Back!

Just one week after SOB, back in July, I began following a new training plan.  Until this week, I had yet to follow it with all of the key workouts included: MRP, speed, and long runs.  In the interest of tidiness, I decided to share my entire week with you:

Sunday: 16mi. on the trails

Monday: 7mi.

Tuesday:  3 mi. in new, lighter shoes with some strides.

Wednesday: off

Thursday: 6 mi at MRP and biked Matt’s MRP with him.

I returned my MRP run to the usual hilly route.  I’m still searching for even splits on the miles, but with the hills, it went well.  6 mi @ 7:57/mi.  (goal: 8:00)

Friday: 6x0.25mi.

The football team was practicing at the track, so we had to improvise on a stretch of road.  Every other repeat was slightly uphill and into the wind, I also recovered with 0.25mi of walk/jog.  I gave a pretty consistent effort, so that’s all that I’m focusing on:

1 mi warm-up:  8:48

0.25 mi repeats: 1:36, 1:43, 1:41, 1:39, 1:38, 1:37  (goal: 1:36-1:42)

1 mi cool down: 8:58

I also forgot what it felt like to run that hard. Ouch.  It was noticeable that I have been doing strides, because I went out lightning-fast for the first part and then fizzled quickly. After a couple of repeats, pacing was better and it felt less like torture.

Saturday: 18 mi. (I'll write more about it soon.)

Total: 55 mi. <<--highest week since June

My energy returned the day we left for our trip.  It was just what I needed to feel recharged after a long, fatigued hiatus from both blogging and happy running.

I’ve noticed with this round of marathon training, I’m no longer fearful of the MRP and speed running days.  The only difference between this round and the last is about :10/mi. on everything.  That makes me confident I can tackle the paces necessary.  I’m sure I’ll have off weeks as we go along, but I’ve felt good about the MRP runs in particular thus far.