We rejoin our hero as he begins his fifth week of training for the Flying Pig Marathon.
Monday: 7 miles. The morning was cold, so I ran in the afternoon. It wasn’t overly warm (and the skies were grey, but no precipitation). I ran in the park and the subdivision next to it. Since it was the afternoon, I tried to keep my pace down and didn’t push it, but still went too fast. 7.02 miles in 59:03 (8:25/mile pace).
Tuesday: 35 minute Tempo. The morning was cold, but not as cold as yesterday so I went out to run. My legs felt tough from yesterday and I struggled to keep my paces even close to the top end of the goal range of 7:17 – 7:33. Kept it in the park, although maybe I should have used the hills in the neighboring subdivision. Tempo portion was 4.45 miles in 35 minutes for a 7:51/mile pace. Overall, 6.45 miles in 53:11 (8:15/mile pace).
Wednesday: 3 mile recovery. Kept this in my subdivision where there was a pair of walkers out at 6 AM (I’m impressed!). 3.32 miles in 29:12 (8:48/mile pace).
Thursday: 7 miles. I initially thought it’d be 28-29F this morning, but it was 32 (warm enough for shorts!). Ran in the park and the subdivision next to it, starting with form drills and doing some strengthening after. 7.16 in 1:03:53 (8:55/mile pace). I started a tad late (6:09 AM) and got to see that the sun is starting to come up sooner.
Friday: 14 miles. The weather forecast called for snow, which didn’t happen until 10 miles in and it was pretty light. Not like this…
I didn’t push this at all. My legs felt a little slow, I was kinda tired, and it wasn’t a speed day. The week didn’t go by without having to yell at a dog, either (because some average stupid suburbanites think their dog can be out without any sort of control to keep it in their yard 😡). 14.04 miles in 2:07:50 (9:06/mile pace).
Saturday: 3 mile recovery. I set my alarm for a late 6:45 AM. I turned it off and thought I’d sleep for a few more minutes. Famous last thoughts. Got up just before 8. Still got my run in around the subdivision.
January ended with me running 168 miles for the month. Back on the build!
The next race on the calendar is the Bockfest 5k. This is traditionally a race that I have not PRed in. Out of 7 consecutive Bockfest 5ks, ONE has been a PR. Granted it’s up against the Bulldog Blast 5k, which my GPS says is short and that course is much flatter. I’m not even sure this will be the year for a PR, but my training is setup for it.
Next week’s training will include a pull-back on the long run, but it will include intervals (5 x 800) and a 7 mile M pace run, so despite pulling back on Friday, Tuesday and Thursday will be tough. Additionally, Mondays went from 6 miles to 7 miles this week, and will soon be 8 miles.
Looking ahead to the rest of February, I will be building back up to a 17 mile long run while also maintaining intense workouts on Tuesdays. The intensity on Thursday will be cut back in favor of long runs and a race to finish the month. 🍻