Monday Training Update (Week 1): Week Ending 10/1
Since this is the first week of the current training plan, I thought I'd share my paces. Like many runners, I wish that I was faster, and I debated not sharing these. But I think it's an important part of the story. In the back of my mind, I have floating around that I'd like to do this cycle as an endurance building block (so we're keeping paces the same, especially since I didn't hit my target pace during Parks), and then will maybe ask for help getting faster. I also had to remind myself that I PR'd my last 5k and broke not one, but two 2017 speed goals I had, so the training that I'm doing
is helping, especially at those shorter distances.
Anyways, the paces for this cycle:
WU/CD: 14:35/mi
EA: 13:44/mi
EB: 12:52/mi
LR: 12:27/mi
Tempo: 11:37/mi (a little slower than last cycle)
Strength: 11:27/mi
10k: 10:39/mi
I was originally disappointed that my tempo speed was lowered, but then looked at my plan and saw that all of my Thursday "speed" (word used very loosely here) workouts are at 10k - faster than my tempo speed by about 30 sec/mi. EEEEP! No tempo speed runs and no strength runs this cycle.
This was the plan for the week:
T - 3 miles @ EA + Strides
Th - 3 miles @ EB
F - 4 miles @ EB
Sa - 5 miles @ LR
The plan started off with a... fizzle. I've been swamped at work and at home, and Tuesday was a particularly busy day. I didn't have time to do that run in the morning and had hoped to sneak it in during the day, but just couldn't make it happen. My Thursday and Friday runs were great. I did them both outside - it was in the low 70s at 5:00 on Thursday morning and a full 20 degress cooler (52*) on Friday. What a difference. I was a little overzealous on Thursday, clocking 12:25 instead of 12:52, but I was on fresh legs and was happy to be back outside. I was a little closer on Friday, at 12:37. I know that as I get deeper in to the plan, some of that zeal will be replaced with fatigue, so my paces will start to edge back to where they should be.
Speaking of overzealous... I definitely blew my Saturday LR pace and I was feeling it yesterday. According to Strava, I did 11:34/mi. I have to keep reminding myself that
@DopeyBadger was very clear that there are not physiological benefits to outrunning my paces. I ran with
@MoanasPapa, who is much faster than I am. A couple of factors at play here:
@MoanasPapa is very stubbornly running on an inflamed IT band... same IT band that really bugged him during the HM, and has dogged him in almost every run since. About a mile in, I could see that it was bugging him, but he wanted to soldier on. As we approached mile two, he finally agreed to turn around and cut his run short by a mile. So we turned at two miles, headed back up the hill, and he stopped at four miles, while I made a loop around our immediate neighborhood to get my fifth mile in. That fifth mile was my fastest of the run, so I can't entirely blame
@MoanasPapa's speediness for the faster-than-assigned pace, but it
was a lot of downhill running in that loop. Also, the weather was amazing... it was a gorgeous day for running.
Side note: we ran our long run with our daughter in our jogging stroller. I took the first half of the run, which has a net downhill, and
@MoanasPapa took the second half, which goes back up the hill. He was a MONSTER on that hill, way outrunning my pace. It took some effort to keep up, and I wasn't even pushing the stroller! He said he was just trying to keep his mass and the mass of the stroller moving up the hill, but it was IMPRESSIVE. I never could have done that. Especially if I was already feeling some aches and pains in my IT band. Billy: He's going to wait and see how the band responds to increased rolling, stretching, and yoga at least through the Marine Corps 10k. After that, he'll reevaluate and may need help modifying his plan (he may skip the Turkey Trot). He's being somewhat stubborn about it right now, so we'll see what happens.
A peek at the week ahead: easy runs Tuesday and Friday, my first "speed" workout of the cycle on Wednesday (back to the track!), and a six mile LR on Saturday.