Friday 2/19 - long run, 11 miles
Can't believe I FINALLY dragged my butt out of bed for a morning run. I was up by 6:30 and out the door by 7. SO EARLY for me, holy crap.
I got about 4.5 miles done on the way to the reservoir near my house, 4.5 more done with a friend, then finished with another 2 miles around the neighborhood. I mistakenly thought I needed to get 11 miles in, but turns out I only had 10 on the schedule -- oh well.
Splits: 11:14/10:40/10:57/10:24/11:20/12:14/12:28/12:34/10:43/9:31, then tossed in some fast intervals during the last mile -- 0.1 easy/0.15 hard x4 for an 11th mile of 8:49.
I was proud of this for multiple reasons! First of all, dragging myself out of bed for a morning run is mentally SO difficult and for WEEKS I have come up with reasons not to meet up with friends to run on Friday mornings. Secondly, I felt great the entire run despite only a handful of almonds before I got out the door. I do honestly think I've trained my body not to depend so much on glucose during long runs -- I have not fueled during a single run over the past few months and (once the carb depletion wore off) have been feeling fabulous.
Sunday 2/21 - easy run, 4 miles
Gorgeous day for a run - 48 degrees and sunny! Took my dog out for a run because I couldn't stand the thought of her staying home while I got out -- she absolutely loves to run. It was a little tricky to keep her under control (she'd be sprinting if she could), plus I borrowed my fiance's arm band phone holder and the thing kept slipping and sucked horribly (I always run with my phone in my hand but couldn't while also wrangling the dog).
Ran a bit faster than I intended for an easy run, but I think Sam dragging me also contributed. Per usual, a hard effort last 0.2 miles. Splits 10:57/10:05/10:04/9:34.
Monday 2/22 - intervals, 5 miles
This was one of those runs that really just clicked. Was going for 1 mile warmup, 6x400s at around goal 5k pace (calculated based off a McMillan goal half time of 2 hours) with 400m jogging rest, and 1 mile cooldown. Set the incline to random 0-2.2% for the warmup, then 1.0% for the repeats.
In reality, I warmed up at 10:40 pace for a mile, hit the first 2 repeats at 7.2/8:20 pace, second 2 at 7.3/8:13 pace, third 2 at 7.4/8:06 pace and felt like I had SO much gas left in the tank that I decided to forego the cooldown mile in favor of 2 extra repeats, one at 7.5/8:00 pace and one progressing from 7.6-8.1 (whatever pace that comes out to). My legs were a little tired by the end but my lungs felt great and I was REALLY surprised by my ability to pull this off.
Wednesday 2/24 - aerobic run, 4 miles
It was cold and windy and I just wasn't feeling like bundling up, so I hopped on the treadmill despite my better judgment. This run was supposed to be at "aerobic" pace, which for me is 9:30-10:00 range.
Incline: random lv3, 0-2.9%
3 miles at 6.3/9:30 pace with each last 0.1 at 6.6/9:05
1 mile increasing from 6.3-6.6 each 0.25 mile
I got some bad luck with the random incline and wound up stuck at 2.9% for 90 entire seconds during the last quarter mile of the run - according to Hill Runner, that equates to about an 8:13 pace. Woof. My lungs felt great until about mile 3.5, then I did feel like I was working.
Thursday 2/25 - long run, 8 miles
Thank god for a long run mileage cutback, because I didn't realize until after I was done that I had crammed 2 long runs into a 7-day stretch and therefore didn't understand why I was feeling kind of sluggish on this run. Not to mention it was snowing and the wind was driving icy snow into my face like little daggers.
Splits: 11:06/10:58/10:49/10:42/10:41/10:43/10:27/9:17
This felt really difficult and I could easily have let myself run in the 11s if I hadn't consciously decided to push it slightly (for mental vanity reasons). I was pretty proud of that last mile, an entirely uphill 9:17 after a 32-mile week.
OVERALL
Pretty proud of this! Got through a speed workout I was fearing, got all my miles in AND THEN SOME (I calculated this as a 21-mile week, not the 32-mile week it was), and then let myself totally relax and indulge in my bachelorette weekend. So far, my first run after coming back to reality this week was manageable, but I did find myself with really exhausted legs today so I'm shuffling some things around with training this weekend. Keep you posted!
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