Training log - Week ending 9/21/14

This week was 67 miles of running and 6000 yards of swimming  -- training log is here

The first part of this week was pretty light.  Last Sunday's half-marathon beat me up a lot - the course ended with a fairly steep downhill that killed my hips.  I normally take Mondays off anyway, so that was no different than the norm.  Tuesday I was planning on an easy double, but after the first four miles I decided that cross-training was the smarter option.

A bit of extra rest, plus a 90 minute sports massage (wow, did I need it) did a lot to put me back together in time to get some volume in during the second part of the week.

Good thing, because now the training is kicking into high gear.  I did my first "4-3-2-1" workout this weekend (the workout is 16-17 miles total, with segments of 4 miles, 3 miles, 2 miles, 1 mile at marathon pace, each divided by a mile at easy (not recovery) pace).

I had done this workout once before, while training for my last marathon.  I remembered it being fairly easy then.   Of course, as I later realized, I did the workout that time on relatively flat terrain, in 30 something-degrees.  As I learned today, it's a bit tougher when done in hilly Rock Creek Park in warmer weather.  But I got it done.

[I feel compelled to note here that for some reason, though we had warm weather in DC, it was nowhere near as hot and humid as it was in Philadelphia (2+hours to the north) where many of my teammates raced today.  Strange.]

I wasn't sure what pace to shoot for, so I asked my coach - he advised me to shoot for 7 flat.   That worked for me - though that pace seemed slightly aggressive as a target, it also made for easy math.  And...looks like I ended up averaging 6:59 pace over the 10 miles at marathon pace (individual miles were above or below that, but I attribute that to the terrain).  Woo.  I was a bit tired and achy after the run, but that's in keeping with my coach's characterization of this as a hard workout.

Next week is my first 20+ miler.  Along with lotsa easy miles.  I'm once again going to try to slow down my easy runs - I realized while talking with some of my teammates that there are a lot of faster people who run their easy runs slower than I do.  Setting my heart rate limit at 150 BPM was working for a while as a limiter, but it's probably a bit too high now (increased fitness and lower temperatures mean I run faster for the same HR).  So I'll play with lowering that again, maybe to 145.
 
Dailies

Monday:   Yoga in the morning, foam rolling at night.

Tuesday:  In the morning, 4 miles very easy (9:05), followed by a yoga class and then 2500 yards easy swimming.

Wednesday:  In the morning, 6 miles very easy (8:53) followed by yoga, and then an easy 7 (8:23 pace).  Massage at night.

Thursday:   In the morning, 4.5 miles easy (8:44) to yoga.  After yoga, did some upper body strengthwork and injury prevention work, then another 4 miles (8:20).  Foam rolling at night.

Friday:  13 miles, including a short workout of 3200, 1600 (800 recovery) (splits were 12:45 (6:26/6:19) and 6:14).   Foam rolling in the afternoon.

Saturday:   11.5 miles easy (8:42), followed by yin yoga and injury prevention/upper body strengthwork.  Foam rolling in afternoon.

Sunday:  17 miles, including the 4-3-2-1 workout.  3 mile easy jog, then:
4 miles in 28:20 (7:20/6:57/7:00/7:03), followed by 1 mile in 8:44 (mostly uphill)
3 miles in 20:49 (6:56/6:59/6:54), followed by 1 mile in 8:07 (mostly downhill)
2 miles in 13:51 (6:52/6:59), followed by 1 mile in 8:31 (downhill, then slight uphill)
1 mile in 6:49 (slight uphill).  Followed by mile slow jog cooldown.   Total time for the 10 hard miles - 1:09:49 - 6:59 average pace)

Followed with 1700 yards easy swimming, yin yoga, and lotsa foam rolling.  (Honestly, the easy swimming/yin yoga/foam rolling combo is fantastic for relieving soreness/stiffness from a long run).