Monday, January 30, 2012

Eugene Week 3

Eugene Week 3 (Jan 23 to 29)

I'm just gonna not post about week 2 -- it was fine.  I have my little notes all over the place but if I wait to post week three after week 2 I'll probably be at week 4.

Goodness its been busy.

Anyway, week 3 was fine as well.  So far, so good and it all seems very easy.  I think part of that is I'm just right under the total miles I had built up to before Christmas -- so I've not challenged myself a whole lot yet.  And the speed work is only one day a week and so far it has been very simple as well.  Part of me panics and the other part of me says to relax and calm down.  On to the details.

Monday Jan 23


Off -- and I'm always very successful on my rest days.  I do rest well.

Tuesday Jan 24

I got to pick between hill repeats and a fartlek workout. I picked the fartlek because I can't really drive to hills pre work workout.  So, on tap was 15 to 20 min warm up, 8 times 2 mins at 5k to 8k pace (8:09 to 8:27) with 1 min recover jog and then 15 to 20 min cool down.  So how did I do?


117:01.61.6710:11
22:01.30.258:04
3:59.40.0910:30
42:00.40.258:09
5:59.60.0911:18
62:00.30.248:14
71:00.10.0910:43
82:01.10.258:07
9:58.00.0811:25
101:59.80.267:39
11:59.80.0910:49
122:03.00.258:09
13:57.90.0811:26
142:00.10.257:59
151:06.80.1011:29
161:56.10.248:07
171:12.40.1110:50
1818:15.51.899:39


I think this qualifies as perfect!!  Look at those in bold.  I'm not sure who I was running from in split 10 but that's cool.  I'm very pleased I was able to run the lower end of the range.

Wednesday, Jan 25

35 to 50 minute easy run (9:40 to 10:10 pace).  I did 5 miles (almost 50 mins) at a 9:43 pace.  Success

Thursday, Jan 26

45 to 60 minute easy run (9:40 to 10:10 pace).  I went a little over at 64 minutes because of the route I chose.  But I did good on pace at 9:50 -- for 6.5 miles.

Friday, Jan 27

Another successful rest day

Saturday, Jan 28

Was supposed to be 90 to 105 long steady run (9:40 to 10:40).  I don't have great stats as my garmin died mid run but my friend and I ended up doing a bunch of hills at Rancho. So we were out there over 2 hours so I definitely went long.  But my average pace was about 11.25 (guessing) so a little slower recommended.  Overall I'm fine with that -- I love the hills -- and notice getting stronger right away so all is good.  I was worried I did too much as I actually had to recover (long bath and nap) and I've not needed that in awhile and certainly not for 11 miles.  But I was fine yesterday and today so I don't think I did too much.

Sunday, Jan 29

30 to 40 minute recover run (10:40 to 11:10) pace.  I suck at recovery runs.  I went for 44 minutes for 4.2 miles at a10:28 pace.  That is exhausting to try to stay so slow -- I just have so much trouble.  But I'm trying.

So onward to this week which will look a bit similar except that I'm running a race on Sunday.  Silly me.  A half marathon up in San Francisco.  It seemed like a good idea at the time though I'm not sure I really want to do it now.  But ohwell -- I'm just going to try and run it smart like Operation Jack the day after Christmas -- start conservative, negative splits, yada yada.  I had this scheduled in my plan but there's no real taper and this isn't a full knock'em dead effort. The weather gods say it is supposed to be sunny and pleasant, if not a bit chilly first thing so it will be fun.

3 down, 13 to go.

11 comments:

Paul said...

LGTM (looks good to me!) You got urself some talent there. 8)

Remember that as the long runs get longer it's all about training the muscles to burn fat. IF YOU RUN THEM TOO FAT they won't learn..they'll burn glycogen as per usual.

And you'll be the fastest 20 miler around but will hit the wall big time during the marathon.

So go slowly on the long runs (i.e. marathon pace + 40-90s /mile) .when you get to the month or 5 weeks before race day you can start to run parts of them fast to get use to your marathon pace.


Do you have a target pace for your marathon in mind? I forget if you mentioned one?

Re: going slow. Try a much more compact stride. Don't bound up and down and leap long strides.. Learning to go slow is a useful skill.

Onward!

Paul said...

Argh..proofread failure.

"FAT" -> FAST

I see you are running the Shamrock half..that will be a good benchmark to judge your potential marathon pace.

I'm running (hopefully) the Santa Cruz half on april 1 for that purpose too.

Raina said...

Your fartlek is very impressive! Nice work on keeping the pace challenging for those ON segments.

Sounds like you have a great plan! You are doing so well. I love rest days too. I am in a rest week and am loving it!

Raina said...

I forgot! Can I add you to a list I am making on my blog of people racing Eugene? Anyone else you know who is racing there and blogging?

XLMIC said...

You can downgrade to the 5K for freeeeeee and at the spur of the moment :)

You are doing AWESOME!

Angela Knotts said...

Good luck Sunday!! :)

Nelly said...

Good luck on the half marathon Sunday!

I've been bad about reading blogs recently, congrats on signing up for Eugene! Sounds like a good idea on doing a McMillan plan. Curious to follow you and see how it goes.

Sounds like overall your training is going great.

Bay to Breakers should be fun indeed!

Anne said...

Like you need this .... I just tagged you to participate in a meme. My blog has all the details. I know you're super busy. I really would like to hear your answers though.

Terzah said...

Hey! Wow--those are some good paces on that fartlek. I have that exact workout coming up on the first week of my new (non-marathon) plan. I think your half is going to go really well. I think the "big one" will too. Excited to follow along!

Kathy said...

Excellent intervals! I don't have that discipline on longs - I just trudge ahead and get-er-done. You're inspiring me!!

Lisa said...

You joke about being successful at rest, but I think that's a huge REAL success!

Happy training :)