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Week 209
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Greetings, 50+ers!
Finally felt like an full training week! It's been quite a while since I felt like I was doing more than just dabbling. Got a run in every day and cleared 40-miles for the week, First time since God-knows-when! The week went as such:
Sun: 8.6 miles easy (8:10-ish pace)
Mon: 3.6 fairly easy (7:40 avg)
Tue: 7.0 w/2x400,2x800,2x400 (93,95,309,308,307,306,84,85)
Wed: 3.7 easy (but with ~10 lb backpack, untimed)
Thu: 6.2 mid-upper 7’s, with the third mile @6:06, heat got to me after that!
Fri: 4.5 Very Easy, mostly on trails/grass (8:48 avg)
Sat: 7.0 w/surges every 8th minute. (7:37 avg, w/~6:10 pace surges)
Intervals on Tuesday felt pretty good. The idea was to run the first 2 400s and the 800s all at 5k pace (or a tad under) and then to run 2 harder 400s at the back end. Recoveries intervals were jogs at half the rep distance except between the last two 400s, where we took a full lap recovery jog.
Thursday's run was meant to have a bit more up tempo stuff, but humidity was really high and the temps had crept back up. We’d had such cool weather for the past few weeks that I'd apparently lost some heat acclimatization and suffered mightily following the one hard mile (which I was hoping to hit 6:00...close, but wasn't to be.) I really struggled to keep it under 8 min/mi pace for the last 2-1/2 miles.
Saturday, I wasn't really sure how far I was going to make it, as I hadn’t run every day for a week in quite some time. I suggested to my running partners that we do a 1-minute surge (low 6 min/mi pace) every 8th minute and see how it goes. The course is a hilly 3.5 out and 3.5 back, then one can head the opposite direction 1.5 out (with a very looong uphill) and 1.5 back to make it a round 10-miler. I was feeling fine through 5 miles, then somewhere in the sixth mile, I just started to feel fatigued. As we approached the 7-mile home position and with that long hill lurking, I had to throw in the towel and let the youngsters complete the 10-mile run, while I called it a day, knowing that the 7 would give me 40 for the week, and that was enough. These days, discretion is the better part of valor.
I was saddened to read of the death of world-class marathoner Pat Peterson due to pancreatic cancer at the age of 55. That same damn cancer claimed both our fathers, my wife and I...a terrible disease. RIP.
At the same time, it was inspiring to read about 92-year-old Harriet Thompson's completion of the San Diego Marathon. What a pioneer!
@AK-57, Glad you've gotten yourselves pretty-well moved.
@Spikez, nice races, we’ll look forward to hearing how #3 went!
@AlanB, my old coach did something similar and got bronchitis that kept him out for about 3-weeks. Hope that you are on the upswing!
@Rtype, hope the knee is just a minor blip.
@Old Guy II, sorry about your calf. When I have calf issues, I find it usually helps me to get off the roads and run on grass/trails for a while.
@SCgal, that was pretty brave to try and run two races after a out-of-country trip! I know what you mean about the heat getting you.
@Running Formula Reader, glad to see that you are starting to recover.
@KP, your track workouts are killing me. Not “Blazing Fast” is clearly in the eye of the beholder! :-P
@Mike Lundergan, nice racing by both you and your wife. It always feels better to negative split your races, but yes, more warmed up and get back to doing intervals....that's an order. ;-)
@DannyJ, welcome, thanks for peeking in. Good luck on your journey! You going to join our conversation?
@1500Master, thinking about you and how the recovery from your accident is coming along. I pray that things are looking up!
OK. That's enough for this post (and enough @'s, sorry I didn't hit everyone). Hope that you all are in a good place, and that your training/racing/recovery are progressing. Looking forward, as always, to your reports!
How about American Pharoah! (We care deeply about these things here in KY)
All the Best!