89 Days to Go (Let's kick this up a notch, BAM!)
Date - Day - Scheduled Workout (Intervals within desired pace, Strength +/- 5 sec, everything else +/- 10 sec)
3/14/17 - T - 2 mi @ WU + (4x200m @ R w/ 200m RI) + (8x400m @ R w/400m RI) + (4x200m @ R w/ 200m RI) + 3 mi @ CD (13/16)
3/15/17 - W - 7 miles @ 8:04-9:01 min/mile
3/16/17 - R - 7 miles @ 8:04-9:01 min/mile + 6 strides
3/17/17 - F - 2 mile WU + 10 x 2 minutes @ I pace with 1 minute RI + 3 mile CD (no real window, but 8/10 were close)
3/18/17 - Sat - 7 miles @ 8:04-9:01 min/mile + 6 strides + MBW
3/19/17 - Sun - 14 miles @ 7:42 min/mile (14/14)
3/20/17 - M - OFF
Total (training) mileage = 55.6 miles
Number of SOS intervals within pace = 27/30 (90%)
Monday was the off day and another super hero tumbling class. G did better in this class but she's still got some learning to do. But we had a pep talk in the middle of the class and afterwards and she seemed to understand what I was talking about. It'll be interesting to see how the next one goes. Unfortunately, my hip was sore throughout the day. This was likely because of the extra push at the end of the M Tempo run on Sunday, but I knew just stay the road and things would eventually return to normal.
Tuesday was back to the road with the same speed session as Week 1 except now there were 8x 400m instead of 6x 400m.
2 mi @ WU + (4x200m @ R w/ 200m RI) + (8x400m @ R w/400m RI) + (4x200m @ R w/ 200m RI) + 3 mi @ CD
I wasn't sure what I was going to get out of this run. My hip has hurt since Monday morning. It was a WC of 11F with a light wind of 5-10 mph. So I had to dress a little warm to take the edge off the cold.
Goal Pace
R - 5:52 min/mile (200m = 44 sec, 400m = 88 sec) *This is mile pace.
Interval limit = +/- 1 second
200m Set 1 - 45, 44, 43, 44
400m Set - 85, 87, 87, 86, 89, 88, 88, 87
200m Set 2 - 45, 45, 44, 42
Surprisingly good set even with the conditions and clothing choice. The only three intervals out of range were too fast, so not the end of the world. I had to turn it up a notch after the 89 second 400m in the middle and was happy to see I recovered well. Also, happy to have the hip hurt less when running, then as I'm walking around all day. Not sure what to think of it. In the end, 13/16 intervals were hit.
Wednesday was an easy day with a WC of 23 and a light wind. Felt good for most of the run and ended up with a good pace. The strides felt comfortable as well.
Thursday was another easy day. I took off Thursday and Friday for the NCAA tournament. My wife was going to attend a funeral for a family friend from long ago and thus my best option for a run was in the morning. So I was up at 5:15am and out the door at 5:45am. As is typical for me the first mile was super slow for an early morning run, but as the run progressed so did the pacing. It was a COLD morning at a temp of 13F with no wind.
Friday was the 2nd speed day of the week. Because my wife was working until 7pm, my intent was to run in the early morning before we left for G's brain appointment. Woke up at 4:45am this morning to get this run in, but there was about a 1/4 inch of ice on the street. So no such luck. Instead, my MIL offered for me to drop G off for a little bit of time so I could get the run in. G had fun at her brain appointment. We've done it a few times. Essentially they are social experiments on kids to determine different aspects of human development. This one was a series of cartoon pictures of two adults. They differed in height, weight, race, gender, and whether they were standing on stairs. The goal was to see "who was bigger?", but they were making the connection to "who was in charge?" They must have had some sort of other research to equate "bigger" to "in charge" for kids, because I think G was literally choosing who was bigger. At one point during the test though G brought a smile to my face. Two adults of same height and weight were shown with one on stairs and the other not. She said "they're the same". But the proctor wouldn't take that answer since one "had to be bigger". She eventually chose one of them.
2 mile WU + 10 x 2 minutes @ I pace with 1 minute RI + 3 mile CD
I pace = 6:20 min/mile
No real interval zone as this run is meant to be more intuitive and by feel. Comfortably tough, but not to the max.
By 10am most of the ice had melted (a few spots remained). I wasn't sure what this run was going to feel like since this was a new pace and type of run in this training cycle. According to Daniels, this pace is about 95-100% VO2max is primarily meant to work on that system. It takes about 2 minutes from rest to reach VO2max at this pace, thus with the 1 minute intermittent rest periods I continually stressed the system. I decided to run this on my normal route, thus incorporating hills. I wasn't able to find Daniels specifically defining whether this was or was not meant as a "flat track work". Needless to say running up the hills at this pace was tough. The thing that caught up to me the most was my breathing more so than my leg fatigue. I need to improve on the breathing. I had a side stitch for the last two intervals and the entire 3 mile CD. Overall a solid workout! I felt very comfortable at this pace for many of the intervals. WC was 30F, minimal wind, light drizzle, with some periods of ice.
After the run I reviewed the book again and came to the conclusion that while it isn't defined as track work or not, that the reasoning seem to suggest it would be better on a flat street path. In addition, Daniels specifically states in the book that this is the toughest workout of the cycle (I pace specifically). This is because it stresses the system so much, but that the pace is HYPER critical to getting the correct benefits. This is also suppose to be near HRmax. Well given I felt comfortable (somewhat) at the paces other than those on hills, and because I wasn't anywhere near HRmax for the average of the run (I used the HR max of each RI since this would occur at the tail end of the 2 min interval to use as my "average"). It was a 6:22 average at 164 HR. That would be a really low max HR (and lower than the calculated HRmax of 180 based on races).
Saturday was another easy day with a WC of 27 and a wind of 10-15 mph. The paces of the last couple easy runs have been in the 8:30-8:45 range with HR in the 128-133 range. Things seem to be improving.
On Sunday, it was decision time. All of my metrics (maxHR %, HR vs pace, Daniels chart, Garmin VO2max) all have been suggesting that my marathon pace is around a 7:03 min/mile. So the question was do I switch up my paces to match the metrics or hold steady for another week. I decided to see how this run felt to decide whether this was a new appropriate pacing scheme. The goal going into this run was a HR around 140-143.
It was another interesting run with a mini dog chasing me, kids trying to "steal" my water bottles, and being slightly overdressed for the weather. I'm trying a new technique running without my water bottle, but hitting the "aid station" every 3 miles for a drink. My sleeping has been a bit out of rhythm with March Madness as well. I also made a mental calculation error on whether this run required nutrition. Any run over 90-100 minutes should be with my E-gels, but I whiffed on remembering this. Adding this with a reduced breakfast (banana and PB spoon, instead of standard banana + PB bagel) all led to a likely tougher run than normal.
The beginning of the run felt VERY smooth and comfortable. I was consistently holding back to maintain a pace within the interval window of 7:32-7:52. It was around mile 7 that the run started to increase in difficulty. It wasn't too hard, just harder than the previous miles. During the last two miles the difficulty increased to a new level that was very representative of the end of a marathon. Breathing was tougher, legs feeling it, but I just kept the smiling beaming because this was the feeling I was looking for. Nailed it! I hit all 14 miles within desired pace (with 1st mile window at +30 sec).
Interestingly, the average HR was 147. So a bit higher than expected. Not sure if all of the factors played a role or if this was in fact "too much". I'll go a week with the new pace scheme and see how the other runs go. If indeed it's too much, then I'll happily back it down to the previous pace scheme. So the new temporary pacing schedule will be:
Let's see what happens!
rotein to stick close to the 60/20/20 (not a necessity but I believe in balance). Since I was adding bananas to my post-recovery routine I felt like it was redundant to have them for lunch too. I also realized that my apples (Pink ladies) are REALLY expensive (like a $1 per apple). So I decided I would cut the apples and bananas out of lunch, and the brown sugar out of the oatmeal at breakfast. So I tried to find something that was healthier to add in:
