Monday, May 23, 2016

Training log - Week ending 5/22/16

This week was 63 miles of running, 17 "miles" of pool-running and 2000 yards of swimming -- training log is here.

Project "run slower to run faster" continues.  In retrospect, my splits for the weekday workouts are still a bit faster than they should be, though they felt conservative at the time.

For the weekend long run, I had another "4-3-2-1" on tap.  I've historically blanked my watch and run these off of feel, but this time I used the pace function on my Garmin to make sure I targeted 7:15 pace - a bit slower than I've run these workouts in the past.

I don't have much faith in Garmin's instant pace function - as the GPS receptors jump from one satellite to the next, the pace reading can fluctuate widely.  However, average lap pace seems more reliable - once you're about a 1/4 mile into the rep, there's enough data to smooth out the reading (assuming one doesn't run through tunnels or similar).  So I set my Garmin to display average lap pace, and I was off.

Lessons learned:

1) again, sometimes slower efforts are harder than faster ones.  Though "harder" isn't the best term here - "less comfortable" is more accurate.  My heart rate was slightly lower running 7:1x (as opposed to 6:5x - which is where I naturally gravitate).  However, holding that slightly slower pace felt awkward and I kept wanting to speed it up.  By virtue of continuous monitoring of the Garmin, I managed to stay in control for the most part, but as I got more tired towards the end of the run, it became harder to keep the brakes on.  I ignored the Garmin for the last mile and just ran by feel and...6:56.

2) Since this is supposed to be a MP workout, and 6:55 is NOT a realistic marathon pace for me right now, this tells me I need to do some more work on holding back.  I think each pace works a slightly different system, and I'm slightly weaker in the system that supports MP running, hence the desire to cheat by running faster.

3) At times during the run, I ran into a decent headwind.  When I did, I noted that my pace actually would quicken - a result of me overcompensating for the wind.  That habit obviously doesn't do me any favors when racing on a breezy day.  Mental note to stay relaxed and not fight so much when it's windy.

Dailies

Monday:   Yoga and 7.5 "miles" easy pool-running.  Foam rolled in the evening.

Tuesday: 11 miles, including a track workout of 1600, 4x800 slower - split 6:17, 3:05, 3:01, 3:00, 2:55.   Followed with injury prevention work (no swimming, forgot my bathing suit). Sports massage at night.

Wednesday: 7 miles very easy to yoga (9:11), followed by yoga.  Later did 5 miles very easy (8:49) plus drills and 4 hill sprints. Foam rolling at night.

Thursday:   Upper body weights and core, and 9.5 "miles" easy poolrunning.  Foam rolling at night.
  
Friday:  11.5 miles, including 3200, 1600 on the track in 13:13 (6:39/6:33) and 6:13.  Shame I didn't run those splits last week, on Friday the 13th...  Followed with injury prevention work and 800 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday:  12 miles very easy (9:26) followed by drills and then upper body and core strengthwork.  Foam rolling in the evening.

Sunday:  16.5 miles including a workout of 4, 3, 2, and 1 miles with one mile recovery.
Splits were:
4 mile: 29:05 (7:28/7:16/7:11/7:10) - average pace of 7:16
3 mile: 21:33 (7:10/7:11/7:12) - average pace of 7:11
2 mile: 14:17 (7:12/7:05) - average pace of 7:09
1 mile: 6:56
Followed with gentle injury prevention work and 1200 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling in the afternoon. 

2 comments:

  1. I absolutely overcompensate for wind, sometimes like 20 seconds per mile faster! Perhaps it's harder to estimate pace. It's killed me at the end of races, though.

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  2. Awesome week. The Garmin "lap pace" (when lap = a mile) is my go-to for everything. I agree you cannot at all trust the instantaneous pace. Even though you ended up running too fast, maybe it's okay? I remember one CAR workout I did that was the 4, 3, 2, 1 and we were running a bit fast and someone said "just go with it" because it felt good, and so we did!

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