December 30th-January 5th Training

Monday: 10.6 miles (6:51); 5.6 miles (7:27)

Tuesday: 15 miles with 9 mile progression. Broke it into thirds with goals of 16:00 (5:20), 15:15 (5:05), 14:30 (4:50).  Ended up running 15:55 (5:18, 5:20, 5:17), 15:11 (5:04, 5:04, 5:03) and 14:32 (4:52, 4:53, 4:47). First section wasn't bad, second was a little tougher than expected and the third was rough. I chose this workout because I haven't had a race in a while and haven't done much extended running at a pretty tough effort, so I needed it mentally as much as physically.  I was struggling to find the pace in the last section (obviously) and almost stopped at two miles but with three weeks until Houston, I needed a tough stimulus. And like Canova says, when you start to fall apart, that's when the real training begins.  Was at 4:52 pace at .75 miles into the last mile and then pushed the last 200m or so pretty hard, which meant I split about 68 or so the last quarter mile.  Pretty dead at the end and had a little side stitch going on thanks to eating a couple bowls of Wal-Mart brand Special K with strawberries. At first I was a little bummed that I didn't run sub 14:30 at the end, but looking at my old logs, I ran this workout 10 seconds a mile slower than this, two weeks out from US HM Champs. Well, it 80 degrees with a 68 dew point then, but I'll still take it as a good sign, especially since this is more of a HM workout than marathon one.; 5.4 miles (7:16)

Wednesday: 6.3 miles (7:22); 9.6 miles (6:54)

Thursday: 10.5 miles (6:45). I was going to do 20x400m with 1:00 rest but it was super windy with fat flakes of snow coming down. That's too much for us Southerners.  If I would have gotten it in, I would have had like 132-133 miles for the seven day period; 6.3 miles with 7xhill blasts (7:31). Thought I did six, but I'm a bad counter

Friday: 11.8 miles with 12x1:00 on/off.  Didn't have time to head to the track, so I ran it as a fartlek on LSC.  Was planning on 16, since it was a day closer to my workout but ended up switching it to 12 because I was getting whooped a little earlier into the workout than I would have liked.  It would be nice to run well in this workout but I want to be ready for my more important, marathon session on Sunday.  Ended up at 5:31 pace for the 24 minutes and 4:31 pace for the fast portion; 6.3 miles (7:14)

Saturday: 9.5 miles (7:25); 6 miles (7:11)

Sunday: 20.4 miles with 25k marathon workout (4x5k with 1k float, followed by a 1k hard). Goal was to run 5:05s (15:47) and was joined by my slightly more frequent workout partner, Connor Kamm. Since Connor is running the half in Houston and wanted something a little more HM specific, he was going to run 3x5k with me but push the last mile of each in 4:55.  I ended up running: 15:38, 3:41, 15:40, 3:45, 15:42, 3:39, 15:42, 3:40, 2:50. Ended up at a 5:02 average for the MP effort, which is a really good sign. It was tough to let Connor go at first but I figured it would be good mental practice if someone made a huge move at Houston that wouldn't be in my best interest to follow.  First two were super easy but my hip flexors got a little tired on the fourth. While I was always in control during the 5ks, the 1k was pretty stinking tough. Glad to finish my last extensive session on a good note.  I was going to jog again later in the evening but it was in the low 30s and raining/sleeting.  No thanks.

Week Total: 123.3 miles. A little lower than planned, but a pretty decent week with a really good workout to close out the week.  This week, I'm going to back off my easy day mileage some but still get in an honest two sessions or so.  It's a tad more aggressive than I would normally do two weeks out but I missed so much time with the sickness a few weeks ago, that I want to sneak in a little more training.  The main goal is to dodge the flu that everyone is catching over here.

I also got one of those fancy new Garmin 620s.  I was pretty surprised with my cadence at different speeds. My easy run cadence is about 175, marathon pace is 190 and 5k pace is 200. In college, I was an overstrider and would hang in the 160s, so I guess I've turned into a marathon shuffler now.