CIM Week 7: back home and looking at the numbers

It was a great trip: wedding, seeing my sister and brother-in-law, friends, sites in Canada (AJH: we didn't spend much time in VT since we've been there many times before so not many photos there ) If your interested you can check out all the photos of our trip here.


But it's also great to be back home. It's WAY easier to do marathon training when you're home and not doing to much else that's stressful to your body.


Week 7 was a tough week. 44+ miles. 


Tueday called for drills and 7 miles with 5x30s hill sprints...we did 6:09, 6:14, 5:58, 5:36 and 6:01 for the sprint paces.


Wednesday was about 5.75 miles with some 'mixed intervals'.... a first for me..never done them before:

Split	Distance	Avg Pace	Avg HR	Max HR	Avg Cadence	Elev+	Elev-	YPB
1	1.00	10:26	139	167	86	7	0	1.214
2	1.00	8:37	132	144	89	0	14	1.547
3	0.53	8:25	143	160	89	0	4	1.477
4	0.15	13:32	120	138	72	0	7	1.082
5	1.00	8:06	139	149	90	0	1	1.563
6	0.11	18:37	114	144	59	0	0	0.842
7	0.76	7:49	140	147	90	4	0	1.610
8	0.14	15:31	116	145	65	0	4	1.004
9	0.51	7:25	143	156	92	6	0	1.666
10	0.79	11:16	120	149	80	7	0	1.304
Summary	5.97	9:26	133	167	85	24	30	1.402

1 mile warm up, 1.5 miles@8:30, 1@8:06, .75@7:49, .5 at 7:25, .79 mile cool down...the economy numbers are really good. Also did upper body weights and a set of new leg/hip flexibility floor exercises called out by Jill..wow..hard.


Thursday was 4 miles easy, I was pretty stiff after two hard days plus the new exercises so I did these at 10:25 pace and I also bagged the drills...too banged up.


Friday was 8 miles: 1 warm up, 6 at 1/2 marathon pace (8:39) and 1 cool down:

Split	Distance	Avg Pace	Avg HR	Max HR	Avg Cadence	Elev+	Elev-	YPB
1	1.00	10:38	116	160	83	8	0	1.427
2	1.00	8:45	126	153	88	0	17	1.596
3	1.00	8:48	136	187	87	0	9	1.471
4	1.00	8:38	132	136	87	0	0	1.544
5	1.00	8:33	129	135	87	3	0	1.596
6	1.00	8:37	132	139	87	2	0	1.547
7	1.00	8:38	133	139	86	0	6	1.533
8	0.95	10:42	115	127	82	13	0	1.435
Summary	7.95	9:09	127	187	86	26	32	1.514

I was pretty sore still from the first part of the week with some very sore small muscles in my right upper leg. Actually I think the supine planks did it to me during the new floor exercises. I was seriously thinking of aborting the run but decided to see if I could warm up out of my stiffness.


And, yes, I did...again the YPB economy numbers for the 1/2MP splits are really good. (i.e. the HRs are low for that pace). After this we did a full set of lower body stuff, including box step ups with dumbells and goblet squats. 


Saturday called for 2 miles easy and 1/2 hr XT. Very stiff but loosened up a bit ...no XT except for walking.


Sunday 18 miles with 7 @ base, 6 @ MP , 2 @ base, 2 @ MP, 1 cool down. I decided to do the first 5 as a MAF test @ 125 bpm to compare with a last month...this is high base, then  2 at a slower base, then 6@MP, 2@base, 2@MP, .5 cool down.

Split	Distance	Avg Pace	Avg HR	Max HR	Avg Cadence	Elev+	Elev-	YPB
1	1.00	10:03	113	123	88	3	0	1.550
2	1.00	9:18	124	128	88	0	0	1.526
3	1.00	9:14	125	129	88	11	8	1.525
4	1.00	9:14	125	128	87	10	7	1.525
5	1.00	9:09	124	131	87	6	15	1.551
6	1.00	10:01	116	124	85	0	11	1.515
7	1.00	10:09	115	129	85	0	4	1.508
8	1.00	8:48	126	130	87	0	0	1.587
9	1.00	9:02	127	132	86	7	8	1.534
10	1.00	9:04	128	131	86	0	0	1.517
11	1.00	9:04	127	136	86	0	0	1.528
12	1.00	9:03	131	135	87	22	0	1.485
13	1.00	9:04	133	139	87	17	0	1.460
14	1.00	9:01	131	134	87	2	14	1.490
15	1.00	10:23	123	132	84	5	10	1.378
16	1.00	10:41	118	124	84	9	10	1.396
17	1.00	9:08	130	138	87	0	10	1.482
18	1.00	8:49	140	144	88	0	2	1.426
19	0.35	11:50	126	144	83	6	0	1.173
Summary	18.35	9:27	125	144	86	98	99	1.490

This was not an easy long run, but it wasn't a race either...lets call it 'comfortably hard' (just barely). My legs were pretty beat up from the early part of the week...not very fresh at all.


First, let's look at the MAF course miles from 2-5....lets compare then with the maf test we ran back in September:

9-13-11	10-23-11
09:16	9:18
09:21	9:14
09:18	9:14
09:17	9:09

We picked up some efficiency from 6 weeks ago...we are almost at MP at a paltry125bpm!

During the long run the 6 MP miles from 8-14 were just a touch over 125, with some drift setting in as the temperatures crept up.

Miles 17-18 were tough but breathing was relaxed and we could have gone farther at this pace of course. I visualized feeling this strong for the last few miles at CIM. 

In summary: this week was tough, 45 miles.. a *lot* of fast miles + weights, drills and strengthening floor exercises. But we didn't break! The gradual build up is working. 

I also had a PT session which I'll report on later. The PT is one of the reasons I think I was able to withstand this week's training.