Week 6 - Training

Previous Summaries

The Smart Coach plan has me doing 3 mi, 6 mi (mile repeats), 2 mi, and 10 mi

Hal Higdon's have me doing 4 mi, 4 mi (tempo), 3 mi, and 10k race (plus lifting)
The other Hal Higdon one has me doing 4 mi, 2 mi, 4 mi, and 5k race

This week I have done 5 mi (tempo), 5 mi, and 8 mi.   See details below.

Monday: Since I missed my tempo run on the weekend I did it Monday. I'll miss a different run this week but figured the tempo shouldn't be skipped. 

The training plan suggested doing a 9 minute pace but last time I felt like that was too slow. I asked a friend and her recommendation was 8:20.  She didn't think it would have been that fast but based on recent run times I gave her, she said I should go for 8:20.  Since it was sunny and I didn't drink any water all day, I figured I'd go for 8:40 but with a reach goal of closer to 8:20.   I hear tempo runs are supposed to be challenging but manageable but that doesn't help me much.  My friend said that I wouldn't be going all out but that I would want to drop back.  That's pretty much how I felt on the run today so maybe I did an alright job.  If there was shade, it was so much nicer to run in. Too bad the only shad was about 100 yards worth in the park portion of my run. 

I pretty much felt dead after my run.  I'm taking that as a good sign.  I get a little bit bored on the streets around my apartment but I was afraid to try a tempo run at the trail since I run slower when it's not pavement.

Tuesday: Rest (Dave wanted to go for a walk but I didn't want to so that I could rest my calves.)

Wednesday:  I woke up bright and early and went for a run/walk with Dave.  We did 1.5 miles.  Normally I don't count my run/walk miles as running miles in my totals but maybe I should start.  I ran 5 miles in the evening with Hilary.  We were going to do 5-6 miles and did 5.  Later I walked to dinner with Dave and got another 1.5 miles in. 

I set my Garmin to 9:35 target pace since that is what Hilary and I ran last time.  We beat that.  We also added a mile.  It was really windy this time.  With 2 miles to go, my Garmin went crazy and the bezel kept clicking around. Now I know what other people talk about when it is overly sensitive.  I will lock it next time and see what happens. I set up virtual partner and I had been looking at it more than normal to update Hilary (even though I don't think she cared). But when I run on my own, I do my pace in my head and don't ever flip over to the virtual partner.  It got so messed up that it was stuck on the to location screen for awhile. I believe this slowed us up but then we picked up the pace after I got annoyed with it.  Before it went crazy, Hilary's watch was only.01 different than mine.  After that mess it got off by .06. I slightly adjusted the results to show the 5.06 that hers said we ran. 

I put on my compression socks around bed time and slept in them because my calves were already bothering me.  

Thursday: Rest  (I knew I had to rest because of being on my feet so much on Wednesday.  I probably could have lifted but I ended up not.)

Friday:  I will start off by saying I had 1 can of Diet 7up and ~1 oz of water all day prior to the run.  Because of that I thought it might be a bad idea to try mile repeats for the 2nd time in my life.  So then I decided I'd do a long run. I chilled in the car for over 10 minutes because I didn't really want to start. I just wasn't feeling it. I even noticed myself falling asleep in the car.   

Finally I got started and set out with a 9:30 pace goal in mind. I played bonus seconds in my head.  I knew I had a really good first mile and a good but not as good 2nd mile. Then somehow I sped up and seemed to keep doing it. I thought I would crash and burn at 5 miles since that's basically all the distance I had been doing.  I did not.  The 4th and 5th miles were all against the wind. The wind was very loud too.  I still can't believe my times were so good.  In the last mile, I was feeling though. I was getting very tired.  I kept it up though to finish.  I ran until .11 thinking that would take me at a minute into the 9th mile but I was going too fast for that.   It's not everyday that my worst split is only 1 second after my goal for each .25 (especially when that .25 goal would have put my mile pace 2 seconds better than my real goal.  And especially when the number rounds up to that number versus being round down)

My last long run was about a mile shorter but took almost 2 minutes longer!

I can't believe how exhausted an 8 mile run made me. I feel as fatigued as  I did the day of my marathons. 

Saturday:  Rest (and I was exhausted)

Sunday: Rest (I was just lazy.  I mean I was so lazy I took a 5 hour nap.)

Total Miles: 18.23 (I'm the most happy with this mileage of any week so far)
Total everything else: weights once (Monday), a few walks, plus a run/walk with Dave.
Total suggested by training plans: 21, 17, or 13.

Final Thoughts:
I started off with my missed speed workout from Week 5 but then I got myself screwed up for runs the rest of the week because of my sore calves.  Yet another week I only ran 3 times and I even told the Smart Coach I'd only run 4 days a week. I don't know how I only run 3 days a week.  I wish my calves wouldn't bother me. I've been forcing myself to take it easy so they don't get worse.  I wore my compression socks twice this week after tough runs.