Wisdom in my dotage

I have a year to prepare for my planned assault on an age-class record and I'm going to need all of it. A bunch of things just seemed to click this week.

Training week that was

Monday: 0 miles. Sore, stiff and covered in deer fly bites from Saturday's run. (Dewpoint 75)
Tuesday: 0 miles. Spent the day cleaning up storm debris. (Dewpoint 74)
Wednesday: 5.5 in 58 with 7 times up the Brickyard Hill (ave.4:44 for 0.40 miles and 240 ft. of climb). Slight achilles soreness. Much less humid, finally.
Thursday: 3 in 27 with running drills. Very sore immediately afterward. Spent 90 minutes cutting my lawn.
Friday: 0 miles. Sore throat, very sore hip adductors. (Dewpoint 68)
Saturday: 5 in 45 with 8x90 sec. up Indian Mounds Park hill, with 3 minute recoveries. Had planned to race on my birthday, but too stiff and sore. Somewhat humid (83 degrees, 67 dewpoint), after a meal. Tough at first, but got better.
Sunday: 7.5 in 61. First two somewhat slow, then 5 @ 8:06, then half mile slower again. Beautiful day for a change.

Analysis

I ran the downhills much too fast on Wednesday, which kept me from running as fast as I wanted to on the uphills. The fast sections were about right for training for only a 6 minute mile, but the 5.5 in 58 with 1900 feet of climb works out to 5:38, which sounds about right.

Thursday's drills kicked my ass - literally. This was only the second time I did this workout and the first time I did it seriously. I have a long, long way to go; this is not something I enjoy, but it'll help a lot over the next weeks and months.

Saturday I intentionally stopped before I normally would. I don't need to kill myself in this workout and it was easier to back off because I was so stiff at the start. The workout comes out to a 5:38 mile, just like Wednesday's. This had me rethinking how fast my easy runs should be.

Sunday it was hard to keep myself from going faster. It started getting tough at 5.5 miles, probably because it was the day after a hard run, but the weather was fantastic and I felt terrific.

Stop re-inventing the wheel

I posted my training plan only a week ago, but I've revised it considerably already. I was trying to be too clever with it and I've decided I should go mainstream before I try tweaking everything. So here's what it looked like when I thought I was in 6:00 Mile shape:

Monday: 30-40 minutes with running drills.
Tuesday: 40-50 minutes with 3-5x 1200 in 4:45-4:52; 3-4.5 Min Rec.
Wednesday: 30-40 w/ a few short sprints, plus core exercises
Thursday: 40-50 w/ 2 in 13:50 (or 3 in 20:45) plus 10-16x100 in 20-22; 100m jog Rec.
Friday: 0-30 min. "catch-up" day with flexibility exercises
Saturday: 40-50 min w/ 6-10x400m in 90; 3-4.5 min.R
Sunday: 65-75 min. steady (8@8:40)

The biggest improvements come early and I'm already adjusting the numbers for a 5:30 mile. That still leaves almost a minute to cut in the next year!