This week was 64 miles of running, 19 "miles" of pool-running, and 3000 yards of swimming -- training log is here.
I was pretty happy with this week - it feels like I'm hitting the right balance of getting the work in without overreaching.
On Thursday, I ran 16x400m at 10K pace with 100m float (the "easy version" of the 25x400) and then, after a 5 minute break, jumped back into the workout to do some extra 400s slightly faster. (I did this to give a friend some company -she was doing 25x400 and I jumped in for her #20, 22, 24, and 25.)
It was a really nice hybrid workout - the 16x400 was a decent lactate threshold workout without being too taxing, and then I got a bit extra volume at a faster pace at the end.
Sunday was 4, 3, 2, 1 miles at marathon pace, with 1 mile recovery between each. As I've mentioned in previous posts, I'm trying to run all of my marathon pace workouts by feel, rather than looking at my watch.
What's nice is how I can measure my improvement over the pace few weeks- MP has felt the same each week, but the pace associated with that feel is trending faster. During the last two weeks, 6:50-6:51 has felt like marathon pace, which is good, since that's what I'd like my pace to be at CIM. Of course, some of this improvement could be due to improved weather over the past two weeks. On the other hand, the weather isn't that great yet.
I feel like I'm seeing improvement much faster this cycle than I have in previous cycles, and I think that's because I'm not targeting a specific pace. I seem to be one of those people who needs to approach fitness from underneath - if I chase fitness, it just dances away from me. Which is another way of saying that I need to train at my current fitness or slightly slower than it, but not faster. (which is what my coach always says, but it's so easy to disregard when one's ego or anxiety or desire to keep up with others gets in the way).
More specifically, I think that being careful never to run harder than marathon pace effort during this cycle, regardless of what pace that happens to be, seems to be working really well for me so far, based on how my fitness is progressing. My guess is that it's because I'm getting the right stimulus by training at my current fitness, and since I'm not hammering the workouts, I'm recovering and absorbing and adapting from the workout much better.
Hopefully this trend (and my ability to suspend my own ego) will continue, and I'll peak at just the right time in early December.
Dailies
Monday: Yoga and 8.5 "miles" of pool-running. Foam rolling at night.
Tuesday: 12 miles, including 6 hill-strides of 60-70 seconds each, with 2:30 recovery. Also injury prevention work and 1400 yards of recovery swimming.
Wednesday: 7 miles very easy to the gym (9:00), upper body weights/core and DIY yoga, and then 3.5 miles very easy (8:38) plus drills/strides. Foam rolling at night.
Thursday: 12.5 miles, including a workout of 16x400 with 100m float recovery - averaged 6:14 pace for the 400s (1:33 each) with the floats averaging 31 seconds. After some rest, another four 400s in 87, 88, 87, 85 with a lot of rest between most of them.
Also injury prevention work and 1100 yards of recovery swimming. Sports massage in afternoon.
Friday: 10.5 "miles" pool-running and yoga. Foam rolling at night.
Saturday: 8 miles very easy to the gym (9:05) plus drills/strides, followed by upper body weights/core. Later did another 4 miles (8:50). Foam rolling in the afternoon.
Sunday: 17 miles, including a workout of 4, 3, 2, 1 miles at MP. Ended up running:
4 miles in 27:24 (6:50/6:53/6:49/6:52) - average 6:51 pace;
3 miles in 20:19 (6:45/6:42/6:54) - average 6:46 pace;
2 miles in 13:50 (6:53/6:57) - average 6:55 pace (may be off due to Garmin, which had satellite trouble during this segment);
1 mile in 6:47.
Averaged 6:51 pace for the full 10 miles.
Also injury prevention work and 500 yards of recovery swimming. Foam rolling in afternoon.
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