April 21st-27th Training

Monday: 8 miles (7:00ish); 6.8 miles (7:15ish)

Tuesday: 4.6 miles (6:56); 13.4 miles with 4x3200m with 400m jog recovery in: 9:54, 9:46, 9:37, 9:14. My original plan was to run around 9:45 average but since it was warm, I decided to start a little slower and work down.  I felt flat on the first one and went through the 1600 in 4:59. On the second, I felt a lot better and went through 1600 in 4:54. I felt like I wasn't running hard enough, so I picked it up again on the third and went through 1600 in 4:47. On the last one, I thought about running sub 9:30 but then I decided to go for sub 9:20 because I was feeling really good. I ran even splits across the board, went through the 1600 in 4:37 and was starting to get tired with 600m to go but hung on well. Really motivating workout because I feel like this shows I have the potential to break 14:00 next weekend. However, it was faster than I expected, so I'll have to make some workout adjustments over the next couple of weeks.

Wednesday: 6 miles (6:56); 8 miles (7:16)

Thursday: 5 miles (7:07); 10.2 miles progression (6:02). My legs were hurting from Tuesday, so I decided to go for a loosely structured 10 mile progression run over hills, where I sped up each mile.  I ended up averaging 5:59 pace for the progression with splits ranging from 6:46-5:08. Felt pretty controlled but the pace was harder than anticipated.

Friday: 8.3 miles (7:53); 3.7 miles (7:15)

Saturday: 9.5 miles.  Ran the Jail Break 5k in Columbia, SC.  My goal was to run around 10k effort and I ended up running 14:47 with splits of 4:40, 4:50, 4:49.  I probably ran this a little harder than I wanted to but felt like I could have broken 14:30 if I hammered.  I took the lead about a minute or two in and ended up winning by 1:00. The course was mostly flat but I forgot how insanely humid it is here.  My old high school/college teammate, Reed Fisher, also busted out a 17:27, with a 5:12 first mile, off just five weeks of training; 5.2 miles (7:09)

Sunday: 10.6 miles (6:53); 3.5 miles (7:50)

Week Total= 102.6 miles. I was hoping to get in closer to 110 miles this week but I adjusted my training because of my South Carolina trip. Overall, it was a good week with some decent balance.A