I had a pretty great training week for a change!
- Monday, cross-training: I signed up for Mariane Elliott’s 90 Days of Yoga course, which is a follow-up to her regular 30 Days courses. The idea is to help you take your commitment to yoga a bit deeper, and to build up a sustained practice that works for you. I knew from the beginning that I can’t commit to a daily yoga practice, especially in the middle of my training cycle. But I know it will be helpful for me to build up a regular practice that I can balance with my love for running. In any case, it was great to practice for 40 minutes and stretch myself out, even though I was feeling kind of run down.
- Tuesday, tempo run: Since I keep missing out on my tempo runs, I decided to nail it at the beginning of the week this time. My plan was 1-mile warm-up, 3 miles @ 9:34 and 1-mile cool-down. I hit my splits at 9:37, 9:35, and 9:42, and felt a lot stronger than the last time I did this training run. Awesome! It was still pretty tough though.
- Wednesday, unplanned rest day: The tempo run was so tough in fact, that my immune system rebelled and convinced me to take a rest day to recover.
- Thursday, easy run: I should have done my speed training (4 x 1200m), but I was still feeling a bit under the weather. Instead of giving up the run entirely though, I went for an easy run of 4 miles to get in the distance, without really looking at my pace. I’m so glad I did, even though it probably helped me a lot more psychologically than physically.
- Friday: Rest
- Saturday, cross-traing: Did Level 3 of the Shred and was left with a sore core for the rest of the weekend. Guess I should reincorporate the Shred back into my routine!
- Sunday, “long” run: My plan called for an 8-mile run, so I decided to do about 1.5 miles as a warm-up, 5 miles @ 10:04 pace, and then a 1.5-mile cool-down. The run went pretty well, if I do say so myself. You can see in the splits below that I more or less hit my pace for most of the miles, and had to actually keep myself from running too fast at the beginning. Woohoo!
Only two weeks to go until the Bremen 10K, and I’m starting to get a little anxious consider my goals for the race a bit more seriously. Today’s long run will certainly help me figure out what’s within my reach, and what my A goal for the race should be. More on those goals later…
Whew! That sure is a lot of running! As a non-runner, I totally admire people who do. Especially those who are preparing for a marathon!
Is dein Schatz running the 10k with you?
Good luck with the rest of your training!
D has decided at the last minute that he’ll run the half-marathon that day, so he’ll be on the sidelines cheering me on, then I can be on the sidelines cheering him on. :)
Looks like a great training week! I can’t believe you are only 2 weeks out from the race. I am impressed at your splits on your long run – I am trying to work on not going out fast and being consistent.
Yeah, I’m wishing I had another week or two to get myself ready, but it is what it is! It’s a little intimidating to be “racing” a new distance — my usual strategy (negative splitting) for a half-marathon probably isn’t going to work this time, so I’m trying to figure out what the smartest pacing strategy this time around should be. I’m testing out a few strategies and paces in my next few runs and will hopefully have a plan laid out soon!