A "journey" involving running in place in the deep end.  Quite possibly I've gone off the deep end. 

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Training log - Week ending 2/27/11

This week was 35 miles of “real running” and 80 “miles” pool running -- training log is here. 

What really stuck out to me this week was an issue with pacing my tempos effectively.  A bit frustrating, as I've never had this issue in the past, but I believe I've figured it out.  Pre-injury, I was running 70-90 miles per week – as a result, I always had residual fatigue in my legs, but also a lot of strength.  Now I am at 20+ miles per week, and so my legs are very fresh, but I have no strength.  Thus, I feel fantastic at first and shoot out (since I have no tired legs to hold me back), and then run out of gas (since I have no strength).  So, overall point is that I can't trust the fact that I feel great in the first 400-800m, and need to start very slowly. 

Dailies

Monday: 12 miles outside on a dust path as a 10 mile progression run (averaged 7:45 pace, splits were 9:20, 8:37, 8:15, 8:12, 7:56, 7:21, 7:10, 7:01, 7:00, and 6:41) followed by 2 mile cooldown at 8:39 pace.  Then did "12 more miles" – 2 hours easy pool-running (was only going to go 90 minutes, but got hooked into a podcast after my friend left). 

Tuesday: In the morning, “13.5 miles” of pool-running, including a “track 800s workout” of 10x3:00 at hard effort, with 1:00 recovery, followed by full recovery, and then 30 minutes at aerobic effort. 

In the evening, a weights session with a personal trainer, followed by 30 minutes easy pool-running for “3 more miles”. 

Wednesday: In the morning, 4 miles very easy outside (8:52 pace), followed by “9.5 miles” of easy pool-running (1:35 hours).  Yoga class at night. 

Friday: In the morning, 5 miles at the track, including 1.75 miles warm-up, and then a 3.25 mile tempo (coach had instructed 5K, but that I could go up to 3.5 miles if I felt good.  I started to struggle as I approached 3 miles, so I cut it off at 3.25).  Splits for the tempo were 6:48, 6:48, and 6:40 pace for the last 2000m, but it wasn't actually that great – I went out too fast the first 400m, and paid the price the rest of the tempo.  I must learn patience.  Followed up with "8 miles" easy pool-running – 1:20 hours in the pool.  Pilates class in the afternoon. 

Sunday: Started with a long run of 14 miles outside, averaging 7:34 pace, split as: 7 miles at ~ 8 minute pace, (5 minute water break) ~4.75 miles at 7:12 pace, a mile at 7:05, a mile at 6:59, and then pushed for the last 400m at ~6:30 pace.  Followed with "10 miles" easy pool-running – 1:40 hours in the pool. 

Full slew of race reports here (from my first in June 2007 to 2010) and here (2011). 

workouts

(you can click on the link to see the details)

Pool running conversion

I convert my pool-running into “mileage” with this formula:

1)10 minutes “easy” in the pool equals one mile

2)workouts translate by time into mileage, with the recoveries not counting for mileage. For example, I would normally cover half a mile in 3:00 during an interval workout, and 1.5 miles in 10:00 during a tempo. So 8x3:00 at interval effort is 4 miles, and 10 minutes at tempo effort is 1.5 miles.