It’s been awhile since I wrote a training log. Like, since March? I’ve been doing plenty of running and I’ve published quite a few race reports, but maybe it’s time to fill in a few details, at least about what I’ve been up to since the Chicago Marathon on October 13th.
Before switching over to 10K training, I wanted to run one last longer race, the Philadelphia half marathon. I love Philadelphia and a bunch of friends are going to race either the half or the full so I thought I’d tag along. The first two weeks post-Chicago were chilled out with some swimming and biking and very easy running, starting five days post-marathon. As recovery progressed, I ran a little more and started with some light workouts, until last week started to look more normal, as we transitioned to a little half marathon-specific work. Here’s the details on the past two weeks.
Week of October 28
Monday – 4 easy (9:52). This was coming off a combined post-marathon / birthday / Halloween party and felt like a run fueled by champagne and cake. Which it was.
Tuesday – 2 miles easy, 8×200 at 55-60 seconds, 200m jog recovery, 1 mile cool down. Pretty much my standard post-race track session. Usually I lead at the track. Post-marathon, I was chasing down my girlfriends.
Wednesday – Easy swim (1500 yards)
Thursday – 7 miles including strides (8:57 average, middle 5 miles around 8:35), plus a quickie strength workout. Happy Halloween!
Friday – 5 miles (9:10). I was supposed to have a couple of tempo miles in there, but we’d had a big wind storm the night before. I run early on Fridays and there was debris everywhere, including a large tree down, completely blocking the road. I ran a couple of “tempo-ish” miles and called it good.
Saturday – 14 miles, first 10 @9:00, last 4 @8:45. Last weekend, I barely managed 7 slower miles and wondered if I’d have to walk back to my car. Today 14 more upbeat miles felt fantastic. As Coach Mick says, “Recovery is a wonderful thing!”
Sunday – 4 easy (9:12). Ran in New York before watching friends run the marathon. So fun!
Weekly total: 39 miles
Week of November 4
Monday – Easy swim (1850 yards)
Tuesday – Tempo intervals at goal pace: 2 miles warm up, 4 x 1600 @7:45 w/400 jog recovery, 1 mile cool down. I ran 7:43, 7:44, 7:45, 7:41 for the 1600s. Somewhere along the line I started totally loving the track. This was super fun and even though it was also work, it was good work.
Wednesday – 4 easy (9:08)
Thursday – 8 miles, 1 mile easy, 6 @8-8:15, 1 mile easy. Coach Mick calls this “steady state pace.” I call it “annoying.” It’s more work than easy running and less fun than tempo. Somehow running 8-8:15 is just irritating. My new goal is to learn to love this pace.
Friday – 6 miles, including strides (8:58). Fridays are Girlfriend Run days, but today I missed some of the chatter because I was a little quicker than standard girlfriend pace. Gorgeous frosty fall morning regardless.
Saturday – 4 easy (8:47). Ran from the gym, then weights.
Sunday – 16 miles, first 10 @8:45, 3 @8:30, 2 @8:15, 1 easy. Coach Mick and I discussed how to structure the long runs between Chicago and Philadelphia. Ultimately we decided to go a little longer with 14 last week, 16 this week, and 14 again next week. I like this idea in theory, though mid-run I was having my doubts. Happy to have done it, though!
Weekly total: 46 miles
