Summer Base Training, Week 4

Monday, June 3rd:

5:20am, 70 degrees, 90%(!), 0-5mph.  Light rain.  Maple Shade Loop (M).  Adidas Supernova Glide 5.

~6mi easy - (NW)

Incredibly humid air this morning.  My left calf started off very tight, and once that loosened up I noticed some stiffness in my glutes.  Can't say I felt too great today.  Glad I didn't have a watch to give me the gory details. :)

Tuesday, June 4th:

5:10am, 62 degrees, 55%, 5-10mph.  2x CHW Loop.  Adidas Adizero Tempo 4.

8mi total - (7:49): 2mi warmup, 10x1:00on/2:00off (6:24-5:19/8:32-8:11), 2mi cooldown

The weather was such a welcome relief this morning.  It seems like it has been hot for forever.  This was the first real speed I have implemented since Gettysburg, and it took awhile to get the engine revving again.  I kind of eased into the 1:00on segments, starting out most of them around 6:00/mi pace, before working my way down to 5:30/mi pace.  Still, I felt great the whole time, form felt strong and no matter what you gotta start somewhere.

Wednesday, June 5th:

5:10am, 59 degrees, 45%, 0-5mph.  Kilmer Loop.  Adidas Supernova Glide 5.

6mi easy - (NW)

Felt so much smoother and faster today with the cooler temps.  Guessing that I ran on the faster end of the easy spectrum.

Thursday, June 6th:

4:55am, 57 degrees, 90%, 5-10mph.  Maple Shade Loop (S).  Adidas Supernova Glide 4.

5.5mi easy - (NW): including 4x100m fast strides after

Felt loose and strong today.  Really opened up the middle 50m of the strides.

Friday, June 7th:

5:30am, 65 degrees, 95%, 5-10mph.  Light rain.  Garden State-Cooper River Loop-Garden State.  Nike Pegasus 29 Shield.

11.4mi total - (7:15): 1.65mi warmup, 8.2mi Moderate (7:08-6:49), 1.55mi cooldown
Tempo Splits: 7:08 05 06 6:55 50 51 54 54 49

I wore the Garmin today but only checked my pace on the first mile split of the tempo and then ran the rest of it on feel.  Very humid air this morning, but I focused on staying as relaxed as possible and just moving along steadily.  Took a Gu at Mile 6.  Would have been nice to have some Gatorade along the way as I was feeling a little parched toward the end.  Overall felt really strong for my first longer quality effort since Gettysburg.

Saturday, June 8th:

7:15am, 65 degrees, 90%, 5-10mph.  Moorestown.  Adidas Supernova Glide 5.

8mi easy/moderate - (7:12)

Ran with Tom and Rich today and kept a pace probably closer to moderate than easy.  It felt much easier than yesterday though since I was mainly tucked in the line of three of us and our conversation just carried us along.  I also did a very slow short jog before we started and a couple of really light strides, which had me loose from the beginning.  Nice run.

Sunday, June 9th:

7:30am, 65-70 degrees, 75%, calm.  HRC Store Run.  Adidas Supernova Glide 5.

Did the same little warmup routine as yesterday: about 1/4 mi slow jog followed by 4x very light strides.  Felt so relaxed and easy on the run today with Denning.  Beautiful morning in spite of the humidity.  I just love running in Haddonfield.

Weekly Total: ~52 miles

The quality I added felt much better this week.  The strides I have been implementing before runs the past two days seem to really set me up nicely, and the faster ones I have been doing either as fartleks or after easy runs hit just the right touch of speed.  I was most pleased with the two moderate days in a row - I don't feel nearly as out of shape as I did after last week.