Tag Archives: tempo

Footprints: Monday Morning Recap

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I’m a bit late with my morning recap today, but figured better late than never as I fly back to DC after a weekend away! I had a pretty decent week as I started my 5k training. I only put in three runs as opposed to my usual 5-6 as this was also a recovery week from my second half marathon in the last few weeks.

Here’s the day-by-day breakdown…

Monday: I put in an easy 3-miler at about a 7:55 pace after work on the Mt. Vernon Trail. P90X core routine.

Tuesday: P90X core routine plus I taught morning boot camp.

Wednesday: Full Rest Day

Thursday: P90X core routing and I taught morning boot camp to kick the day off. After work I took advantage of a beautiful day to get some quarter mile repeats in on the relatively flat W&OD trail. After a quick warm-up I went quarter mile on quarter mile off for five repeats keeping them all between a 6:25 and 6:58 minute pace – with my fastest being my last one at 6:25! I felt really great about this workout, especially since my stomach wasn’t feeling so great beforehand since I decided a fountain coke, jimmy johns sandwich and salt & vinegar chips were good pre-run fuel!

Friday: Travel/Rest Day.

Saturday: I took today off so I could drive down to Boston and have lunch with one of my closest friends before dragging her an hour south of Boston to watch Ian do his coaching thing. His Plymouth State Panthers beat UMass Dartmouth to go 7 and 1 on the season!

iancoaching

Sunday: I hit the treadmill for a 30-minute progressively faster run. I started at an 8-minute pace and worked my way up to a 6:58 pace. The best part about this run was I ended feeling strong like I could keep on going rather than counting down the seconds until the clock hit 30!

Footprints: Monday Morning Recap

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This week had some highs and lows, but ended on a high note and I got in nearly 55 miles so all in all it was good stuff! I need to absolutely focus more on strength training as other than daily P90X core workouts (I won’t list them each day since I put it here!), I only got in one strength workout this week. After struggling with speed workouts during the week, I had probably my best run of the whole training cycle for my long run Sunday, so I’m hoping to carry that momentum into this week.

Here’s the day-by-day breakdown:

Monday: I kicked Monday off with a lunchtime run to the gym for an easy 6 on the treadmill.

We actually got a little snow on Monday!

We actually got a little snow on Monday!

Tuesday: Rest day!

Wednesday: I hit up the gym after work for a ladder speed session. After a 1.5 mile warm-up, I ran a 400, 800, 1200, 1600, 1200, 800, 400 ladder with a 400 recovery jog between each repeat. I started strong, but partway through the mile just could not keep up with the pace I wanted and had to dial it down a bit. I was able to finish strong with my last 400, but the second 1200 and 800 were a bit slower than I wanted leaving me a little discouraged.

Thursday: Today was an easy 7 miler on the treadmill that breezed by. I felt really good and followed it up with a short upper body workout.

Friday: I finally braved the cold temperatures for an easy-paced 8 miler after work along the Mt. Vernon trail. I finished at a good clip, but my legs felt really heavy and tired for the second half of the run. If it weren’t so cold out it probably would have taken me a lot longer to finish, but I wanted to get back inside! I somehow actually overdressed for this with a tank, my Oiselle wazzie wool baselayer and a jacket. I completely sweat through all three layers and that wind did not feel good for the last few miles!

Saturday: I put in 10 miles on the treadmill at the gym hoping to hit 7 of them at marathon pace. I could only get 5 in before a side stitch got the best of me and I had to go a bit slower than planned. I was a bit down about this after my previous speed workout hadn’t gone so well either and was not looking forward to Sunday’s long run at all.

Sunday: On paper I did everything wrong for this 14 mile run. I overslept so I didn’t have time to get my run in first thing. Ian and I had lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings so we could watch the Packers-Cowboys game, and I drank a giant soda and didn’t exactly eat lightly or healthily. After about an hour trying to let my stomach settle I headed for the gym, put the Broncos game (disappointing) on my little treadmill TV and hit play on Pandora on my phone. I started slow thinking I would just trudge it out. With the Hanson’s plan, my long runs are supposed to be a bit faster than easy pace, but of course slower than marathon pace. By a mile in I had gotten within a few seconds of my target pace and somehow I kept getting stronger as I went along! This was just what I needed and a big-time confidence booster.

Footprints: Monday Morning Recap

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Aside from a skipped workout over the weekend, I felt really good about this week. I forced myself on the treadmill to push the pace a couple times this week and for the first time started feeling notable progress on my paces. I tallied 35 miles over the course of five runs for the week.

Here’s the day-by-day breakdown:

Monday: I enjoyed my last Florida run Monday morning putting in 6 easy miles.

Tuesday: Rest day.

Wednesday: I hit the treadmill for my speed workout this week to force myself to keep a faster, more consistent pace and it worked. After a 1.5 mile warm up, I put in 4X1200 meter repeats with a 400 recovery in between each. I wrapped up with a 1 mile cool down, a quick strength workout and a P90X core routine.

Thursday: For the second straight year I ran the DC Road Runner’s Resolutions and Predictions 5k. My watch never started so I ran by feel and was initially disappointed when I tried to figure out my finish time after the race. Turns out I was more than a minute off and my chip time put me at 23:03! More to come on this one. I chased the race with my P90X core routine before Ian and I hopped in the car to visit with friends in Ocean City.

