My goal race for this spring/summer is the San Diego Rock and Roll Half Marathon on June 1st, which means today marks 8 weeks to go. I always struggle with hard training if I don't have a target that I'm training for, so this helps a great deal with that problem, but on the other hand there's not a whole lot of time left, which is frightening. Thankfully training has been coming along well, but it's hard to not wish you were in just a little bit better shape than you are, or had a couple weeks more to get there. Since I have yet to gain the ability to slow time down, here is what I've done the last two weeks.
Sunday 3/23: 12 miles (AM) and 6 miles (PM) at 7:40 and 7:30 pace
Monday 3/24: 5 miles (AM) at 8:00 pace. Ended up working late, so not a very good day of training. Normally I would soldier through with a second run at 9pm or later, but I just didn't have it in me today. LAZY LAZY LAZY.
Tuesday: 3/25: Workout in the AM: 22 min warmup, 8x1600 on the track with 400 up-tempo recoveries in 5:13, 5:10, 5:10, 5:07, 5:06, 5:06, 5:09, 5:02. Recoveries were all between 1:36 and 1:38. Overall time was 54:04 for 16k, or 5:26 per mile. I took advantage of my laziness yesterday (and therefore how rested I was today) to get a good effort in. 10 min cooldown.
Wednesday 3/26: 6.5 miles (AM) and 6.5 miles (PM) at 7:40 and 7:50 pace
Thursday 3/27: 5.5 miles (AM) and 9.5 miles (PM) at 7:40 pace for both.
Friday 3/28: 8 miles (AM) at 7:45 pace, PM workout: 2x(3/2/1 min fartlek w/ 2 min recovery) - total of 4 miles in 22:42 - then 1.5 miles easy home before 8x short hill sprints by the house. Relatively shallow hill but I got a good effort in, which was a happy end to a long day. Total 16.7 miles for the day.
Saturday 3/29: 8.2 miles (AM) and 5.6 miles (PM) at 7:45 pace for both. Getting ready to race the next day.
Weekly Total: 100.6 miles, only 15ish miles of quality, but given that it was a longer work week, I'm pretty happy with how things went. Race on Sunday also cut down the amount of quality I wanted to get in. Tuesday's workout was among my best ever, so that's something at least.
Sunday 3/30: Race in the AM - Texas 10 mile series in Boerne. What would have been a relatively moderate effort was turned abruptly on its head when I saw Moses Luevano warming up prerace - knew at that point it was either give up completely or get ready to go to the well. Luckily I felt great during the race and was able to get away from Moses after 3-4 miles, but even then it wasn't a cakewalk, as he kept pressing throughout. Time was 52:57, which is not bad at all given my 10 mile PR is 52:37, but then again during my half PR I hit 10 miles in 51:51. Good step in the right direction regardless, and good to take advantage of a perfect weather day. No 2nd run due to laziness/helping some friends move.
Monday 3/31: 7.3 miles (AM) and 7.3 miles (PM) at 7:30 pace and 7:10 pace.
Tuesday 4/1: 8.35 miles (AM) and 5.1 miles (PM) at 7:55 pace
Wednesday 4/2: 20 minute warmup, 8k tempo in 26:34 (5:20/mi pace), 600 jog, 1k in 2:58, 600 jog, then 4x400 in 71, 68, 67, 67 w/ 400 recovery in 1:55ish each. Goal was 3x1k at sub 3, but I just wasn't recovered enough from the race, plus the weather was total shit with high temps and humidity, so I altered the workout after the 1st 1k.12+ minute cooldown.
Thursday 4/3: 9.3 miles (AM) and 5.9 miles (PM) at 7:50 pace. Felt terrible.
Friday 4/4: 10.15 miles (AM) and 5.1 miles (PM) at 7:45 and 7:25 pace.
Saturday 4/5: 20 minute warmup, 4 miles, 3 miles, 2 miles , 1 mile with 1 mile moderate paced recovery. Workout went 5:23, 5:22, 5:20, 5:18 (21:25), 6:04, 5:23, 5:17, 5:21 (16:03), 6:06, 5:13, 5:18 (10:32), 5:50, 4:54 (total 1:10:55, 5:27 pace). 1 mile cooldown in 7:50. Very very happy with the last mile in sub 5, it's downhill but today it happened to be into the wind as well, so that was very gratifying. The 3m and 2m repeats were very tough though, still some work to be done getting my fitness to where I can hit low 5:20s for 10+ miles without stuggling mightily.
Weekly Total: 106 miles, 31+ miles of quality, including a solid race. Very happy with how this week turned out. Wednesday's workout was a bit of a struggle but I had half expected that given that I ended up going hard on Sunday. Today's (Saturday's) workout was genuinely great - I felt awesome running low/sub 5:20 pace on a moderately hilly course. 8 weeks to go until game time. Happy training everyone!
