June 2016 Running – Week 1
The week started with a lot of easy running. I’ve been trying to keep the pace truly comfortable. On Wednesday, I ran a workout with mixed success. I finished the week with a surprising time at Lawyers Have Heart considering my recent speed work.
Training Schedule
June 5th – June 11th
Sunday: 12 miles easy.
Monday: 5 miles recovery.
Tuesday: 6 miles recovery.
Wednesday: Interval Run. 7 miles w/2 x 200m, 2 x 800s, and 2 x 400m.
Thursday: 5 miles recovery.
Friday: 5 miles recovery.
Saturday: Lawyers Have Heart 10K.
Mileage Total: ~46 Miles
Adaptations. I ran a little further in several of my workout this week, so even though the schedule should have resulted in 46 miles, I completed exactly 50 miles. In general, it was a good training week.
Workout Details
Medium Run. 12 miles easy [Log Details].
I went to bed early the night before and got up at 4:30am. I ate a Luna bar, some coffee, and water.
I really tried to keep the pace easy, thinking about the recovery portion of the fartlek run I did last week. My goal was to finish the run no faster than 9:00 pace and not go down to my knees anytime I stopped. (A co-worker mentioned he saw me out on a run a couple of weeks ago. I asked him how I looked and he said something like, “Good! But… Then you went to your knees at the top of the hill.” So, that’s been my easy run test – stand upright like you could continue running.)
I felt very sluggish at the start – my legs were like tree trunks and my ankles hurt a little – but, I chalked it up to the off day and my new shoes. Everything felt better about 2 miles into the run.
I felt a little hungry during the early and middle parts of this run. I’ve been trying to shed a few pounds and figured maybe I was feeling the effects of the calorie reduction on this run. But, most of the run was uneventful.
I ran into a club teammate about mid-way through the run and we ran together for maybe a half mile. I enjoyed her company. I haven’t been running with my club regularly recently so it was nice to see someone I wanted to catch up with. I sped up a little when I ran with her but settled back into an easy pace when she turned back.
I ran pretty comfortably for the second half of the run. Even though I was tired, I was focused on running with good form and most of all NOT bending over any time I stopped to wait for a Walk Signal at an intersection.
This run definitely felt easy. But, was it too easy?
Overall pace=9:06.
Interval Run. Fartlek Run. 7 miles easy w/5 x 200m, 2 x 800m @ 5K pace, 4 x 400m @ 5K pace. [Log Details].
I spent the morning working on my mid-week blog post. As a result, I quickly reviewed the training notes from my coach for the workout and rushed to enter the distances into my Garmin since I would be running this workout on the rail trail.
I felt good out the door during the warm-up. I treated the 200m intervals as long strides – just as my coach directed in my training plan notes. (I started the workout next to a section of trail that goes under the freeway. Unfortunately, my Garmin malfunctioned and the first recovery was short – 44 seconds instead of at least a minute.
I ran the first 800m by feel and low-7:00 pace came easy. I thought, Maybe all the recovery running is doing my legs good! The second 800m was a little more labored. I hadn’t thought about 5K pace before the workout but 7:20 pace seemed a bit “slow”. By the time I got to the 400s, I couldn’t remember what the training notes said as far as pace. I decided to just run them “hard”. But, I did recall something about the workout shouldn’t feel too taxing, so I tried not to run all out.
I was pretty tired after the workout, so in some sense, I felt like I might have failed. I definitely felt like I’d put out a good effort. Did I run the early repetitions too fast? Am I recovering enough? Surely the terrain and wind were factors… Ugh! Why am I even going there?! I’m not training yet! My coach is just trying to introduce a little speed into my runs.
200m splits=0:59, 0:57; 800m splits=3:38, 3:42; 400m splits=1:59, 1:50, 1:56, 1:53. Average=7:30 pace.
Lawyers Have Heart 10K. 6.24 miles @ 10K pace [Log Details].
I ran 45:22 (7:17 pace)! I’m a little shocked. (And, also wondering if the course was a little short since my Garmin measured exactly 6.24 miles at the end but I know we also ran under some highways.) It’s so much faster than what felt like 5K pace a few days earlier. A full race report will follow but I think I have some mental training to do. I may be capable of running much faster than what I think am. In any event, for the numbers crowd, I was the 183rd finisher for the 10K (top 11%), 31st woman (top 2%), and 2nd in my age group.
Racing Schedule
Next race: Wild Horse Trail Half Marathon on June 18th. (My Complete Racing Schedule.)
The Week Ahead
I’m looking forward to a good training week after tomorrow’s off day. Then, I’m heading to San Diego on Friday for a friend’s wedding on Friday. I’m a little excited about running my first trail race while I’m out there next Saturday!
Congratulations on a fast race and placing in your age group!
You mentioned mental training – have you read this book? https://www.amazon.com/RUN-Mind-Body-Method-Running-Feel/dp/1934030570/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1465736781&sr=8-1&keywords=run+the+mind+body
It’s a bit verbose, but has some excellent discussions of mental training. There are some interesting ideas about how we are willing to suffer more if the race or event is more important to us. It shed some light for me on why I can hit paces in a race that I can’t seem to muster in a speed workout. IMO, worth the read.
Thanks for sharing this! I’ll put it on my list of books to check out. (I still haven’t started The Science of Running and I just downloaded Unbreakable last week.) I have a hard time running by feel and this might give me some insight on how I could do that better. And, I’ve struggled to hit certain paces in workouts, too. Mostly half marathon and marathon pace. I think as a former sprinter, I can usually hit 5K and 10K pace once I know what it is.