Training log - Week ending 3/21/2021

This week was 64 miles of running, 1500 yards of swimming and 12 "miles" of pool-running -- training log is here.

I was pretty happy with this week, and pleasantly surprised by the pace I hit for the marathon effort segment at the end of the run.  It was particularly amusing because marathon effort last week yielded 7:18 pace.  But I guess that's the difference between the perfect weather we had today and the 15-20 MPH headwind I was running straight into last Sunday.

The only hiccup to the week was Friday's tempo on the treadmill, where I misguessed the proper speed to set for the workout.

By way of background - I prefer to run with an incline on my treadmill - I find that when I'm running on a flat treadmill my gait gets quad dominant; an incline forces me to use my posterior chain and push-up.   

But the incline does mean that the same effort results in a slightly slower pace.  And the fact that our home "studio" is about 70 degrees also slows down my pace for the same effort.  

I usually run by effort outside, and on the treadmill it's fairly easy to run by effort when doing easy runs or progressive long runs.  I just start very slow and then inch up the speed as I feel like it.  But....when I'm doing treadmill tempos, I have to guess at what the right pace would be.  

On Friday, I thought setting the treadmill at 9.1 MPH (6:36 pace) would be pretty conservative for a tempo workout of 5x1 mile tempo with 60 second jog.  I'd start at that speed and then up it as seemed right.   But it turned out to be too aggressive a speed.  So I cut off the workout at 3x1 mile, which ended up being roughly equivalent to a 5K tempo in effort (I usually don't do 5K tempos because I find they're a bit short and fast to elicit the best response).  I jogged for a bit, and then eased into what felt like marathon effort and did 2 more miles at that speed (which was 7:08 pace) just to get a little more high level aerobic work in.

Ultimately, not the workout I wanted to do, but I still got some good work in at near the targeted effort level, and I didn't dig a hole by forcing things.  And interestingly enough - the effort and HR that got me 7:08 pace on Friday was the same that yielded 6:48 pace on Sunday.   

It's always interesting to me how pace can be affected by so many things outside of the effort one is currently expending.

Monday: 5 "miles" of pool-running and upper body weights/core. Foam rolling at night. 

Tuesday: 12 miles including a track workout of 1600, 4x800, 2x200 in 6:22, 3:05, 3:03, 3:01, 3:01, 42, and 42;  4:50 recovery after the 1600 and 2:2x-2:3x recovery between the 800s.  Full recovery for 200s  Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming. Foam rolling in evening.

Wednesday: 11 miles very easy (9:17), plus drills, 6 hill sprints and 2 strides, followed by streaming yoga.  Foam rolling at night.

Thursday: 3 miles very easy on treadmill (9:33), 5 "miles" of pool-running and upper body weights/core. Foam rolling at night. 

Friday: 12 miles on the treadmill including a tempo workout of 3x1 mile in 6:36 with 1 minute jog in between, followed by 2 miles at 7:08 pace. Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming. Foam rolling at night. 

Saturday: 10 miles very easy (8:58), plus drills, 6 steep hill sprints, and streaming yoga. Foam rolling in the afternoon. 

Sunday: 14 miles progressive, split as first 5 miles averaging 9:06, next 5 miles averaging 7:46, next 5 averaging 6:48, and then a 1.5 mile cooldown. Later did leg strength work, 500 yards recovery swimming and 2 "miles" pool-running. Foam rolling in afternoon.