Significant times / PRs for this training cycle:
5k PR 15:49 (road) in November 2017
3k PR 9:07 (200m flat track) in December 2017
Mile PR 4:20 (300m track) in January 2018
600m Debut 1:23.3 (300m track an hour after the mile).
Week ending in 3/3
Sunday 11.5 miles @ 7:18 pace. Last half a mile at 6:00 pace just to open up the stride a little
**Felt pretty tired and stale on this one. Felt pretty good actually to open up my legs at the end.
Monday 4 miles @ 7:10 pace + 7x60m hill sprints.
** Felt average. No complaints one way or the other.
Tuesday Off.
**Was just tired. Lack of sleep the previous weekend. Took the rest day.
Wednesday AM 3 miles @ 7:22 pace on the treadmill. Lift after.
PM 2mi warmup, 2x(3x200m), 400m, 200m jog into one last 200m.
(29, 27, 29) (28, 28, 28) 56, 33.
90 seconds between reps, 4 minutes between sets.
** Goal on the 200m reps was to run at opening 800m pace and get a feel for the start of the race. Was slightly uncomfortable, but I was pretty relaxed overall on those. The 400m was meant to be at the same pace, then as soon as the 400m was done you go right into a 200m jog then into one final 200m.
Thursday 6 miles in total.
**Ran in the middle school that my dad coaches at and ran with some kids who I help coach. Started with 20 minutes on the treadmill, then drills and dynamic stretches, then 4x60m sprints. After that we did 20 minutes of continuous running with 5 minutes around the halls, then 5 minutes in the stair well doing various stepping patterns (every step, every other step, hop every step, single leg hop every step, etc).
Finished off with a lot of core work after.
Friday 5.5 miles @ 7:27 pace on the treadmill.
Saturday 4 mile tempo @ 5:45 pace.
**Went through 5k in about 17:40 and suffered on the last mile into the wind. Did 4x~20 seconds on the road at around 400m effort after.
Week total: 42.1 miles
Overall I'm pretty happy with this week. I covered a lot of bases and my foot has been feeling better, but I still need to keep up with the foot strengthening work, because it was a little sore on Friday.
Wednesday's workout was the first real workout around 800m pace, and while it wasn't a killer and had relatively long rests, I'm happy with it. The 400m was a little tougher than I would have preferred it to be, but I can't be upset with a 56 after some 200m reps prior.
Thursday I just decided to make the most of the crappy rainy weather and get in some various work in the middle school. I feel like those stair reps are a good kind of plyometric cross training while also hammering my cardio, and when you only have a 150m hall-way to run in, you have to be creative.
Saturday's workout was not fun nor impressive, but I am glad to get it done. My endurance has surely taken a hit due to the down time in January, and I am also feeling a little tired from the consistent work I've been putting in the last couple weeks after that down time, but I have a few weeks before my first race so I have time to get some more work in.
As a side note, I plan on running 4 outdoor meets this season. The dates (should nothing else change) are:
3/24
4/14
4/21
5/11 (peak race)
In terms of competition, the most low-key meet will be 4/21 and the best competition should be 5/11.
I am trying to figure out what events I should run at which meets. Last year I ran 51.8, 2:01, 1:58 low, 1:58 low in my 4 tries, but I kind of just faded out towards the end instead of aiming for a quality peak.
Would running the 800m, 800m, 400m, 800m, make the most sense or should I run the 800m as my penultimate race for practice? I would like to run the 400m once, but I also want to get used to some 800m races in the process. I could easily run the 200m after any of the above races, but it would be impossible to run both the 400m and 800m in the same meet.
Any ideas?
Thanks for reading this far.