April 30th-May 6th Training

Monday: 8 miles (6:47); 6 miles with six strides (7:06)

Tuesday: 10 miles. The goal was a 10 mile medium-progression run, broken into 4 miles (6:10), 3 miles (5:45) and 3 miles (5:20). I could have had slightly faster goals but it was over 85 degrees and since I just ran a half-marathon, I had to adjust the pace.  Ran (6:07, 6:00, 6:13, 6:08), (5:41, 5:44, 5:47), and (5:17, 5:24). I cut it a mile short because my legs were getting pretty tired and with two more hard workouts this week, I didn't want to make this harder than it needed to be; 8.2 miles (7:24). Drained.

Wednesday: 4.6 miles (6:27); 9.4 miles (7:19)

Thursday: 4 miles (7:19); 12.1 miles with 6x1600m with 400m jog rest. Since it was about 75, I decided to shoot for 4:50s and work down.  I ran 27:57 for the whole thing with times of: 4:48, 4:45, 4:40, 4:38, 4:37, 4:29.  I felt really smooth for the first few and while I was tired at the conclusion of it, felt pretty strong during the 4:29. Motivating workout.

Friday: 5.5 miles (7:11); 7.6 miles (7:04)

Saturday: 8.6 miles (7:00ish); 5.5 miles (7:07).  Ran 4xhill blasts and I'm insanely slow, without any power right now.

Sunday: 20.2 miles (6:11). Goal was 14.5 miles under 6:30, five miles under 5:20 and then jog the rest as a cool-down. It was 75 during the run and I could feel the humidity after only a couple of miles. Stopped for a fast water break after 9.5 and started to get a little tired around 12. I really struggled finding my pace for the first 1.5 miles of the "fast" portion but finally got in the swing of things and ran 26:13 for the five miles with splits of  5:17, 5:16, 5:16, 5:15, 5:09. My shoe came completely untied with 3/4 of a mile to go and then started flopping around with a 1/2 mile to go, so that took some focus.  I was happy with the pacing here and this is much faster than the last time I ran this on easy.

Week Total= 109.6 miles. Pretty solid week overall. I was happy I bounced back so quickly after the half-marathon and was able to close out the training week with two very solid workouts. Next week is another really tough week, so hopefully the hot streak continues.