I was logging my running from last week since I was behind from being out of town and realized that I, in theory, finished up the 9 day microcycle/vo2max phase of my Chicago training cycle yesterday.
Thought I would lay out what my actual training looked like compared to my intended training (all data is from June 4th through yesterday).
Planned mileage: 360
Actual mileage: 278.25, supplemented by what I am considering the equivalent of 33 miles of running accrued by time on the elliptical
Planned number of vo2max sessions: 4 (including a 4 mile race)
Actual vo2max sessions: 3 (including a 4 mile race). I also had a rep session that I did not have planned.
Planned number of threshold sessions: 4
Actual number of threshold sessions: 1
Planned length of longest runs of microcycles: 16, 17, 18, 18 (there was also a 15 miler with threshold work planned in there, but that was not technically my long run that week)
Actual length of longest runs of microcycles: 15, 18, 12, 21
Total number of 70+ minute sessions planned: 22
Actual number of 70+ minute sessions: 17
Obviously, my long runs and threshold session just haven't been there yet, and that has dragged my mileage down a little bit.
Still, this is not as bad as it looks as I laid out the plan pretty far in advance and it was pretty aggressive given where I was in the recovery process. Other thoughts:
- The decision to forego the threshold work was a thoughtful one - I could tell my body was not ready for two workouts per microcycle, so I had to make a decision as to which workouts to drop, so I dropped the threshold workouts since that will be my primary emphasis in this next phase of the training cycle. No point in doing that instead of the vo2max work since the vo2max work will make the threshold work feel more manageable and since the adaptation from the threshold work will come in any event.
- I intend to try to squeeze one last interval session in for this week even though I don't have one on the original plan. I want to get as close to a full adaptation there as I can, and I just feel that I need at least 4 good sessions to do that.
- My long run situation is actually pretty solid, with the unplanned 21 miler this past Friday kind of saving me on the overall quality of those long runs. Getting a run that long in that early in the cycle (13 weeks out) gives me some flexibility on future longs runs.
- The main thing that I feel like I am missing other than the speed from the vo2max work is having gotten some medium-long/threshold combo work in to prepare me for the workouts to come.
13 weeks to go (from this past Sunday), and mostly in a position to start doing the real work of the cycle.