Hello all. This has been a productive summer of training. Definitely think I have a good shot sub 16:30. Here is my summer thus far, from 6/10-8/14. I structure my weeks Sunday->Friday (I cross train on Saturdays).
6/10 - 2.82 @ 8:03
6/11 - 4.27 @ 8:22
6/12 - 6.84 @ 7:08. Just felt really good.
6/13 - 7.08 @ 8:25. Cruised around for an hour in the hilliest, gnarliest trails I have.
6/14 - 4.71 @ 8:24. Recovery.
6/15 - 5.34 @ 8:27
6/16 - planned off
6/17 - to my dismay, had to cancel on my first long run of the summer. slight achilles pain
6/18 - 3.37 @ 7:39. Crappy run, had zero motivation so I just ran hard for like the last 8 minutes to get something out of it.
6/19 - 7.74 @ 7:16. Trying to make up for essentially 2 missed days. This was supposed to be a long run but I bailed. Still a decent run but not long.
6/20 - 6.13 @ 8:00
6/21 - 6.64 @ 7:38
6/22 - 6.07 @ 8:17
6/23 - planned off
Definitely my worst or second worst week of training this summer. Low motivation.
6/24 - 8.27 @ 7:49 long run that was slightly shorter than I wanted (1:04:37)
6/25 - 6.16 @ 8:12
6/26 - 6.54 @ 7:10
6/27 - 8.3 @ 7:22 medium long run
6/28 - 5.54 @ 8:54
6/29 - 6.05 @ 7:18
6/30 - planned off
7/1 - 8.19 @ 8:01
7/2 - 4.92 @ 8:14
7/3 - 3.62 @ 8:40 day before first workout of the summer, and it was really, really hot
7/4 - 12 up, 4 mile road race which I tempoed/raced in 24:48 (6:12), 12 down. Pretty average performance but it was the first workout of the summer.
7/5 - 5.25 @ 7:55
7/6 - 5.92 @ 6:78
7/7 - Planned off
This is where it gets good.
7/8 - 75 minutes, not sure what pace as my watch messed up, but it was fast. Probably like 7:10. Longest run time-wise ever.
7/9 - 5.31 @ 9:13 recovery
7/10 - 4.29 @ 8:10
7/11 - 7.56 @ 8:14 medium long run
7/12 - 6.09 @ 9:08
7/13 - 7.06 @ 59:51
7/14 - planned off
7/15 - knocked out a brutal 10.3 in 1:19:43 for my longest run time and distance wise ever. Did not even have the willpower to go 17 more seconds. It was really, really hot.
7/16 - 5.62 @ 9:44
7/17 - 4.72 @ 8:44
7/18 - 6.71 @ 8:34
7/19 - 6.77 @ 7:14
7/20 - 6.27 @ 9:51 yeah, I know, but this was a medium long run entirely on trails which are notorious for making my GPS watch say I'm running less. More on that later.
7/21 - planned off
7/22 - 12.00 @ 7:00 hands down my greatest long run ever. It was on the roads but there were some truly monstrous hills.
7/23 - 5.59 @ 8:23
7/24 - 7.83 @ 7:44 Another good medium long run.
7/25 - 10 or 12 up, 6x3 minutes on, 2 off, 10 or 12 cooldown. Total of 8.4 @ 7:39. Second workout of the summer. Was mentally challenging but got it done.
7/26 - 5.86 @ 9:31 Another one of those runs
7/27 - Hill workout. 12 up, 5x~800-900m hill, 12 down. 3:18, 3:24, 3:15, 3:16, 3:14. It was BRUTALLY hot, and I matched my times from February doing the same workout. I wanted to do 6 but it was too hot and I ran out of time.
7/28 - planned off
7/29 - 12.09 @ 7:27 Was hot and I took it easier than the long run last week but it was still quite challenging.
7/30 - 5 @ 9:12 Felt like utter crap for obvious reasons. Also I went to a cross training session which had exercises I had never done before, and my legs were destroyed.
7/31 - Off due to EXTREME soreness. No surprises here but frustrating as it was pretty dumb to do this the day after my longest run ever.
8/1 - Same as yesterday
8/2 - 5.48 @ like 7:30. Attempted a 30 minute tempo but aborted due to lack of motivation 8 minutes in. Pathetic, I know. Ended up just running like a 6:20 mile back home and called it a day.
8/3 - 8.88 @ 7:43. Ran hard for 40 minutes with some 6:50 miles in there and did a long and slow cool down. Just making up for the crap last 3 days.
8/4 - 6.68 @ 8:16 First time running on a Saturday this summer, again to make up for the wasted time.
8/5 - 11.15 @ 7:39 A really solid run. Got it done in the heat. Didn't go as hard as the 2 12 milers.
8/6 - 6.75 @ 9:05 Felt like crap, really humid
8/7 - 5.45 @ 9:11 Another one
8/8 - 15 w/ 2 uptempo up, 4.8 mile tempo in 29:52 (6:13), 10 down. It was overcast and cool, a great run. For reference a lot of guys who run 29:00 on this course go on to run about 16:45-50 in XC... I could have easily done that today, this was a true tempo.
8/9 - 7.75 @ 8:19 on trails I'm normally going 9:00+ on. Great medium long run.
8/10 - Best workout of the summer. Possible my best workout ever. Good enough that I made a thread about it. Planned 4x2k but started off too fast in the heat, so changed i to 2x2k + mile + 800 and crushed it. 6:49 (5:24 through mile), 6:44 (5:19 through mile), 5:41, 2:29. Side note, I did this barefoot on a flat soccer field... maybe that's why it was so fast. I had no idea I'd be hitting 5:20's which is about goal 5k pace. It was not all out but it was hard.
8/11 - off after running 8 days in a row.
8/12 - 10.86 @ 7:25 Again, just got it done. It was a little cooler but it wasn't too hard. Fairly hilly. Not very mentally challenging like long runs usually are to me.
8/13 - 6.35 @ 7:06 Went harder than I should have but I got a little competitive with a friend. 12.6 100 during strides afterwards.
8/14 - 5.52 @ 9:50 Another garbaggio trail run.
Note: I did strides and the occasional hill sprint after some of these days. Don't worry, I've kept in touch with speed :)
Now let me explain about the trail runs; I usually do these the day after a hard effort to get used to running on rougher terrain on a non-workout day. They are on the windiest, hilliest, gnarliest, rockiest and rootiest trails you can imagine. So basically, my legs are tired, the terrain is not conducive to fast running, and GPS watches have a hard time with windy forest. Hopefully you're now less concerned with me running 10 minute miles.
Another thing to add is that I do long runs mostly on road (but there are still some good rolling hills) so that helps make them at a decent clip. They are generally on "faster courses" than just mileage days.
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I will now be keeping this thread updated weekly, I just haven't felt like posting my training this summer, and I'm really bored right now, so I figured I should post before it got any longer. School starts in 2 weeks and I still don't know when my first race is. At the earliest it will be September 1st and the latest the 15th. I probably won't run very fast given that I've only done some tempos and fartleks and hills so far.
I'd love if any of you have suggestions or anecdotes or anything of the sort. Thanks for reading! Happy training everyone. This is going to be a fun thread.