May 2016 Running – Week 5
This was my first week my Hudson Elite coach! (Although mentally, I’m not officially training for the New York City Marathon until late June.) My coach introduced a little speed work into my schedule with a fartlek run on Tuesday and a progression run on Friday. Despite the heat and humid, it was fun to run fast again.
Training Schedule
May 29th – June 4th
Sunday: 6 miles recovery.
Monday: 6 miles recovery.
Tuesday: Fartlek Run. 8 miles easy w/5 x 3 min. @ 10K to half marathon pace.
Wednesday: 7 miles recovery.
Thursday: 6 miles recovery.
Friday: Progression Run. 5 miles @ MP + 10 sec. and faster.
Saturday: Rest.
Mileage Total: ~40 Miles
Adaptations. I was going to take Monday off but it was my first day working with Hudson Elite so I did the scheduled recovery run. I just made sure to take it very easy. I stuck with my coach’s schedule. We’re just building a base and slowly introducing some speed at this point. I didn’t have a mid-week medium for the first time in a while but I was alright with that – I’m still five months out from the New York City Marathon.
Workout Details
Fartlek Run. 8 miles easy w/5 x 3 min. @ 10K to half marathon pace [Log Details].
I almost always have a hard time getting out of bed after the weekend and this day wasn’t an exception. Still, I had a good warmup and was looking forward to doing a little speed work.
Most of the “on” intervals felt good. The first one was fast, which I’m guessing is due to the fact that that part of the rail trail (Four Mile Run) goes under an interstate highway. The workout notes said the recovery segments should be at my normal “easy” pace and I struggled to run them that fast. I guessed that meant maybe I’m running my “easy” runs too fast. The last interval was a bit of a struggle. I just wanted to call it a day.
It was a nice introduction to speed that convinced me I need to slow down on my easy days.
Split paces=7:08, 7:41, 7:36, 7:45, 7:57. Mean=7:41.
Progression Run. 5 miles @ MP + 10 sec. and faster. [Log Details].
Getting ready for this workout, I wasn’t quite sure what MP + 10 seconds would be for me right now. My last marathon was Boston. It was a warm and windy day so I didn’t think my overall pace on that day – 8:28 pace – was a true indication of my fitness. Going into that race, I thought 8:00 pace was achievable. I decided to use that speed as MP for this run. I set the pace in my Garmin for the first progression mile at 8:05 to 8:20 and each mile after was set for 10 seconds/mile faster than the one before.
I felt pretty good going into the workout and the first mile felt a little too easy. I was confident I would breeze through this workout. By the second mile, the pace was still comfortable and settled into what I thought would be an easy workout. It was only 5 seconds/mile faster, though.
The first two miles were on flat terrain (Four Mile Run) but the third mile was on a section of another trail with some small bumps that weren’t quite hills (Mount Vernon Trail). I pushed harder than I probably should have during the third mile to keep the pace under 8-minute mile pace. But, I also know my Garmin gives me bad readings on Four Mile Run where it goes under Route 1, so there was no telling how fast or slow I was really running.
My pace for the fourth mile was a bit all over the place. My Garmin was beeping but I tried to ignore it and just put more effort into the mile than I had in the mile before. For some reason, I fell apart a little at the end and the split ended up slower than the one before! I thought I’d be toast for the last mile but I actually ran it very strong.
I thought I ran well. I think I could have run it a little harder, though.
Splits=8:10, 8:02, 7:52, 7:55, 7:44. Average=7:57.
Racing Schedule
Next race: Lawyers Have Heart 10K on June 11th. (My Complete Racing Schedule.)
I realized I’m going to be out of town for work in mid-July and won’t be able to run the Rockville Twilighter 8K after all. Thanks to a commenter on last week’s post, I saw that the course had changed so it might be for the best.
Other-Running Related Activities
I decided my weekly updates were becoming too long to read – some of them were over 3,000 words! Kudos to those of you who actually read through them! I’m going to break things up and post my “Other Running-Related Activities” as a separate post mid-week.
The Week Ahead
My coach will be giving me my schedule on Sundays. I have a medium run tomorrow but am unsure what else she has in store for me. It’s a little strange not knowing what’s coming but I’m hoping it’ll keep me from running too hard on my recovery days. I suspect it’ll be another base building week with some light speed work. I’m also planning to run the Lawyers Have Heart 10K at the end of the week.
