August 17-23rd Training

Monday: 5.5 miles (7:48); 2.8 miles (8:31); 6.3 miles (7:03)

Tuesday: 10.7 miles (6:37); 6.3 miles with 6xhill blasts (7:17)

Wednesday: 8.9 miles with attempted workout.  The plan called for a fartlek of 1-2-3-2-1-2-3-2-1 at 4:40-4:50 pace with equal recovery jog at a moderate pace to average 5:10-5:15.  Originally, I had a much tougher fartlek scheduled but I was glad to see the change after feeling like crap on Tuesday's run. My legs were pretty crapped out from Sunday's session and towards the end of my second fast interval, I knew it wasn't happening.  I really wanted to gut it out but my quads were on strike. I'm calling a mulligan on this one and will try tomorrow; Skipped run. I wanted to make sure I was feeling good tomorrow, it was raining and I was really tired.  Excuses won in a 3-0 shutout.

Thursday: 13.1 miles with completed workout from yesterday.  I ended up at a 5:13 overall average for the 34:00 and a "fast" average of 4:43.  I wanted to sneak just under 5:15 pace, so I made sure not to hammer too hard.  I felt really rusty the first two, loosened up a bit, took a ride on the pain train on the second, three minute surge, and then put the brakes on a bit the last two fast intervals.  Normally, I walk around for a few minutes after the workout but I felt better than expected on this one. I also had a thousand dead bugs on my stomach and chest; 5.3 miles (7:16)

Friday: 9.1 miles (7:11); 1.2 miles (8:07); 4.6 miles (7:26)

Saturday: 10.5 miles with 5k in 15:27. I wanted to cherry pick a local 5k for some daycare money and with a tough session planned for tomorrow, the goal was to win as easily as possible.  Some Kenyan I've never seen before showed up, along with a Vandy med school student named Paul, who ran for Wake Forest several years ago.  Vanderbilt's med school team would probably beat out their college cross country team. We ran mostly together the first 1/2 mile, then I slowly put on some distance to come through the first mile in a high 4:40 and I was able to back off some the second mile and even more on the third to win by about 25s or so.  Rusty effort that first mile but I loosened up; 4.5 miles (7:29)

Sunday: 21.5 miles with 16.37 miles @5:28.   The plan called for the 21.5 miles with a 30k progression of 10k@5:25-5:30, 10k@5:15-5:20, 10k@5:10-5:20.  The weather was 73 at the start with a 69 dew point and the air was insanely thick.  Maybe I'm just being a baby but it seems more humid at Shelby Bottoms because the greenway is lined with trees, bushes, etc and since it rained the night before, they held tons of water. With the conditions, my weather adjusted plans were: 5:35, 5:25, and then see what I could muster out the last 10k.

But anyway, Connor Kamm came out for this one and joined me for a little over 8.5 miles. I felt like crap from the start and had a herky-jerky first 10k at 5:34 pace. loosened up a bit the first few miles of the next 10k and averaged 5:23 pace for that one.  After 15 miles, I was still running sub 5:25s but my legs were getting a little achy and after 16, I knew I should probably call it soon since I had a tough four day stretch.  So at 16.37 miles, I ended the party.

Lots of rambling but I was pleased with this after bouncing back from yesterday and Thursday.  In ideal weather, this was definitely worth sub 5:20 and it felt easier than marathon effort.  I also tried out two Double-Latte Powergels and they seemed to work ok.  I'll try them once or twice more and may make that my marathon gel for Chicago; 5 miles (7:26)

Week Total: 115.3 miles. Third tough week in a row, and I had some decent volume with a skipped run.  The training is tough and I'm even making myself go to bed a little bit earlier so I'm not so zombie-like. And my summertime gut is also slowly going away. I have one more tough week with a killer workout next Sunday, then a well earned easy week leading into New Haven.

Hopefully I get some cool weather soon because while my "weather-adjusted" stuff isn't bad, I'd rather have the real deal.