We rejoin our hero in his epic quest for an insanely fast (for him) half marathon…
Back to the building blocks this week! After last week’s shenanigans, this week has had more structure, more craziness, less beer, less food, less sleep deprivation, and one less wisdom tooth.
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 x 0.25 mi intervals | 3 miles + 7 strides | 40 minute tempo | 3 miles + 7 strides | Long Run - 90 min |
Monday: 7 x 0.25 intervals. I felt pretty good having not overate or overdrank Sunday night. Also happy to be back running after having my wisdom tooth removed last week. Felt good. The way I put intervals (and tempo runs) into Garmin Connect includes the warm-up (1 mile) and cool down (0.5 mile), and in the case of an interval workout, it includes the balance of the half mile cool down (since there’s 0.25 recovery following each interval, the cool down in the watch is the additional 0.25 mile to make 0.5 mile). I didn’t count my intervals, and I paid little attention to my watch, I just ran when it beeped and slowed when it beeped. I ran right through my cool-down interval. Oops! So I continued the workout and added a half mile manually. Interval times: 1:51, 1:49, 1:46, 1:47, 1:50, 1:47, 1:50, 1:47 (goal: 1:51 – 1:55), overall 5.26 mi in 0:42:59 (8:10 overall pace).
Tuesday: still feeling good about running and not getting rained on (and despite the claims to a heat wave, it wasn’t all that bad out… or maybe I just felt that way because I was listening to the BibRave podcast and they were talking about Ian Sharman sitting in a sauna in a parka! Ran a quick 3 miles + 7 strides + balance to 4 miles in 33:02 (8:14 pace). Hope the fast run doesn’t come back to bite me tomorrow! After I finished, I did the 2×15 squats that I forgot to do yesterday.
Wednesday: no work day! I took the rest of the week off because today is a holiday and I didn’t feel like working the rest of the week. The plan was a 40 minute tempo run, and I wanted to hit at least 10k as a tip of hat (so to speak) to those running the largest 10k in the country – the PeachTree Road Race in Atlanta. It was a lot of fast laps around the Batavia Township Park, which is largely flat. Total of 6.6 miles in 53:18 (8:05 pace); tempo portion was 5.1 in 40 minutes, a 7:51 pace. I remembered my squats today, too!
Thursday: easy day. Plan was 3 miles + 7 strides. Since it was trash morning, I ran in the park (had it not been trash morning, I’d have stayed in my subdivision). The park is flat, and my pace shows it. I DID go easy! 4 miles in 33:32 (8:22 pace, about 40 seconds faster than if I was running across bridges).
Friday: long run day. Weather felt better, despite probably being warmer than the other days this week. The plan was supposed to be a 90 minute 3/1, but I forgot the 3/1 part. Started in the park, but crossed into the neighboring subdivision and then across the worn dirt drive path to another subdivision (they’ll be connected someday). Weather felt better. Hydrated with Gatorade Endurance and fueled with Gatorade Gel (the Apple Pear flavor). I received some free gels as an apology from Gatorade for UPS losing my shipment, and I think I’m going to order some (apology accepted! And they recently announced a new mango flavor that the BibRave pros seemed to have been enjoying). Their gel is significantly thinner than Gu, and I think that helps make it taste better as a fruit. Also, the thinner formula is less messy and less prone to end up in my mustache. 10.4 miles in 90 minutes (8:40 pace).
Overall, the week came to 30 fast miles. Looking forward to two races late this month – the first of the NKU XC Series and the Bulldog Blast 5k. Next week has some hill repeats and two more fast days.
Cheers!