Weekly Recap

13 weeks to surf city
 
37.5 miles for the week, up from about 30 last week.

Normally this would be considered too much of an increase for one week (i.e. more than 10%), but that applies to people building up for the first time or after a long hiatus ...or at least I hope so ;)

However, there was some pretty intense running this week...I feel pushed to the limit of how much i can absorb.

Tues: Hills. The 6.2 miles included 4 x .25 mile hill sprints that were killer. ....kind of over did it and was feeling it in my lower quads and with niggles in various other places for several days after.  

I've been very remiss not doing hill training and all the books recommend it. I  do feel I need more strength (i.e. muscle fibers) to have a bit more of reserve for the last 6 miles of a race. So, I'm doing these once every two  weeks, but I will take them a bit easier next time until I get used to them.

Wed: Recovery. After the hills kept it slow and easy.. 10:30 pace. It's hard to keep up a proper form going so slow...as soon as I try to keep my stride rate high I end up speeding up. (or my stride length gets crazy-short)


Thursday: Medium long run 9.6miles,  with tempo. Got onto the Paly Track at about mile 6 and did two miles at about 8:05-8:15, which is between my 10k and HM pace. Felt really good at that point, I was feeling really crappy for the first 6 and thought I would bag the tempo altogether but after eating a GU I perked right up.


Friday: Cross train. Did 15 minutes of light spinning on a recumbent bike to help loosen up the legs from the previous three days and then a full set of upper body free weights.


For the weekend, I had planned 5-8 easy on Saturday, 18 on Sunday. However, the forecast called for rain on Sunday (and here it is as I write this), so up at 6:30 am on Saturday morning to get the 18 in. 

Started slow and easy...couldn't even see the watch in the dark (the clock change will help with that next weekend) and gradually knocked the average pace down to 9:56 or so by mile 13. Held to that, and then sped up the last 3 miles or so  and dropped the average down to 9:45-ish.


My quads were pretty tired during that run but I really concentrated on form and a high stride rate. Not a bad run considering all the hard running earlier in the week.


Sunday... a rest day.


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Next week's plan:


Note: easy = 9:45 -10:00 pace, recovery = 10:30-11:00 pace, MP (marathon pace) = 9:00

• Monday:  5 easy
• Tuesday:  2 miles warm up, Yasso's on the track 4x800@3:50 each + HR cool down, then 2 miles cool down
• Wednesday: 5 easy or recovery pace
• Thursday: 10 easy with 2-3 miles at tempo in the middle
• Friday: rest
• Sat: 8 easy
• Sun: 13 at MP

Total about 43