Dang I am a quarter of the way through already.
Monday – cross train. Back to the pool! Swim 1600m. After almost 2 weeks without swimming it took me longer than I expected to finally warm up. It also didn’t help that I was congested. After almost 800 meters I almost blamed the sinus issues and gave up, but decided to try to push to at least 1200. I finally got into the groove shortly after, and even did one set of 400 at @ 2:19/100 meters. A typical speed for me is around 2:30 give or take, so hey I’ll take it. By tri season, I’d really like to be able to swim the sprint distance at a 2:00/100m average.
Tuesday- tempo run. Since my times have been pretty close to the 3:40 marathon finish goal (I’m following 3:45) I decided to try a few workouts at those paces and see if I could pull it off. The goal for a 3:45 marathon was a 7:59 for the tempo portion (4 miles) and for the 3:40 was 7:50. My warm up mile was 8:30, then I went too fast (as always) and mile 2 was 7:40. From there it went downhill. 7:54, 8:01, 7:52. I partially blame congestion (still, ugh) but I’m either not pacing myself well or overshooting. My average was 7:52, so close, but not quite. My cool down mile felt harder too at 9:16.
Wednesday – speedwork day. The book workout was 5×1000 with a 400m recovery interval, but I was afraid of running short on time for a football game that was going on at the track so I did 200m recovery instead. With the stroller, my goal for a 1000 is 4:46 and without was 4:22 for the 3:45 and 4:18 for the 3:40. My first two with the stroller were pretty close – a 4:46 exactly and a 4:48. My friend took the stroller from there. Without it I felt like I was FLYING and started out too fast (again), finishing the third in 4:13, and then it went downhill again. 4:19 and 4:22 to finish, averaging around the 3:40 plan goal but not really going about it the right way. This error is the death of me in 90% of my 5k’s and I just for some reason have a REALLY hard time starting slower at shorter distances.
Afterwards, we went for recovery drinks, and watched some toddler speedwork 🙂
Thursday cross training . 20 minute elliptical to get my heart rate going and muscles warm and then some weights. I need to research some weight workouts for runners, because I’m not sure I really have any idea what I’m doing.
Friday: rest day
Saturday: long run. On the book is 20 miler number 1 (of 5!) which I’m still splitting as I build my base. Goal pace 9:35 for the 3:45 and 9:23 for the 3:40, BUT, this was for 20 miles and we did 16. Final pace was 9:23 for the 16 and afterwards I was more tired than I hoped I would be. I’m not sure I could have kept up the 9:23 pace for 4 more miles, if I’m totally honest with myself.
Sunday: long run part 2. 4 miles with the twins with an average of 8:56. It was 47 degrees and honestly great weather, but I still had issues getting going and didn’t feel totally warmed up until 3.5 miles in (ha). Or, maybe it was just a rough run. Hard to say.
The plan is to fit some yoga in here too after I finish this post up. My leg is FINALLY feeling better and not bothering me anymore but no reason to have it start up again. Plus, maybe I can work on nailing that forearm stand again 🙂
Journey To the Finish Line 
October 18, 2015 at 9:07 pm
You got some good runs in this week! Plus a lot of other good workouts too.
It is hard to nail the paces on speedwork- I am good at pacing myself in races, but sometimes it backfires at speedwork and I run the first interval or two TOO SLOW. I’ve run the first 400 of a workout at half pace, and it’s hard because this one only had 5 intervals so if the first is too slow it almost feels like a wasted one, you know? I did the 200m jog recovery too and that made it tough.
The toddler running was so cute- about the best part of Dog and Duck. See ya on Wednesday for more track!
October 18, 2015 at 9:12 pm
I do think the 200 jog made it a bit tougher. Not sure if the 400 would make it worse or easier haha. I’m glad I’m Not the only one who has issues with pacing – I just need to flip it and make the first one slower instead of faster! But I hear you on feeling like if it’s too slow it feels wasted. :p thanks!