Jer Training 3/16 to 3/22

Now that I finally feel like I'm back in the swing of things,  I guess it's relevant to talk about what it is I'm actually training for. The major highlights look something like this:

- 4/12: Incarnate Word 5k (Track)

- 4/26: Rice 5k (Track)

- 6/1: San Diego Rock and Roll Half Marathon

I'll do a few other races in between, but those are the events that I'm really focused on this spring. Since I'm coming off a very good marathon, my endurance has been solid so far, so my goal in training has been to maintain that fitness while slowly getting back to at least some moderate level of speed. It's not something that comes naturally to me, but I'm working at it, and thankfully I have another month before the Rice 5k, when I really need to be in sub 15 minute 5k shape again. The bigger goal is to get under 68 minutes for the half, which will give me more confidence to shoot for another marathon PR in the fall or winter. Anyway, here it is:

Sunday 3/16: 11.5 miles (AM) and 4.6 miles (PM) at 7:45 pace and 7:20 pace

Monday 3/17: 12 miles (AM) and 4.6 miles (PM) at 7:40 pace and 7:20 pace

Tuesday 3/18: 5 miles at 7:55 pace (AM), PM Workout - 8 mile tempo on the track (technically 12.8k) in 42:39, or 5:21 per mile. 1600 splits were: 5:19, 5:21, 5:20, 5:20, 5:19, 5:20, 5:22, 5:17. Afterwards did 6x100m sprints up a shallow hill near the track. Total 12+ miles for the evening.

Wednesday 3/19: 9 miles (AM) and 4.85 miles (PM) at 7:45 and 7:15 pace

Thursday 3/20: 7.3 miles (AM) and 6.1 miles (PM) at 7:45 and 7:30 pace

Friday 3/21: 6 miles at 7:35 pace in the AM, PM Workout - 10x alternating 1ks (fast/medium continuous) at 3:06.1, (3:37), 3:04.9, (3:36), 3:05.8, (3:40), 3:05.5, (3:40), 3:07.0, (3:38) for a total of 10k in 33:42, or 5:25 pace. Afterwards did 4x200 with the first 100m at 5k pace, then into an all out sprint the 2nd 100m. Those were 33, 33, 33, 32 with the first 100s being 18s and the 2nd being 14 high. I should note it was a windy night on the track, which slowed the 1ks down a bit but gave massive assistance to the 200s, which I cleverly did with the wind. 

Saturday 3/22: 10 miles (AM) and 6 miles (PM) at 7:25 and 7:30 pace

Weekly Total: 110 miles, roughly 15 miles of quality

I've been sticking with a pattern of hard, easy, easy for the past couple weeks and it seems to be working out well. Both of these workouts were extremely solid, maybe not quite as fast as I would've been this time last year, but I also didn't peak for a January marathon last year. I'm feeling much more confident that I'm on track to run fast in the mid April to early June time frame. And more importantly I'm having fun doing the workouts and mileage, which was something of a struggle a couple weeks ago. Happy training everyone.

Double training post (3/2/2014 to 3/15/2014)

Sunday 3/2: Workout - 2 mile warmup, 10 mile tempo in 54:51 (Splits: 5:34, 5:34, 5:36, 5:26, 5:33, 5:29, 5:30, 5:35, 5:23, 5:07), 1.5 mile cooldown. 4.6 miles at 7:30 pace in the evening.

Monday 3/3: 8.6 miles (PM) at 7:20 pace

Tuesday 3/4: 6.2 miles (AM) and 6.05 miles (PM) at 7:30 and 7:50 pace

Wednesday 3/5: Workout - 20 minute warmup, 4 mile tempo in 21:28 (5:23, 5:21, 5:23, 5:20), 5 min jog, then 2x(5x400 w/ 100 rec), 400 btw sets in 74.3, (30), 70.3, (30), 71.3, (29), 71.8, (30), 71.8 (1:58) 71.8, (29), 71.3, (29), 71.8, (30), 72.2, (29), 71.6. And yes, that is the format from Once a Runner, and yes I only did 10 instead of 60. Sue me.

