Sunday, February 26, 2012

Training week in review: Feb 19-26

Sunday 2/19: 8miles on Lakefront Path, wedding show, 1.5hour bike
Monday 2/20: BRICK workout -- 2k run@10k pace/8k bike/1k run@5k pace (5min jog) x3
and last LifeTime Monday night fun run
Tuesday 2/21: 4miles, 1hour bike
Wednesday 2/22: 60min tempo
Thursday 2/23: 7.5 mile easy recovery
Friday 2/24: 5miles easy, 45min bike easy
Saturday 2/25: 5miles easy, 1 hour bike
Sunday 2/26: 16miles with 4x5min @ 1/2marathon pace (3min jog b/w) with Joe in Barrington

For training log purposes, my week is Sunday through Saturday, so it was pretty nice to see an easy 50mile week coming up...I decided to do my long run last Saturday instead since I only had 50miles this week! The best part was that, since I only had to run 50miles this week, I was able to bike more. Normally I get 3.5-4hours in a week, which is AWFUL for a duathlete, BUT when you consider that I'm home literally 3 days a week and one of those is reserved for a long run, I think I'm doing the best that I can. So this week, I got in 5 hours 15minutes of biking! Sweet!!!

Mondays workout was INCREDIBLE. I planned it myself as I wanted to do a simulation of what Powerman Alabama would be. Powerman Alabama is the duathlon this year that will determine the US team for the World Championships in September. So to say this race is important would be an understatement.

I raced Powerman Alabama 2 years ago in an attempt to get my Professional License for Duathlon. Well, not enough girls participated so I didn't get it. BUT, I have that advantage going into the race in that I know the course! 2 years ago it was a 10k run, 60k bike, 10k run. This year for the Pros it's only a 10k run 40k bike 5k run!!! This is a HUGE advantage for me as I am obviously not as strong on the bike since I spent the entire past year just running.

The simulator was AWESOME. My 10k pace is probably around 6:05-6:10 right now if I had to guess, so that was my intention going into this brick. I was a little nervous because the wind was blowing 14mph in the direction I knew I'd be starting and finishing, but I figure it could be just as bad come race day. I ran a loop around the bike path by my house and then tacked on the extra .25 as the bike path is only a mile long. My splits are below. The runs felt EASY. I had to constantly slow myself down, so I think I'm finally back to the highest level I was at before my whole hamstring deal!

7:34, 7:24, 7:21 for the 2ks. 3:33, 3:31, 3:27 for the 1ks. The bike was indoor on the trainer, so it was just HARD the entire 12 minutes.

TEMPO RECAP
This run pretty much left me speechless. I flew into Minnesota for work on Tuesday, so I knew waking up Wednesday to run this tempo would be a struggle. I decided to run it after work if I had enough time, but if not that I would do it on Thursday. I think I made the right decision.

I warmed up for 1.5miles before deciding to get this workout started.

I started the treadmill at 6:27 pace as I didn't want to start right at 6:20 (what I wanted my average to be) in case I couldn't maintain it. I haven't done a straight out tempo in awhile, let alone an hour long one, so I was nervous that I couldn't hold pace. I have no idea really where I'm at right now in terms of fitness as I haven't technically finished a race since October...whoops.

About 5minutes in, I'm feeling like this is a warmup still so I put it at 6:22 pace and tell myself that every 9minute mark I'll increase the pace. This works fine and I have yet to feel fatigued at all....until the treadmill stops itself at 45minutes. Really?!?! Yes, I know most stop at 60minutes, but 45? Not cool. So I quickly realize what's happening and start the thing back up again. My legs are now confused and just trying to get back at pace as quickly as possible (I think I was at 6:07 at this point). It was hard once I stopped, so I honestly think I went further than the 9.6miles in the 60minutes, but whatever, it is what it is and I'll take that. It still tied the furthest I went in an hour for a tempo while marathon training:) I think a big factor was knowing I had to finish my cool down by 6:30 so I could meet my Aunt Holly at church for 7pm Ash Wednesday mass!

LONG RUN WITH INTERVALS
And a final recap of the week....full of more workouts than I realized! I felt pretty sore, specifically my IT bands, on Thursday and Friday so was a little nervous going into this long run. Luckily, my running partner Joe had agreed to incorporate my 4x5minute at 1/2marathon pace intervals into his 20miler in Barrington. The first 5miles just seemed to drag and felt super slow. I felt out of shape and was frustrated (they weren't slow; all were sub 7:30 pace). Next thing I knew, we were starting our first interval. The first interval was pretty flat and I am confident that we averaged 6minute or under pace--if you know the Barrington course, you know "flat" is rare, so no wonder we hit this with no problem. The next two intervals both happened to start with big uphills, so those were 6:15-6:20 average, which I was okay with considering the hills. The final interval had a few smaller hills, not much flat, but not huge climbs and I didn't get the average. If I had to guess I'd say 6:10-6:15, so that was nice to see. Overall, another great run with Joe! His first 20 of his marathon training was a success, so no complaints.

Ended this week with a wonderful (read "painful but necessary") massage by Dave Davis. That man is truly a miracle worker, so here's to hoping my 60minute progression tempo goes as well as my 60minute tempo this past week after now having seen Dave.

No comments: