(Sorry for the delay. I am actually two weeks behind. I should be catching you up on Week #5 of my SLO training.)
Monday - Power
Tuesday - Rest
Wednesday - 6.79 mile tempo run
Thursday - Rest
Friday - 6.01 mile
Saturday - Rest
Sunday - 12:22 mile easy
Total mileage for week #3 - 25.02 mi
I haven't done Power in about a month since the taper period began for Napa. So when I get back into it, my muscles were a wee bit surprised. It felt like having to start all over again. The recovery was slow which meant I felt the soreness well into past 3 days after doing it. My hammies, biceps, shoulders and core were the sorest. It was a good thing the next day was a rest day; I couldn't imagine running on these sore legs.
Having rested the legs on Tuesday and still a little sore from Monday's night power, I embarked on my tempo work out on Wednesday. For a second week in a row, I decided to run tempo over hill repeats or Yasso's. In my quest to avoid any late injuries, of the three, tempo seemed the mildest to me. I could do hill repeats but since my long runs on the weekends consisted of hills, I thought of not doubling up. Yasso's were tempting, but at this late stage of the game, whatever I do for speed won't make me any faster. The tempo I planned was the usual workout with 3 x 2000s with 1 minute recovery walk plus 2-mile warm up and a mile cool down. My pace was 7:40 / 7:53 / 7:59. It was a great night to be back on track, no pun intended.
Thursday ended up being a rest day, not by choice. Work has kept me busy again that I missed my small window to run. It was just as well, I didn't mind the extra day of rest.
On Friday, I ran first thing before work. If I didn't I might not have the chance to run at all, as in what happened the day before. I completed the 6 mile run at 8:57 pace. I was happy with this pace, considering it was done first thing in the morning when my muscles are the stiffest. Morning runs usually take me longer to warm up and to get into my groove. It makes sense since I am literally rolling out of bed, unlike during the middle of the day when I've already had the chance to walk around, or go up and down the stairs. Anytime I can hit a sub 9:00 range for morning run, I give myself a pat in the back. I've made a mistake of doing a time trial one morning. Results were pathetic. Now I make sure I do them in the evening, when I've already used most of the day to loosen up.
My Sunday long run for 12.22 miles at 9:13 pace, could not have turned out any better. It was a fabulous cool day with rain in the forecast, but it held up until I finished my run. 50 degrees throughout my run. Thank you running gods for keeping me dry. It was my first time to try out my new kicks: Nike. I wanted to break them in last week but I couldn't risk wearing them due to the predicted rain. However it didn't rain at all.
My pace for the first half was 9:34 and the second half was just under 9:00. I was totally happy with this run today because Turri and South Bay Blvd are both hilly and this was the best time I've run this course. I've been running it to train for both NYC and Napa and I've never ran it at 9:13 pace ever. Today was a milestone, no pun intended.
I have a good solid two weeks left to get in some quality runs before the taper period. Next week would typically be my last week to hit my 20 miler before the marathon. But I decided that I would rather do another 14 miler and finally a 16 miler two weeks out from race day. My thoughts are I'd rather keep my fast runs in rather than the super long runs. I don't need the endurance since I already know I can do it. I just need to stay sharp and the semi-long runs over the 20 mile long run will allow me to have quicker recovery and focus on honing that tempo pace. So far, everything is snapping into place.
Happy running!
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