My usual schedule was a bit flip-flopped this week to give me a little more recovery after Papa John’s 10 miler. Typically, I have a hard speed session on Tuesday followed by a lighter Thursday speed/turnover session — and this week coach had me do the opposite. This worked great for being peppy for speed work on Thursday, but left me feeling it on Saturday’s long run.
But, all things considered, I felt good this week with the pressure of the Triple Crown off my shoulders.
I also had a pair of Normatech Recovery boots loaned to me this week. I used them almost every day and fell asleep in them twice! I’d say the verdict for me is still out on them, although I had a good week of training so maybe I should give them some credit! They are definitely worth a try; you can find places to rent them online.
Monday: 6.25 miles easy after work, warm and windy (49 min / 148 AHR). This was back in my old stomping grounds because I was teaching a workshop on Pilates for Runners at our New Balance store.
Tuesday: 8.25 miles EARLY (64 min / 147 AHR). I told a friend I would meet her at 5:45 a.m. because I’m a sucker. We did our warmup together and then I shifted into a 4 mile light progression run. This is a pretty typical Thursday workout on the easier side of things, working down to not faster than about 85% max HR. I let my heart rate guide the progression, moving from 150 to 155 to 160 to 165, or at least that was the plan … actual averages were 148, 154, 158, 164, so I think I deserve a prize! However, even with my HR up on the last mile, it was the same pace as the mile before. It was pretty windy (and spitting rain) that morning so I may have gotten more headwind on that one. Or I was just stuck in gear 3 on a hella early morning two days after a 10 mile PR. It was also, obviously, dark. Had time for Jasyoga “How to Kickstart Recovery” after. Felt like a badass all day for having already run, and got to go straight home after work!
Wednesday: 8 on the treadmill after work (64 min / 144 AHR), left a little early to avoid a thunderstorm. We were under a tornado watch most of the afternoon (also known as April in Kentucky). Listened to S-Town. Taught Pilates after.
Thursday: Taught Pilates Strength after work and then back on the treadmill for 10 miles with 12×400 at 5k pace (80 min / 147 AHR). This was actually really good. The treadmill was the greatest limiting factor because it takes it a while to speed up and slow down and I really am not super comfortable over 10 mph on it. So whenever I do short intervals on the treadmill, I take the first few a little easier just to get used to it. Also I had 12 which is a whole buncha 400s. Splits were 1:31 down to 1:22. Recovery was a very very slow 200 because Coach recently told me I was taking my recovery jogs too fast. Hey, something I can fix! These didn’t start to feel challenging until I got down to the 1:25 range. I wish I could know what the intervals would’ve looked like in a parallel universe where I did them outside in nice weather. (It was cold with winds in the 20+ mph range.) Would I have gone out too fast and slowed down over the whole set? Or would I have averaged slightly faster by using my internal monitors instead of being scared of speeding up the treadmill? When you’re on the treadmill, you know exactly how fast you’re going the whole time — heck, you can stare directly at it, which I don’t recommend doing while you’re outside. Sometimes I think this is great for workouts … and other times I think it limits me a bit by letting my internal doubter say, “Okay, you’re not faster than 6 minute pace so just put it on 10 mph” when my body might be ready to go faster.
Friday: 6 miles after work, windy but nice (48 min / 144 AHR). I was going to do Jasyoga after work but I got distracted by errands.
Saturday: 16 miles (2:08 / 142 AHR). I will probably get griped at by coach because I had like 12 minutes of stoppage on this run. BUT my little sister was running her first 5k in years and I wanted to go cheer! I did a loop by my house, realized I forgot my credit card for coffee after and didn’t have a gel, so had to go back by the house. Got over to the race, talked to the race director for a minute, ran some more, saw a lot of deer, saw a coyote, saw my sister, and then did some more running along the course while I cheered. Actually tacked on a separately-timed bonus mile after, but I was stopping and starting a lot. My sister did AWESOME, especially considering she was sick for a couple of weeks and couldn’t run. Also awesome on Saturday was my Personal Best Training teammate Jesse Davis winning the national title for the 100k road race!
Sunday: 5.5 miles (45 min / 144 AHR), podcast listening after I went to the grocery and had coffee and two donuts, one of which had Fruity Pebbles on top. Jasyoga Sunday Reset after.
Totals: 60 miles run, 143 minutes of Pilates and Jasyoga, and at least 2.5 hours of Normatech boot wearing. (Also a ton of yard work.)
TGRUNFIT 