This was a really good week. I’m not sure if I can attribute feeling strong to any one thing but I’ll take good weeks whenever they decide to show up. Maybe it was because I made some pace changes to my speed workouts, which you’ll notice below.
A little explanation (if you care): I realized the set paces for my tempo and interval runs were too fast for me to sustain. My rough goal, which is still not specific, is to PR not BQ (qualify for Boston). So why kill myself and risk injury by doing too much too soon? “You know what happened to the girl who tried too much too fast? She died, Jill.” Casual Friends reference.
I read that if your goal race time is 3 hours and 30 minutes you should do your 800 (1/2 mile) repeats in 3 minutes and 30 seconds. So my new plan is to keep them between 3:40 and 3:50. Same thing for tempo runs…I put a rough goal time in this calculator and my tempo pace should be 8:13. I feel more comfortable with that because it’s still a big challenge for me to maintain but it’s faster than my race goal.
Ok, that introduction was long enough. Here’s what my week looked like vs. the schedule.
Ft. Myers Marathon Training: Week 5
Sunday: Off
Monday: 5 miles @ 8:40 pace + yoga. First run back in Miami and first time back at my Baptiste (hot power yoga) studio.
Tuesday: 6.5 miles total. Here’s where the prescribed paces changed. My 800 fast splits were: 3:46, 3:44, 3:38, 3:45, 3:47. That felt hard but doable for me and I think that’s the point of the workout, right? Plus a 1 mile warm-up, 800 recovery in-between intervals and 1 mile cooldown for a total of 6.5
Wednesday: Taught Spinning. Remember I do that? Yeah, I forgot too.
Thursday: 7 miles tempo run. Here is where I unfortunately re-kindled my relationship with the treadmill. It was thundering and lightning (but not raining) at 6 a.m. so I decided to “be safe” and run on the treadmill at my condo complex (you’re welcome, mom). I was pleasantly reminded that the gym does not have A/C. I varied up my pace on the 5 mile workout part so 8:20 was my average but not my constant (I changed the pace every 2 minutes or so).
Friday: 20 minutes upper body weights. Hoping to bring these Friday morning short strength sessions back.
Saturday: 16 miles (6 on the treadmill + 10 outside). I had a previous commitment Saturday morning which meant I had to wake up at 5 a.m. to start my run (normally I like to start at 6). I ran on the treadmill until the sun started to rise and then drove to campus to run the rest. My last few miles were my fastest (yay). More thoughts on long runs later this week…
And this is what I had to deal with after…
Total: 34.5 miles, 1 yoga class, 1 Spinning class, 1 (very short) strength session, 1 very satisfied Emily.
Crazy to think I have to do it all again starting tomorrow. Nature of the game.
The hair thing is REAL! My hair is so super long and thin so yea…I just did’t bother with a shower the night before my run and would sleep with my hair up in a bun but then take it down to a pony to run since I had to hear a hat and what not in the winter. But if I (and you) put your hair in a bun while you run…that could help! I think!
Rebecca @ Strength and Sunshine recently posted…Friday Finisher 8/28/15
It looks like you had a really great week of training! I am still trying to figure out how I’ll be pacing myself for speed workouts when I start my half training, since I am not sure what pace I should really be at for it. I know it’s supposed to be faster than your goal race pace, but still a pace you can maintain during the whole workout … now to figure out what that lucky pace number is!
Brie @ Lean, Clean, & Brie recently posted…{Friday Favorites} 8/28