Five straight weeks at 50 miles a week and a little higher! When people ask me for advice on running, I always say “be consistent.” Building up slowly to higher mileage and being able to stay there and add intensity is a beautiful thing. And by beautiful, I mean something that translates to faster race times, which are something I find very beautiful.
So this week was a little bit of a break — not mileage-wise, obviously. I had a 5k planned for Thursday night which meant Monday was a little bit harder and no Tuesday speed work.
Monday was what coach calls “moderate,” letting the HR get up a little higher than on an easy run. I also had some strides mixed in. I had an early meeting that day so I ended up on the treadmill in the afternoon, and then taught Advanced Pilates right after.
Tuesday was treadmill day number two of the week. Same reason — early meeting and sleep outweighed treadmill. Just an easy 6, no speed and no XT.
I met my friend Rebekah on Wednesday for an easy 6 at The Parklands, then back to teaching that evening.
The week, so far pretty uninteresting, changes it’s tune on Thursday. First, I got to sleep in which was pretty exciting in itself. In fact, it was so exciting I already wrote 1000 words about it! Suffice it to say: Pilates, race, hot, windy, second, beer. The end.
Of course, that made for a really ugly Friday morning. Duly noted that 12 hours between racing and running again is not ideal. Ouch. A non-running note from Friday: I went to a naturalization ceremony for the first time. I highly recommend it.
Since my Pilates teaching schedule changed, I’m not teaching on Saturdays any more — which gives me more flexibility in my long run. My friend Amanda asked if I wanted to run … and I sent her a screen shot of Saturday’s workout and said, “Well, it depends on how you feel about this.”
I had 12 miles with 6 miles at steady-state, around 85% max HR. This gets into “slightly uncomfortable” territory, where it is more fatiguing because of the distance than the speed.
Amanda was in for 10 miles, so I did a mile warm up first then met her. We did another 3 easy, then got into the effort. We picked a course that has a few rolling hills … plus one big downhill and one really big uphill, which was all of the fourth hard mile.
I prefer to do steady-state runs without stopping, because hey, it says “steady,” right? But, our first water stop was 2 miles into the effort, and when it’s humid and 70, you stop. We also paused at the top of the hill and a half-mile later for a second water stop. That probably translates into a little bit faster pace for the day but I think it’ll do. The faster miles were 6:57, 6:53, 6:46, 6:56, 6:53 and 6:47 — average HR 161.5, right on the money. Amanda did a mile cool down and then I tacked on 1 more by myself.
Later in the afternoon I got in about 30 minutes of lifting and Pilates, too.
Sunday I ran pretty early because a) summer in Kentucky and b) Father’s Day breakfast with my dad! My dad is a cool dude. He was a single dad of three girls (!!!) from the time I was 10 until I was about 15, when he got remarried — and had a fourth daughter. No Y chromosomes to be found. And then he did the single-dad thing all over again. Currently, two of my sisters still live with him. Poor guy is never going to have any peace!
Totals: 50.5 miles, one race, 3 hours of Pilates.
TGRUNFIT 