Broad Street Training, Week 13

Monday, April 9th:
Happy Birthday, Frankie!

7:30 am, 50 degrees, 30%, 10-25mph (gusty).  Mount Laurel.  Nike Pegasus 28.

10m+

2m- warm up, 4x1m "Hard" with 3/4m recoveries that included a hill climb, 2m- cool down.
Paces: (6:20 5:50 6:00 5:45) - alternating against the wind, with the wind

Solid, fartlek-style workout with some hills mixed in.  Ran on a loop course near Ashley's parent's house.  Didn't check splits until after the run - just focused mainly on running a hard tempo-ish effort.  Ashely was a little run-down from a long run yesterday, and my groin is still acting up at fast speeds, so today was the perfect type of workout where we could just run on feel and not obsess over splits.  Definitely a difference running against/with the wind - I would say the effort stayed pretty even reps 2-4, even though the times don't reflect that.  Will take the next 3 days very easy and try to get a more structured, hard effort in on Friday if my groin will allow it.

Tuesday, April 10th:

Off.  Groin very tight.  Feeling run down again.  Sleeping a lot and it still doesn't feel like enough.  Just giving myself recovery and keeping the faith.

Wednesday, April 11th:

Off.  Same as yesterday.  I know this funk can't last forever.

Thursday, April 12th:

3:30 pm, 58 degrees, 30%, 10-25mph.  Kilmer Loop.  Nike Dual Fusion ST 2.

6m easy

Groin still a little tight, but at least I am able to run.  Felt best the last 1/2m when I focused on falling forward (POSE method).  Will try anything at this point to make the groin issue go away.  Gonna try to get a solid workout in tomorrow - we'll see how it goes.

Friday, April 13th:

Off.  Bagged the workout.  Went to bed and woke up with sore groin again.  Taking lots of ibuprofen and resting.   Hoping I just need some extra rest.  At this point, I plan on not running until I am pain-free.

Saturday, April 14th:

8:00 pm, 70 degrees, 30%, calm.  Neighborhood.  Nike Structure Triax 15 Shield.

2m easy  BOF (progressively faster each 1/2m - 8:30ish, 8:10ish, 7:50ish, 7:40ish)

Hadn't planned on running today at all.  Was too busy getting a lot of housework done for Frankie's party.  Running was the last thing on my mind until after dinner, when I watched a brief video clip of Moses Mosop training for tomorrow's Rotterdam Marathon.  I felt inspired.  I felt no pressure.  I just felt like I wanted to get out and run free.  So I did.  It was just two miles but it felt so great.  I was worried that this groin thing might be something more ominous like a sports hernia or labral tear (and for all I know it could still turn out that way), but for tonight, I just enjoyed my run.  I think my body was thanking me for finally giving it the rest it has been telling me for weeks that it needed.  I have been giving myself a few extra off days for the past few weeks, but I think I needed to give it a REALLY easy down week.  Whatever, I just hope I wake up tomorrow feeling this same way.  Because I miss feeling this good.

Sunday, April 15th:

6:30 am, 60 degrees, 70%, 0-10mph.  Maple Shade - Neighborhood.  Nike Structure Triax 15 Shield.

2m warm up, 3mT BOF (6:05 07 08) 3:00 jog, 3/4mT BOF (6:00) 3/4m cool down

Woke up feeling fantastic and ran an impromptu workout.  Had envisioned it as 3mT, 3:00 recovery, 2mT, 2:00 recovery, 1mT, 1:00 recovery and probably would have run a half-decent workout if not for the bad blood blister that developed under my right big toe pad.  Started to become painful to push off so I bagged the workout even though I felt strong at that point.  Happy that I got in some quality running today, but a little disappointed that I couldn't measure myself the way I wanted.

Weekly Total: 25 miles

I'll pretend this week never happened.  Just happy that the groin issue seems to have cleared and that I am starting to feel natural running again.  3 weeks to go to Broad Street - I hope I can find that something that has been missing since Caesar Rodney.  May revise my time goal based on my training and fitness over the next few weeks.