Thursday 3/6: 8.6 miles (AM) and 6 miles (PM) at 7:25 and 7:20 pace

Friday 3/7: 8 miles (AM) and 5.3 miles (PM) at 7:25 and 7:45 pace

Saturday 3/8: Race - Bayou City Classic 10k in Houston. Got 2nd to Sammy Kiplagat in 32:22. The race was very odd - I got 4th last year (top 3 get some money) with a 31:30, but this year I was at or near the front from the gun. In terms of decisions, I knew I had no chance against Sammy, so the best strategy was to push the pace and ensure I got away from everyone else. It went just about according to plan, as by 5ish miles (when Sammy finally passed me) I had a good 45 seconds on everyone else. 5 mile double at 8 minute pace in the evening.

Weekly Total: 94 miles total, 24-25 miles of quality. Nearly a great week of training, but through a combo of working late a couple days and just plain old laziness I missed a couple runs, so it was just a very good week of training. The quality was all there, which is the important thing.

Sunday 3/9: 8 miles (AM) and 5.4 miles (PM) at 7:55 and 7:15 pace

Monday 3/10: 11.4 miles (AM) and 4.7 miles (PM) at 7:20 pace for both

Tuesday 3/11: 8.6 miles (AM) and 6 miles (PM) at 7:30 and 7:10 pace (plus 4x 20 second pickups in the PM)

Wednesday 3/12: Workout - 2 mile warmup, 14 miles of 5 minutes on, 5 minutes off fartlek averaging 5:37 pace overall. Really this was supposed to be a long tempo, but it was windy out and (little secret) I find it easier to not stress about pace in bad conditions if I'm doing a fartlek format. 4 miles in the evening at 7:40 pace.

Thursday 3/13: 6.5 miles (AM) and 6 miles (PM) at 8:00 pace and 7:45 pace

Friday 3/14: 7.5 miles (AM) and 7.7 miles (PM) at 7:30 pace and 7:20 pace

Saturday 3/15: 7.3 miles (AM) at 7:20 pace and track workout in the PM - 10x400, 10x200 all with 200 recovery. Splits were 71, 69, 69, 70, 70, 69, 70, 69, 70, 70, 34, 33, 33, 34, 34, 33, 33, 33, 33, 31 (recoveries avg 55). Total 10k in 35:55. Trying to get back in shorter distance shape bit by bit and this was a good step in the right direction. Still have a ways to go though - those 200s were freaking hard.

Weekly Total: 109 miles, 20ish miles of quality. Great mix this week, a solid long workout on Wednesday and a good starter track workout on Saturday. I'm hoping to PR at 5k in the next couple months, which means getting comfortable at 70-71s. I would not call today's workout "comfortable" by any stretch, but baby steps right?

Training 2/23 to 3/1

TWO WEEKS IN A ROW!? WHAT????

Sunday 2/23: Raced the Cowtown Marathon in 2:35 to get a share of the money for breaking the existing course record of 2:36. Felt good, ran 5:47 pace through 20 miles then slowed down a bit for the last 10k.

Monday 2/24: 4 miles (Lunch) at 8:05 pace. Felt terrible, super sore in the achilles from the race

Tuesday 2/25: 6.8 miles (AM) and 4 miles (PM) at 7:50 to 7:56 pace

Wednesday 2/26: 9.5 miles (AM) and 4 miles (PM) at 7:30 to 7:50 pace

Thursday 2/27: 8.5 miles (AM) and 5.5 miles (PM) at 6:45 (did a workout with Emily - 6 miles at 6:20ish
pace) to 7:20 pace

Friday 2/28: WORKOUT (finally!): 10.2 miles (AM) with 3.2 miles @ 5:21 pace, 4 minute jog, 7x30 second sprint, 1:30 recovery around McAllister Park (total of 5.7 miles @ 6:04 pace). Felt good, very different running fast after a long time not working on that. The tempo felt just a little bit out of control but not bad all things considered.

Saturday 3/1: 8.2 miles (AM) and 5.5 miles (PM) at 7:15 to 7:30 pace.

Weekly Total: 93 miles total, roughly 30 miles of quality? Debatable whether the last few miles of the marathon really count, but since I'm making up this definition, I'm counting it. I had planned on doing my first real workout back on Thursday, but I still felt absolutely terrible by then. Cowtown is a tough, tough course, and it beat me up good. That being said Friday's workout felt great, so I'm happy to be back to training seriously. Also, small preview, I did a 10 mile tempo this morning in 54:51, so not at all a bad workout. Although sadly now only slightly below marathon pace.

Happy training everyone! And Texans enjoy at least one more week of winter weather!