5/24/2009

I would have to rate this week much higher than last week because I got in a lot more miles, I ran two good workouts and I ran my first good race of the year. I ended the week with 88.5 miles (78.5 running miles and 30 miles of riding = 10 equivalent miles) and should be able to top that this week since I am not racing again until next Wednesday night. Racing well this week means a lot because it means that all the time I am spending training is not for naught. I was starting to wonder. The 15:39 5k time equates to pretty much what I thought I should have run last week at the Bedford 12k. I am planning on doing a hard hill workout tomorrow and then hammer the workout on Wednesday night (4x1600m @ 5k pace).

Monday:

• AM: 11 mi ride (36ish) Easy ride in place of the morning run.
• PM: 8 mi (54:41) This was the first of the Monday hill workouts so I did not want to go too hard. I did a loop at work with some big hills - I started out on a long steady climb at about 1.5-2 miles and then did 4 hard repeats on a shorter, steeper climb. I finished by doing a hard mile down the long hill I came up at the start. Below is the altitude profile. I lifted when I got back to the gym.
  

Tuesday:

• AM: 8 mi+ (57:59) Nice easy run to shake out the legs after the hard run yesterday.
• PM: 5.5 mi+ (39:25) Easy run in the woods in Groton. I was not planning on going this far but I got lost again.
  

Wednesday:

• AM: 19 mi ride - Easy 11+ mile ride in place of the morning run plus I rode to and from the workout in the evening and it was about 8.5 miles round trip.
  
• PM: 10.25 mi (71:25) 4 x (2 x 400m + 800m) with 1/2 the distance of rest. My splits and rest intervals were 72 (82), 71 (83), 2:28 (2:40), 72 (82), 72 (81), 2:28 (2:53), 73 (85) 70 (87), 2:27 (3:02), 72 (77), 71 (87), 2:25. The 4's and the first two 8's were pretty easy but the last two 8's were a bit tough because it was pretty warm (81 degrees) a bit windy on one of the straights. Even though the ride there was only a little over 4 miles, my legs felt pretty flat for the first half of the workout. I may not do that again. I did not wear my HR monitor because the battery in the chest strap is dead. Go really easy tomorrow.
  

Thursday:

• AM: 6.25 mi (47:49) I had a hard time getting myself out the door this morning and did not get out until almost 7:30AM. Once I got going I felt pretty good, but I was going really SLOOOOOOWWWW. I think that is just what I needed to recover from yesterday though.
• PM: 4.5ish (31:30) I stopped in Groton to run on some trails near Cow Pond Brook (South of Massapoag Pond). There are a ton of trails out there and I just noticed that the Haystack Observatory is close by. Maybe I will try to find it one of these days.
  

Friday: 6.25 mi (45:09) This was the same run as yesterday morning at about the same time. I felt like I was going about the same pace but it ended up being roughly 30 seconds/mile faster. I was so tired today that I skipped my afternoon run and took a nap. Hopefully this will help me tomorrow in the race.

Saturday: 9+ mi (60:20) I ran the 5000m at the New Balance Twilight Series meet 1 and finished in a time of 15:39.49. I put in a seed time of 15:45 and felt like I could run somewhere between 15:30 and 15:45 if things went well. I did a 3 mile warm up and 3 mile cool down. See my post on the meet for more details and pictures.

Sunday: 17.5 mi (120:43) This was the same route as last weekend with a additional 0.5 mile loop added at the end. Even after last night's race I felt pretty good on this run and not too tired. It was 70 degrees and a bit humid. When I got back I weighed in at 160.0 pounds, a low for me in quite a long time. I am shooting to get my weight down to 155ish pounds before the fall.