DCRRnewyears5k

Friday: Despite maybe having too much to drink the night before, I put in 10 great miles and felt really good doing it. I have to be leery of these kinds of runs though as I went a bit harder than what my easy pace should be, but wasn’t pushing enough to count it as speed work. I want to make sure I don’t put in too many runs in this no man’s land zone that don’t really benefit me. I wrapped up with my P90X core routine again.

Saturday: After driving back from Ocean City I caught a case of the lazies and didn’t make it out for my run, but at the very least got my P90X core routine in to keep my New Year’s streak going. My record is just more than 100 days – we’ll see if I can get near that again.

Sunday: I hit the gym again for my tempo run putting in 9.2 miles with the middle chunk of those as marathon goal pace! I felt really good about finally hitting these paces and feeling comfortable doing so. I hung in at the gym just long enough to do my P90X core workout and another quick strength workout.

Happy New Year everyone! Hope you all got your year off to a great start as well!

Footprints: Monday Morning Recap

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I just wrapped up my fourth week of marathon training and so far I’ve done a great job of staying on track. I’ve completed 22 of my 24 planned workouts and am almost completely recovered from my cold/flu that disrupted most of last week. My paces are still not where they need to be at all for tempo and track workouts, but the endurance is definitely back. I’m hoping when I reassess in four weeks that I’ll be feeling better about the pacing. All in all I would call this a pretty good week. I tallied nearly 45 miles and felt pretty strong doing it.

Here’s the day-by-day breakdown:

Monday: I ran home from work Monday putting in nearly 7 miles. I kept it at an easy pace and felt good. This also marks the 3rd run a stranger told me I looked like I was lit up like a Christmas tree. I’m never really sure how to answer that, so I just smiled and said thanks, I’m trying to get into the holiday spirit, haha.

Tuesday: Rest day.

Wednesday: I had planned to put in my interval workout on my run home today, but my stomach was feeling off all afternoon so I decided to just do another one of my easy runs. I made it the nearly 7 miles home from work, but it did not feel good at all. On top of my stomach pains I didn’t dress nearly warm enough for the cold temps and strong wind so I was absolutely freezing by the time I got home. This was really my only bad run of the week though and I’m glad I battled through it. It does help when that is your only way home!

Thursday: We had our holiday lunch at work on Thursday and then got to leave early. I was so excited about the chance to run in daylight on a weekday that I still did my tempo run despite having three kinds of pasta for lunch! I put in 8 miles total with 6 at tempo pace. Similar to last week, my tempo pace is still not where it needs to be, but I felt like this was a good, soild run and I will keep working on bringing the times down. The run was also followed with a Oiselle holiday treats happy hour and dinner at Shake Shack (Ian’s blog is back with a review of Shake Shack – check it out!!), which makes any day great!

Oiselle

Friday: I made up for that missed speed workout on Tuesday and put in 7 total miles along the Mt. Vernon Trail. After a 1.25 mile warm-up, I cranked out 6 half mile repeats with quarter mile recovery jogs in between. My paces were a bit all over the place, but made sense when factoring in hilly sections. My fastest ones were right where I need to be, which pleasantly surprised myself a bit. Now I need to work on consistency.

Saturday: I was up early for an easy 8 miler and had a great run with some sunshine along Four Mile Run & W&OD Trails.

Sunday: Today was basically a repeat of Saturday with 8 easy miles. No sunshine today, but it was a few degrees warmer putting the feels like in the 30s instead of the 20s! I headed in the other direction for this run that took me along the W&OD and Custis Trails.

Footprints: Monday Recap

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Last week was an up and down one. I was still recovering from a cold most of the week and struggled though some tough workouts before a run double race day on Sunday. Here’s the day-by-day breakdown:

Monday: Today was an attempt to make up Saturday’s 20-10-15 workout. I was supposed to do 20 minutes at a 7:10 pace, 10 at a recovery pace and 15 back at the tempo pace. I hit the treadmill Monday night and could quickly tell my lungs and chest were not fully recovered from my cold. I did bursts at a 7:24 pace and 1.0 incline with walk breaks in between for a total of 20 minutes before jogging it out at a 9:05 pace for 10 followed by a repeat of the run bursts and walk breaks for 10 minutes. Not ideal, but I was glad I made an effort to get it in.

Tuesday: I had Ian drop me off at work, so I could give my long run I missed out on on Sunday a go right after work to take advantage of as much daylight as possible. This was the tale of two runs. I started off strong and cruised for ten miles at an easy just under 9-minute pace. As I attempted to pick up the pace for the next 10 miles I started to struggle. My pace dropped by almost a minute per mile in some cases and I had horrible cramps in my feet. I pushed through as long as I could and finally called it quits at 16.5 after run/hobbling my way through Georgetown and over the Key Bridge back into Arlington.

Wednesday: Rest Day with light core workout.

Thursday: 5 miles easy on the treadmill plus a core workout.

Friday: Rest Day

Saturday:  I raced the Clarendon Day Double running a 5k immediately followed by a 10k. I had a blast at this race and ran pretty decent times too finishing 4th in my age group for combined times of those that ran both races. Full recap coming soon!

clarendondaydouble

Sunday: Recovery Day. I planned to run easy, but my calf muscles were absolutely killing me today. I got in a walk, but even that was painful. I’m hoping lots of stretching and rolling makes this pass quickly.