There were only three runs this week, since one of my training plans tenets is to do at least one of my long runs on fresh legs every month. In this case since my long runs are on Sunday, and I generally run on Saturday as well. It means dropping the Saturday run, which works perfectly into my cut back (recovery) weeks. I simply don't run on Saturday.
So Tuesday's leg workout went very well, I am slowly increasing my weights, I handle, and leg day is certainly paying off in terms of my running, the lunges, calf raises and most of all squats (smith, goblet and leg machine versions) all are making my legs feel strong when I run.
Wednesday was a day out at Ray Lake, after work I drove there and ran 2 laps of the Forest preserve trail (2.33 mile loop), Only problem here is I was supposed to run 6, and had run out of water, and while it was in the mid 70's, it was also about 70% humidity, and I was feeling it, so I cut it short. Went for a 2 mile walk with the wife about 2 hours later, so my guilt was removed about the lack of distance.
Thursday was speed-work, its was supposed to be at the track, but there was a monsoon dumping water all over us so I went to the gym and did it on the treadmill. I actually struggled during the warmup and the cool down portions of the run, but did 6 x 800 repeats with 90 second of rest, right in my goal time of 5:15. Felt awful warming up, and felt miserable during the cool down for some reason. I think I was irritated about being indoors.
Friday was upper body weights, and I did that just fine, the workouts I have are about 45-55 minutes long and I can feel progress and the "burn" in both the leg and upper body versions.
Saturday was a day of rest from my normal run, although I did the upper body workout a second time, just to have something to do at club, and figured it would not do anything adverse to my legs.
Sunday was long run day...I was up and ready to go (5:30am), before the gate at the Grant Forest Preserve I wanted to run at was even open, and rather then wait I went to the Volo village hall parked and ran a hilly 10 miler on an out and back course, that I felt fine with the whole time. The goal of the run was to run a few miles at better then race pace. So I decided mile 4-6 and mile 8 and 10 would be those and I would try to push each one slightly faster. I actually remembered to run those miles faster if you see my (bold type) splits below, but forgot that I wanted to go progressively faster.
12:16 12:02 12:06 11:25 11:35 10:45 12:38 11:01 12:27 11:49
So overall a good week hit my mileage goals (minus the one run) and my legs felt good throughout and 6 hours post run, can barely tell I ran today.
Next week is a step up week with runs of 8, 5 (speed work) 7 and 12 for a total of 32 miles. The next three weeks before my step down week consist of 32, 35 and 40 miles. So its an exciting few weeks ahead of me.
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