they really helped. Also 5:38/km is closer to what a true 2 hour half pace is, 5:41. I don't need to try to train for the faster result. 

This morning my feet do feel tender. I have the plan to call the doctor that did the cortisone injections in my feet to see if she will do them for me. I don't want to have to go through my rheum.

Tuesday intervals

I do love running fast and I do llove when fast training pays off in the end. I am getting a bit tired of the treadmill for speed though, because I like running towards something rather than follwing a cursor around the track.

I realize now I should have been listing what the plan says vs what I actually did.so today:

HHM: 1.5 mile warm up, 6 x 800m (5-10k pace) w/ 400m rec, 1.5 mile cool down 12 km total
Modificaton: 1.5 mile warm up, 6 x 800m (ave 5:13/km) w/400m rec, 1 mile cool down 11km total

Slightly shorter because like ever speed session I just want the workout done and I'm usually tired, so the cool down gets cut. Also, I wore new shoes yesterday and I think there is too much cushioning in them and my feet really started to hurt the last 15 minutes or so.

The post workout glow of actually surviving!

Being all bendy.

I had some thoughts about the plan as a whole that I posted on an online journal:

I trust the training and I really want to give it my best shot. I fully think I am capable of a sub 2 half. I look at my training the last time I achieved it, and I thought I trained hard for it but this is much harder. I know I have to stay ahead of the fatigue and the possible extra inflammation I may be afflicting on my body. For example, I did 4 x 1.6km as my toughest interval workout last time and my weekly mileage the last 6 weeks was in the 45-55km range. I'm sure that is enough. I don't think I need to run 6 x 1.6km and 2 x 4.8km in addition to a 6-10km tempo in the same week. I'm already in that 45-55km range.

But that devil on my shoulder wants me to follow the plan....

The angel knows I need to have a hard look at it and do the modifications to it now, so when it pops up on my calendar it's already done, in stone, and "officially" the plan.