March 14th-20th Training

Monday: 6.1 miles (7:10); 8 miles (657)

Tuesday: 8.7 miles (6:53); 5.4 miles with 3xhill blasts (7:09). First time doing those since before Chicago.  Last time I ran these, I would run by a few empty lots on the hills and now, there are houses with people living in them.

Wednesday: 8.5 miles with 12x400m. The plan was to run up to 16, broken into sets of four.  The first three would be 70-72, with 1:00 jog, with the last one sub 68 with 3:00 jog.  I ended up running: (68.8, 68.2, 68.4, 63.9); (67.5, 67.3, 66.7, 62.6); (67.0, 65.8, 66.3, 62.8).  I would have run another set but I ran out of time. Solid workout and my first good one since before Chicago.  Just two weeks ago, I only ran 4x800m with 800m jog in 2:26.  I feel like I'm getting all my super powers back.  I was feeling really smooth on the first three of each set and each set didn't feel any worse than the prior one.  Spencer was running some repeat 800s, and as fate would have it, we were both on our last interval at the same time.  I wanted to beat him but my quads started getting a little shaky and I didn't want to bust my face.  He ended up finishing about a second before me (albeit 100m ahead since we started from different places); 2.1 miles (7:31). Ran at my K-2 running club since they've gotten lazy on me, recently; .1 miles (7:52). Ran about an hour after finishing running club.  My knee was killing me and my groin was screaming me at all.  I think both tightened up on me after taking a bit of a break in between the two runs.

Thursday: 10.6 miles (6:45); 2.3 miles (7:08) and then 3.9 miles (8:58) at Super Squad practice

Friday: 8 miles (7:10); 4.5 miles (7:10)

Saturday: 15.7 miles with 15k progression run in 48:30. Jumped into the Special Kids 15k and my plan was to run three miles at 16:30 (5:30), 16:00 (5:20), 15:30 (5:10).  I thought it would be pretty tough since I averaged 5:20 for a half-marathon two weeks prior but I was going to at least attempt it. I ended up running: 16:20 (5:29, 5:26, 5:25), 15:41 (5:05, 5:18, 5:18), and 14:56 (4:59, 4:55, 5:02). First section=super relaxed with some decent headwind.  Second section= Picked it up about ten seconds, effort wise on the first mile but I ended up running with a tailwind, before slamming on the brakes the last two. 3rd section= Sub five pace came very easily.  I was going to still run 5:10s but I felt it wouldn't have been what I wanted, effort wise.  I would probably run 4:55ish on the last mile but the 5k started twenty minutes later and right before eight miles, I ran into a TON of 5k runners.

The lead car couldn't go through and it was literally shoulder to shoulder on both sides of the road.  I ended up running on the side of the road, which was grass with bad footing.  After a little over half a mile, I was able to run on the far side of the road.  For some reason, I showed up in the 5k results before getting it fixed.  More often than not, those A Matter of Timing guys butcher results; 4.5 miles (7:13)

Sunday: 7.7 miles (6:49); 4.5 miles (7:18)

Week Total: 100.6 miles. Finally a solid post-Chicago Marathon week!  I feel like I've become much more fit over the last two weeks and in another month, I feel like I'll be a new man.  I just have to stay on top of this injury stuff.  I've started scrapping my knee every night, which seems like it's now helping but I'm pretty sure I have a sports hernia that I need to get looked at.  It's really achy for a mile or so and then it loosens up.  But any time I sneeze, it feels like the Hulk is trying to yank my leg off.