"There's only one hard and fast rule in running: sometimes you have to run one hard and fast."








Friday, April 27, 2012

A Decent Week of Training

Time for a boring running post, I guess.

It isn't earth-shattering, or even on a par with what I was doing indoors in January, but I've had a good week of training and, more importantly, I feel good about it. I'm a little envious of everyone running Chippewa or Get in Gear tomorrow, but I'm not in shape to race, certainly not in shape for a tough 10K and no where near ready to even finish a 50K (my long run so far this year is 10 miles).

Saturday: 6 miles in 51 with 4x400 in 95 seconds, 400 meter recoveries.
Sunday: 8 miles in 71 with 50-80 meter sprints, one each mile.
Monday: 3 in 24
Tuesday: 6 in 50 with 3x1200 in 4:56 - 400m.
Wednesday: 3 in 24
Thursday: 6 in 49 with 3 in 22:10.
Friday: intentional day off

I'm looking toward running a strong 1500 meter or 1 mile race, so the total time of about 40 minutes per day and the "long" run of 70-80 minutes is about right. As I improve, the pace increases and the mileage improves with it - old guy record level would be 42 miles per week.

The Saturday run is supposed to be at mile pace, but I'm a few seconds off. The number of repeats is low; I should be able to do 8-10, but this is "lactic acid training" and takes time to develop.

The Sunday sprints tore my quads to pieces, as I wasn't used to doing them. There was residual soreness for two days, but the following runs felt easier to do fast and I think the sprints helped. I was expecting to do 9 miles in 75-77 minutes, with 12-16 sprints, but I completely "fell apart." That's actually a good thing - as long as I don't push too hard too soon.

The Tuesday run is supposed to be at 5K pace and is about right (the last two times I tried this, I could not go that fast, so I am improving), but I want to be able to do 4-5 repetitions. If I get fast enough, this would get increased to 1600 meters from 1200.

Thursday's run is a "threshold" run, meant to be about the pace I could hold for an hour in a race, which I think should be closer to 7:00/mile, but there may be some residual tiredness from Tuesday's run. The pace is "comfortably hard."

9 comments:

Colin said...

Glad you're enjoying running again! Looks like a solid schedule, very Daniels-esque!

SteveQ said...

Colin, after coming up with my plan, I then went and looked at Daniels, Friel, Martin&Coe, Lawrence and others - and found I fell into place with all of them!

SteveQ said...

And the day off... c'mon, who saw THAT coming?

Anonymous said...

Damn your humor is brilliant. It never gets old. Judge Schmales would be proud. See you up at Superior. Should be a barn burner... I have a feeling Hexum's record is going down. Some guys in that race that will surely test its mettle.

ciao,
Wynn

Karen said...

I'm glad to see you're back at it. Hope it continues :)

Anonymous said...

This is good training from where you had been. I believe the residual burn out from doing all of those back to back to back ultras has disappeared, and your body is ready to begin ascending again. You have a good thing going, so like you said, slow and steady, don't overdo it, and I can see you blasting some good fall races! Congrats for the discipline and the new found health.

The Triathlon Rx said...

However "boring" you think... I'm glad to see you are running!

Diana said...

Sounds like you had a good week. I'm happy to hear that your running is getting back on track.

Alene Gone Bad said...

I liked that intentional day off...

Good job!