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Monday, January 16, 2012

1/9/12 - 1/15/12: Taking it easy, on purpose

Mon: AM - 4.25 miles easy @ 7:50/mile on treadmill with 1% incline
PM - 7.62 miles total with 3.5 tempo run @ 6:08/mile

Tue: 3.5 miles slow recovery run (untimed) - group run at work on hilly route, mostly on trails

Wed: AM - 4 miles easy @ 7:50/mile on treadmill with 1% incline
PM - 8.5 mile progressive run @ 7:24/mile average on treadmill with 1% incline

Thu: AM - 4 miles easy @ 7:48/mile on treadmill with 1% incline
PM - 7.04 miles easy @ 7:45/mile

Fri: planned rest day

Sat: 12.11 miles @ 7:26/mile - easy/moderate run with last 2 miles hard

Sun: 9.15 miles with 8 x 800 with 2 minute recovery jogs

Weekly Totals: 10 runs, 60.17 miles
YTD Totals: 23 runs, 157.34 miles

Thoughts
This was a planned cutback week for me...boy, did it feel nice!  I was pretty physically exhausted coming into the week.  I purposely reduced the number of doubles (to 3) and overall volume in order to allow myself to rest, hopefully recover/heal any physical aches or pains I may have had with ot without knowing.  It seems to have worked because by the end of the week, I felt much better physically.  I also felt refreshed both physically and mentally from the additional rest.

The tempo run on Monday was a nice surprise.  I figured I would be in about the 6:10-6:12 range.  But, I should mention that my effort level for a tempo run was probably a little much even though my average heart rate of 167 was right about where I would expect it to be.

The 8.5 mile progressive run was 7:47 pace for the first 4 miles, 7:19 pace for 1.5 miles, 7:03 pace for 1.5 miles & 6:49 pace for 1.5 miles.  It felt smooth as I just let my stride roll throughout the whole run.

The interval workout on Sunday was tough, but again I knocked it out of the park.  The 800s were done at 2:46-2:48.  The last few were difficult as the shorter rest started to catch up with me.  I was pleasantly surprised that I held pace for the whole workout as I did not feel as though I was running fast enough for the last few.

I still haven't developed any formal training plan in anticipation of my 10 mile goal race on 4/1.  I am 11 weeks out, so for the next 3-5 weeks, I am going to continue to focus on general aerobic capacity, endurance and resistance.  I plan on doing this by building up my long run, using some progressive runs of 1 hr +, and extending my long tempo run from 5 miles to 6 or 7.  Simultaneously, I plan to continue to alternate fast repetition workouts with some interval workouts at faster than race pace, while adding some hill sprints or strides to a couple runs each week.  I think this will give me the foundation I need to transition to the race specific work I will do the last 6 weeks.

This week it was fun to watch the Olympic Trials Marathon on Saturday.  After seeing all the pre-race interviews and seeing how Amy Hastings raced, how could I not be impressed with her (and have a little crush)?!  Ritz is still my favorite American male runner...he is tough as nails.  I hope he kills it at the track trials this summer along with Rupp.  The emotion at the finish line from both Ritz & Hastings shows how much effort they put into trying to make the team and the belief they had in themselves they could accomplish something amazing.  Heroic!  Consider me a fan of both for good!

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