Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Broad Street Training, Week 7

Monday, February 27th:

Day off.  Left heel sore from yesterday's workout.

Tuesday, February 28th:

7:00 pm, 44 degrees, 40%, calm.  Merchantville Loop (M).  Nike Structure Triax 15 Shield.

5m easy

I was so physically exhausted in the AM.  Could not get enough sleep - felt so drained.  Had a long day at work but started getting second wind around 4:00 pm.  Decided to get miles in the PM and I am glad I did - the whole run felt smooth.  Now let's see if I can get up for a workout in the AM. :)

Wednesday, February 29th:

 4:30 am, 38 degrees, 80%, calm.  Cherry Hill West.  Adidas Adizero Tempo 4.

2m warm up, 2mT 2x1600 2x800 w/400 recovery jogs, 2m cool down.
Target splits: (6:05, 5:45, 2:42)
Actual splits: (6:06 04, 5:44 44, 2:41 40)

Just got stronger and stronger as the workout progressed.  First mile of the tempo segment was rough - had to work a little hard to find the pace.  The 1600s were like clockwork - just clicking 43s every 200m.  The 800s weren't too bad, but I definitely had to work on the second lap of each rep to maintain form and fight off the lactate buildup.  Overall fantastic workout, despite some GI issues toward the end.

Thursday, March 1st:

4:30 am, 44 degrees, 90%, 0-5mph.  Hialeah and back.  Nike Structure Triax 15 Shield.

5m recovery (extremely slow)

Woke up with a stiff lower back which progressively worsened during the run.  Had 8 miles on the schedule today, barely finished 5.  Fought the urge to completely stop several times.  Aerobically felt fine, but just couldn't muster any push off with the stiff back.  Probably averaged 9:00+/mi.  Agony.

Friday, March 2nd:

5:15 am, 35 degrees, 80%, calm.  Moorestown.  Nike Structure Triax 15 Shield.

12m easy ~ 7:45 average

Lower back still slightly stiff, but much, much improved from yesterday.  Nice group run easy effort with JP, CT, RW, and TE.  Last 3-4 miles felt very relaxed and smooth in low 7:20s.

Saturday, March 3rd:

5:45 am, 50 degrees (mist), 95%, 0-5mph.  Garden State-Haddonfield-Garden State.  Nike Pegasus 28.

8m+ easy

Light mist most of the run.  Very relaxed and controlled the whole way.  Visualized tomorrow's first race of the season - can't wait!

Sunday, March 4th:

9:15 am, 44 degrees (p.cloudy), 50%, 10-15mph.  Kelly Drive.  Nike Pegasus 28/Adidas Adizero Tempo 4

2m warm up, 1/2mT (5:56 pace), strides
10K: 35.57 (18:15, 17:42) with 5:33 last mile and :80 last 1/4m
2m cool down

Very pleased with the first race of the season!  We ran straight into a headwind most of the first half of the race on the out-and-back course on Kelly Drive.  First mile was 5:50 - didn't look at my watch again until the turnaround mark at 5K.  I didn't obsess about time or splits - just focused keeping Tom Elliott in contact as I knew he would keep an honest pace.  Didn't realize how much faster we ran on the way back in but the wind was mostly at our backs aside from a few strong gusts at about the 4-4.5m mark.  Was side-by-side with Tom with a mile to go, but he put about a 3 second gap on me with a half mile to go and while I fought hard to maintain contact, I just couldn't close the gap.  Can't believe we were running as fast as we were that last mile!  Some good use of mantras ("Run fast, not hard" and "Not today") - I just couldn't match Tom's race-sharp leg speed the last 1/4m.  Very proud how tough I hung in - I would have mentally thrown in the towel in the past.  With some more races under my belt and sharper training, I think I will be able to rise the challenge next time.  Still, very stoked about the time!

Weekly Total: 52 miles

Another somewhat lower mileage week, but a great midweek workout and a great first race of the season.  With some time off work next week, I will try to get the mileage back up and get in a few more quality workouts before the Adrenaline 5K in two weeks.

No comments:

Post a Comment