Week 17 in Review

Week 17 from NYC:
90 miles on 6 days
1 track workout: 5×1000, 6×400
1 long tempo workout: 18 miles with 2.7 miles of T at beginning and 3 miles T at end
Both hard sessions with Craig!  I did the last segment of T alone in the long workout, but WOW is it super to have a training partner 🙂
2 strength sessions

Track workout:
Goal: 5x1000m at 3:20 or below, 6x400m in 73
5×1000: 3:26, 3:24, 3:25, 3:25, 3:28
6×400: 1:20, 1:20, 1:19, 1:18, 1:17, 1:16 (first two felt like I was running in slow motion. Then focused on good form, opening up the hips, driving the knees up. Actually felt pretty good on the last one. Not a 73, but at least somewhat close!)
Overall, obviously not quite where I need to be, but it was a good start to speed work.  I looked at my first speed workout after the Trials, which was a week later than this workout, and I had run 2x1000m in 3:24, 3:29 and then had to move to 800s because I was falling apart.  Those were in 2:48-2:49.
 SO – it’s great to know that I’m starting a lot stronger than I did for Grandma’s cycle.  And really, I have no doubt that the next time I attempt this I’ll be able to be closer to those goal times.

Tempo workout:
Goal: 18 miles with 3 miles of tempo at beginning and 3 at end, goal was 5:45 pace (gees, Jerry is really pushing me to go faster, sooner!  It’s good – but also hard since I know I can’t nail workouts when goals are so high!)
Actual: 5:58 pace for the first segment, 5:57 for the second.  Not bad!  Again, comparing this to after the Trials, I was at 6:12 pace at this point in time.  
Craig was with me for the first segment, which is SO awesome.  He makes it look pretty easy; pretty sure I’m working MUCH harder than he is on these.  I gave myself the option of “converting” this workout using Daniel’s formula – in his elite workouts (for anyone wondering, Jerry and I decided on a hybrid of elite and the A plan) he says that they’re written for a runner with about a 4:45 tempo pace, 5 min marathon pace, so to convert the workouts to that.  I told Craig that my focus needs to be on being FASTER, pushing harder, so if that means I needed to stop after the “converted” 14:15 (vs 3 miles), so be it.  I decided about a mile into the workout to convert it.  Craig gave the thumbs up.  He then asked if it was going to be 15 minutes.  That sounded possible (just 45 seconds, right?).  At 15 minutes there was a little uphill looking at us, so he suggested stopping there.  BRILLIANT.  This is exactly what I need for NYC.  So, we ended up ending at 2.7 miles, 16:45 or so.  If I hadn’t been absolutely gasping for breath at that point I maybe could have been convinced to do the extra .3 – but it was obvious that I was done.
I knew the second one would be difficult.  Already 13 miles into the workout, trying to move fast is always difficult.  I know this portion of the workout is the most important – teaching your legs to operate despite feeling tired and depleted.  I started out, sluggish.  At just about a mile in, the sky opened up and it began to pour.  Ahh!!!! I tried to get my legs to run even faster, to find some sort of shelter.  I found a porch and hid out until the lightening, thunder, and rain stopped.  And when it did, I immediately left the porch and started my watch to finish the repeat.  Since I had the rest, I decided there was no need to “convert”.  This repeat went so much better than expected.  Instead of focusing on how much it hurt, I thought to myself how few opportunities I have to make myself faster.  THESE workouts will be the key to getting faster, so I have to take advantage of them and try to get every second out of them.  Think about the other professional division women at NYC, Nichole!  You want to be able to COMPETE with them!

I was surprised to finish in 5:57 average pace for the second segment, which is really great for me.  Typically at the start of a marathon cycle I’ve struggled to maintain pace for those “long run strength” tempo segments (tempo at the end of a longer run).  So – nice to know I haven’t lost all of that strength!!

Overall, a great week.  Looking forward to a “down” week next week of 80 on 6 days.  Then August brings a LOT of miles… 🙂