*************************
Week 70
*************************
Good morning, 50+ers. The weather tide turned abrupty yesterday, and we're suddenly not getting out of the 50's. What happened to those nice 60-degree days? Hopefully, they'll show up before we get into late fall weather. The Chicago marathon is underway as I write this; I have fond memories from my trip there a few years back, even if I blew up and positive-splitted by over 10 minutes (1:25,1:37). They really know how to put on a marathon. Meanwhile, the US Masters Marathon Championships are taking place in Minneapolis today. I'll be interested to see how Kevin Castille does; this is the first time that he feels that he has properly prepared for the marathon; he told me that learning how to negotiate nutrition has been a key difference in his training.
On to my week. I had a enjoyable and solid week of training. I really feel like I've turned a corner in my training, and hope it will be reflected when I hit some races here in the coming weeks. I logged 56+ miles on 8 runs in 7 days. The log book looks as such:
Sun: 8.2 w/3.5@6:05 pace
Mon: 3.5 easy
Tues: 7.2 easy
Wed: 8.3 w/3x(3laps@5k pace,30s rest, 1lap@mile pace, 2lap jog)
Thur: 6.1 easy
Fri: 10.1 (5 easy to moderate AM, 5.1 easy on grass PM)
Sat: 12.7 progressive for first 7.7 (from about 7:40 down to about 6:25), easy for last 5
Notes:
1) Regarding Sundays hard tempo: Last week I intimated I needed to run some longer tempos. It wasn't really planned, but one of my running buddies started running our club run at a high pace from the start, and I took off with him. He wasn't planning on holding that pace, but somehow it just felt good, so I kept it up. I was then joined by the young faster frenchman, which gave me good motivation. It honestly felt very controlled, and I really only started to feel it with about 3/4 miles left in the 3.5 mile section thanks to a decent hill that we had to climb.
2) Wednesday's track workout was meant to work on some finishing speed on tired legs. The 5k pace I was shooting for was 17:40, and I hit that on the first, and the 2nd and 3rd were progressively faster. All the 1 laps were right around 70-71 (which translates to 74-75 on a 400m track).
3) On Friday, I ran a moderately-paced (~7:10) 5.1 in the morning, then knowing the weather was turning, I ran another easy 5 in the afternoon. I had a meeting at our other campus on the far end of town in the early afternoon, and used the opportunity to run on the grass at Masterson Station Park (where the USATF Club Cross-country Championships will be held) afterward. Was great to run out there, and makes me think I need to go over there more often. The course will be a little different than what it was 3 years ago, owing to the fact that they extended the dog-run park into that great start funnel that we had. I'm still not sure where the start will be.
4) I thought Saturday was going to feel a lot chillier than it did. High was in the mid-50's, but it was sunny and only light winds. My daughter's boyfriend had an extra ticket to the UK football game (which ended up being lack-luster.) After the game, and after the traffic died down, the weather just felt perfect for a nice run. I started out easy, but once again, I was just feeling really good, and though I started slow, I started racheting up the pace with each mile. I don't have direct miles splits, but I did take splits with my watch along the route and then gmapped it when I got home. From that, I deduced average paces of 7:23 (first 2.8), 6:45 (next 2.5), 6:30 (last 2.4) along this 7.7 mile loop. When I got home, I was planning to do another 2-miles of cool down, but the weather was so nice, I made it another 5, instead. My hip did start to tighten after about mile 11 on the day, so that was also pretty remarkable. Normally, it would have started bugging me during that last section of the progressive run---the hip-raising exercises are definitely working!
5) Everything I did this week felt well within myself. I never felt that I was pushing myself into uncomfortable zones, so that was very encouraging. If there is one cautionary note, it's that the left knee is feeling a little tight this morning. I'll be working on properly massaging the muscles around it today.
OK. That's about all I got. Hope everyone is doing well. Any fall racing to report?
Cheers.