18 Weeks to Go (Recovery Phase - COMPLETE!)
This was the last week of the Recovery Phase (2 weeks off + 2 weeks of only easy running). It's been an adjustment to the new paces. It's been an adjustment to the new Zealot Iso shoes. It's been an adjustment to the heat/humidity of Spring (umm I mean Summer?!?!). It was also the first time in my life that I ran seven days in a row (because last cycle Tuesday was switched to Wednesday due to Barney). So let's see how things went.
Date - Day - Scheduled Workout (Intervals within desired pace, Strength +/- 5 sec, everything else +/- 10 sec)
5/25/16 - W - 5 miles @ 8:33 or slower (5/5) + Medicine Ball Workout (MBW)
5/26/16 - R - 6 miles @ 9:11 min/mile (5/6)
5/27/16 - F - 6 miles @ 8:33 min/mile (6/6)
5/28/16 - Sat - 6 miles @ 9:11 min/mile (4/6) + MBW
5/29/16 - Sun - 6 miles @ 8:33 min/mile (5/6)
5/30/16 - M - 6 miles @ 9:11 min/mile (3/6)
5/31/16 - T - 6 miles @ 8:33 min/mile (5/6)
Total mileage = 41 miles
Number of intervals within pace = 33/41 (80%)
So, because my wife was in NYC and Barney made an appearance on tv I was forced to move last week's cycle Tuesday to Wednesday. This pushed the schedule to 7 days in a row. At this point in the Recovery Phase I'm comfortable making that change (easy next to easy). But in the future if something like this occurs, I'll have to consider other options.
So the goal of this remaining Recovery week was to adjust to new paces, new shoes, and the heat/humidity.
Wednesday was warm but tolerable. The run went as planned.
Thursday was warmer and a bit tougher. My legs were stiff at the beginning. Oddly I don't seem to be hitting the easier of the easy pacing. Almost all the intervals while within pace are at the faster end of the -10 sec spectrum. I think it's likely because we're still recovering and not pushing any particular workout. Although I started questioning signing up for the 10K in three weeks because I seemed to be more sore than normal.
Friday was warm but tolerable. It was my first schedule run at 8:33 min/mile (by new faster easy pace). Again, this run seemed slightly tougher than expected because I was sore. I think during this run it started to occur to me that this soreness might be connected to my new Zealot Iso shoes. During my last cycle 5/6 days were run on 8mm drop shoes, with only races and speed/strength days at 4mm drop (Kinvara). The Zealot ISO is a cushioned 4mm drop. I think what's happening is because I've been alternating every other day with Triumph vs Zealot that I'm using muscles more frequently that in the past cycle I had neglected. This changed my perspective on my next shoe binge. I decided that the Zealot would become my new "Long Run" shoe and that I would purchase a new pair of Triumph to be my other easy shoe. This way I'll run in 4mm twice per week and 8mm four times per week (rather than 3 + 3). I'll keep monitoring how I feel with the Zealot shoes.
Saturday was cooler. Again I struggled to go slow enough. The paces were mostly within the spectrum, but again on the faster side. I don't want this to become a trend but still feel that things will start to even out as soon as the SOS workouts start.
Sunday was the coolest day yet. The Zealots still caused me more soreness than I'm used to.
Monday the temps kept dropping and was a great 61. Again though still too fast on most intervals.
Tuesday was the final of the seven straight running days. This was the tightest I've felt at the beginning of any of these runs. However, during the run I could tell things were getting easier. As the run went along the pace of 8:33 started to match the effort I believe my faster easy should feel like. Overall a great run.
Well that's the end of the Recovery Phase of the training plan. As things started out 2 weeks ago it was a little tough and paces weren't quite matching effort. As the time progressed my body started to get more comfortable running again. I feel I'm not 100% back to where I was but feel ready enough to start the Speed Phase of the marathon training cycle. Some days during this phase I wondered if the 10K was a good idea. And other days I felt strong and ready to take on the field.
Looking forward I have 2.5 weeks to get prepared for the 10K on June 18th. This will give me two tempo runs (7:33 min/mile), two long runs (8 and 10 miles @ 8:13 min/mile) and two speed workouts (6:39 min/mile) before the 10K. I feel this will be sufficient for me to do well, but probably not my best. Although, I'm comfortable with whatever happens during the race.
May Training Report
Total Running Miles - 110.1 miles
Total Running Time - 16:03:07
Average Running Pace - 8:45 min/mile
Happy with how the month went. New marathon PR and a healthy recovery from the marathon. Couldn't ask for much more.
Inaugural 2016 Anna Meese Marathon
Well you may or may not have seen that my co-worker's marathon this coming weekend was cancelled (Minneapolis Marathon, stupid Race Organization). To me this is just crummy because she's trained so hard for her 1st marathon. Because she's going to Med School in the Fall she knew this would be her only marathon attempt in the next few years so she wanted to go all out. Based on her history of running, I knew she was capable of handling 6-days a week training and the Hansons Beginner Plan. So, 18 weeks ago she set out using the Hansons Plan based on my advice. Well since the marathon has been cancelled I felt partially in charge of making her 1st marathon experience a good one. She decided that even though it was cancelled she would still run 26.2 miles this coming weekend (although I convinced her to do 26.4 because of those darn tangents...
). I offered to setup cheer stations and aid stations but she decided to run it in Rochester, MN because her family was to have her g-father's b-day party that weekend coinciding with her marathon. So since she's running 4 hours away, I decided to try and make her experience more realistic best I could. So I quickly jumped on trophykits.com and made her and her boyfriend a custom 26.2 finishers medal. Then I made custom running bibs (including gear check and beer tabs!
). Quick who can tell me the significance of their bib #s?
She went to Baylor (thus Green/Gold) and her boyfriend is from Wisconsin (thus Green/Gold (Go Packers!)) The bib background is Minneapolis (the site of the original running of her marathon). I covered the bibs in masking tape with the hopes that they'll survive the run. I guess this goes down as my 1st semi-race director attempt. What do you think?
That's all I got. Happy to be done with the Recovery Phase but I'm nervous for the upcoming Speed Phase because again the paces just seem so aggressive to me. Guess we'll find out starting on Thursday!
So wait, my wife has been asking me "which one should I buy" in order to trick me. Because we're the exact opposite situation!!! LOL!
