Weekly Summary – 82 Miles in 10 runs. First big tapering week. Two great workouts and a big drop in mileage. Race week coming up! Also, be sure to check out the STRIVE-Cast – a new podcast I’m hosting with David Wilder where we bring you conversations from your running world. This first episode features Marielle Hall (STRIVEr, NCAA 5000m champion, and now professional runner). Finally, don’t forget to follow on twitter, instagram, and facebook for more updates!

2014-10-05 training week

Lunes, 29 Septiembre, 2014 – 9am: Easy shakeout just to the grocery store to get yogurt and back. Total run 2M+ in 17’.

4pm: Ran solo on rev long lakes. Felt surprisingly quite good. Ran 30’ out, 28’ back. Total run 8M in 58’.

XT: Core, 12’.

Martes, 30 Septiembre, 2014 – 9am: Ran very easy shakeout, first 2M very slow with Mariana and then easy on Lakes. Felt good. Total run 5M+ in 39’.

4pm: Drizzly and ugly day! Ran easy on C-loop to the track, mod 5km in 20’. Stopped and did drills and strides in flats and then did 4x500m, first 3x around HM effort (quicker on the track) in 1’29-3’01. Last one hard but not all out in 1’15 (!!). First 100m in 13 low with a running start – pretty quick for me. 400m in 59. Dave thinks I could run 2’03. Jogged back. Total run 5M++.

Miercoles, 1 Octubre, 2014 – 12pm: Workout wednesday! 10 days out from Hartford, so this is the last pretty much “full” effort. Crappy day again. 50s F and drizzle which turned to hard rain. Warmed up 5km in 22’, stopped and did drills and strides. Ran on 1km road lop. Rain and wind made this harder than it should have been.

Goal was to run a ladder of 1k, 2k, 3k, 4k, 3k, 2k, 1k with 400m jog between each. Pace was supposed to be goal HM pace (~3’03/km, 4’55/mile), with the possibility of getting a bit quicker on the last 2k and 1k (towards 10k pace) if I felt good.

The first 3 reps felt pretty manageable and the rest felt ample. All were on pace, a bit quick actually (3’02, 6’05, 9’10). The rain made the effort a bit tougher than it should have been, but that’s to be expected. The 4km required a good amount of focus to get through, but that’s a pretty long rep (12’12). The second 3km was the hardest and I slowed down in the last km (3’06) for 9’12. The next rest I took a bit easier and seemed to get my legs back under me. I actually felt quite good on the second 2km, but had to stop in the middle because my shoe had slipped untied. Ugh.

Last rep I actually had a bit left to close hard and split 1’30/1’27 to run 2’57, last 400m ~68.

Overall, it was 18.4km (11.4M) in 61’05 (3’19/km or 5’20/mile).

Cooled down very short home. Didn’t do the leg circuit after as planned because I felt pretty wiped.

Total run 15M+.

Splits
1000m: 3’01.5
400m: 2’01
2000m: 6’04.8 (3’02.8, 3’02.0)
400m: 2’00.9
3000m: 9’10.1 (3’03.7, 3’03.6, 3’02.8)
400m: 2’05.8
4000m: 12’12.2 (3’03.9, 3’02.6, 3’02.8, 3’02.9)
400m: 2’02.0
3000m: 9’11.5 (3’02.7, 3’02.9, 3’05.9)
400m: 2’11.0
2000m: 6’07.0* (3’03.6, 3’03.4)
400m 2’00.1
1000m: 2’57.3

Total: 18.4km in 61’05.2 (3’19/km avg)
*stopped around 1200m to tie shoe that had come undone

PM: OFF, ice bath.

Jueves, 2 Octubre, 2014 – 10am: Easy run with David in the fells. A bit stiff, but loosened up by the end. Total run 7M+ in 55’.

4pm: Ran solo to Davis and then scoped out the course for the somerville 5k on Saturday. Looks pretty slow with a good number of hills. Finished at the gym for legs. Jogged home. Total run 5.5M in 38’.

XT: Legs at the gym. Felt good. 3 sets of [step ups (15x each leg, 20 lb bar), walking overhead lunge (20x, 5lb plate), dynamic lunge (12x each leg, 20lb bar), deep squat (12x, 30 lb bar).

Viernes, 1 Octubre, 2014 – 10am: Easy run with Dave to Davis and then on the 5k course again. Finished with a loop down on the greenway and then back. Total run 8M in 57’.

PM: OFF, lots of walking

XT: Hips

Sabado, 2 Octubre, 2014 – 8am: Woke up at 5am for a race/workout day. The plan was to run the Somerville Homeless Coalition 5k at HM pace or a bit faster and then (if I felt good) finish with some HM pace intervals.

Had a cup of black coffee then a dark 5:30am pre-workout shakeout, then a whole bagel and relaxed until leaving around 7:30am to head to Davis.

Warmed up around 8:15am, 5km easy, then drills, strides, 300m in 50sec.

Weather was a bit crummy – 50s and rain.

Ran into Zach Schwartz right before the gun who said he was trying to run about the same pace.

Gun went off and we were off together at the front, no one else went. First km was mostly uphill, ending with a steep uphill into Teel Sq and was slow (3’05). A nice long downhill after that and I let the legs start turning over and was running quite quick (~2’52/km on the downhill). At this point, Zach dropped off and I wouldn’t see him again.

The mile splits were way off, so I just kept going by the garmin. 2nd km finished with uphill to curtis st. and was 2’56.

From there, another gentle downhill and still feeling good and running quick. Passed David on the sideline right before 3km.

3km was at the powderhouse rotary and was 9’01 (2M in 9’40). I figured I still had a shot at sub-15, but the next km was the hardest of the race. Beside being at the toughest point in general, there was a gradual uphill followed by a steep hill over the train tracks before a right on cedar.

I managed to keep the pace at 3’04 and so was at 12’05 with 1km to go. I tried to pick up the pace as I turned right onto the finishing straight onto the bike path (~700m to go) and then really pick it up with 500m to go.

I saw David at 200m to go and really kicked it in hard to try to break 15’. Crossed the line right at 14’59. Zach was about 15’15 I think.

Stood around for a bit at the finish and then jogged over to my 1km loop. Plan was to do 3x2km @ HM pace. First one felt really bad and so stopped at 800m in 2’28 – probably too much standing around in the cold post race. Felt much better after that, though, and ran the next two on pace (6’06) and then closed hard on the last one (5’59 with a 2’56 second km).

Overall, a great workout. Good practice with the nerves and routine of a race, even a small one, and then good workout overall. Time to rest and recover this week.

Total run 15M.

5k race splits
3’04.6
6’01.4 (2’56.8)
9’01.1 (2’59.7)
12’05.4 (3’04.3)
14’59.4 (2’54.0)

Post race intervals
800m: 2’28.4
(400m: 2’05)
2000m: 6’05.9 (3’04.0, 3’01.9)
(400m: 2’01)
2000m: 5’59.8 (3’03.4, 2’56.4)

PM: Off, ice bath, rest. Went for a walk about 30 minutes.

Domingo, 5 Octubre, 2014 – 9am: Ran with Jon at battle road. Beautiful morning – cool, but sunny. Felt great. Nice easy run. Total run 20km, 12.4M in 1’32.

PM: Off.

XT: Core, 12’.