Week in Review Jan 23-Jan 29

Monday - 8mi + Strides + XT - 13K+
Very similar to last week - though this time I finished the 8mile run in an hour just because.  However my hamstrings which have been bothering me (since about Sat) have been getting tighter and tighter.  The strides were a little harder to do so I coped out at 4.

The cross training was also good, but I was weak in the hammies, so I took it easy at certain points, and made sure to listen and ask quenstion on how I could relax those.  I think the advice has been good.


Tuesday - Tempo - 13k
Today was a tempo day.  It in the end resembles yesterday's workout, but the quality changes.  It was an easy warmup at about 5:00/km (7.5mph), followed by 4 stides at 10.5mph

The next part was the actual workout which would be a little faster than usual - tempo pace.  My target is a 4:10/k pace so naturally  I chose 9mph (a nice round number) or 4:08/km.   This was for 7km which went great.   The first few kms I actually switched tm's once because I thought it was broken.  This didn't feel like 9mph? But I went with it, made sure the tm ran for about 30 seconds before starting the timer again, figured it was probably correct and had fun.

3k cooldown.

For my hamstrings, I have a new stretch - its sitting with your back on the floor and legs against the wall with my legs up vertically so can stretch them.   Sit there for about 5min and you get a lot of relief.  I did this 2x and felt a lot better.  I can start to walk again :)

Wednesday - Recovery 7k + Massage.

Thursday - Tempo/intervals - 13K

Really felt like I got done what I set out to do.    A big improvement over last week's failure.  With the massage, I was ready to go:
 
2.6k warmup (5:10/k pace)
4 strides + some plyometrics
2.4k continous (1,600m at a 3:52/kish ~ 6:09/mi pace), then 400m jog, 400m hard @ 3:33/k
2min rest
3.0k continous (2 x 1.1k at a 3:51/kish ~ 6:08 again) then 400m jog, 400m hard @ 3:23/k
2min rest
2.4k continous (1,600m at a 3:47/k ~ 6:03/mi pace), then 400m jog, 400m hard @ 3:23/k
2.6k easy run back (5:08 pace)

Friday - Off

Saturday - 10 hills - 19.84km + 4.1km cool down
Now that the number of hills is double digits it takes a special kind of focus - you can really get lost in trying to pace yourself and conserve yet push throught the workout.   My big concern however was that I've been running so well lately that this was going to suck and everyone would just say well there goes that guy... next.

I think that's what the consistency in my running is good for.  This run kicked ass.  I ran 1:33:03 which is 5min faster than my previous best in this workout.  It's hard to say if that's great or not since the sample size is small, but hell yeah it is!  

I ran the last km very well too at about a 4:06 average pace - which shows I still had 'more in the tank'.

The thing about hills is, remember, that its not all butterflies and rainbows.  Because I do what appears to be a strong workout doesn't mean this is easy for me.   Going up these hills I ask myself, what am I doing? why am I doing it? and Aren't we done yet?  It's tough work but I know the rewards are great.  The trick for me was to listen to some music and just focus one at a time, and not to think of the global workout.  To remember this is training and no matter how poorly it seems its going, I am benefiting from this, so just stick with it. 


The cool down was also great because I could stop caring about my pace and just go.  I ran back to the hills and ran the last one in with my Dad.  Always fun to do that.  I'm sure he enjoys/appreciates it too.  Okay so maybe 11 hills.

507m incline - 1,663 feet (and well the same descent)  

Sunday - 14k easy

 This is just a relaxing one to keep the distance up yet get a workout in.     Started at 7.5 on the treadmill, hit 4.34 and turned it over to 8.0 for the second half.    At this point my body is well warmed up and an 8 is pretty relaxing too.   I got into a good grove and drove it home.


Totals for the week - 85kms