Emily's training blog

My achilles was pretty stiff this morning, so I took my workout to the treadmill.  I warmed up three miles and then ran 6 x 5 minutes on, three minutes off.  I started the intervals at 5:45 pace, and increased every interval.  (5:45, 5:42, 5:39, 5:36, 5:33, 5:30)  The last one in increased the pace every minute for the last 3 minutes, so I finished at 5:21 pace.  In between intervals I ran 7:30 pace.   I cooled down to 11 miles when I was finished.  The total time for my run was 71:52 for 11 miles.  So, the workout functioned almost like a tempo run.  The good thing is that I felt pretty recovered from the 20 miler. 

I ran a recovery run out to 7800S, down to Gardner Village, onto the river trail, back to Millrace Park, and up through the neighborhood.  It took me about 4 miles to warm up, but after that I felt pretty good.  I was able to run a little bit later in the morning, which was nice for sleeping.  But, it definitely gets warmer.  I'm running a 10k at Liberty Park for some tempo work on Saturday, and the race doesn't start until 8:45.  It's going to be a warm one!

I'm looking forward to a bit of a taper week next week, and the race in Indianapolis.  Then, it's six more weeks until the marathon!  It is coming so fast!

Ugh.  That was a tough run.  I ran out 1300 W, to 9000S, up to 2700 W and back down to 5400 S.  It felt like it was taking forever.  I'm ready for this week to be over, and I still have 3 more days of training.  I don't think Saturday is going to be anything spectacular, but that's okay.  It's just for some tempo training, and it's more important to finish out some good mileage this week.  But, I think a nice ice bath is in order today.  Maybe even just to cool me off.  It is hot outside this week!

I woke up feeling really nauseated.  I slogged through 7 miles.  Here's hoping I feel better on Saturday.

I felt worse today than yesterday.  My legs feel all right, it's just the rest of me that is so sluggish.  You know that candy bar commercial, where the swimmer is swimming in caramel?  I feel like I'm running through carmel, just really slow motion.  I didn't time todays run, just ran off of feel.  I ran out 4800, to the river trail, out to Bullion, and back.  I need to get it together for tomorrow.

So, since I'm racing a big half marathon next weekend, the point of today was to run a controlled tempo run/longer run.   I had the idea that I wanted to run six minute pace, but in the back of my mind I knew that I would probably run what I needed to win.  

I did a longer warm-up, because I didn't want to be too fresh.  I'm trying to learn to run marathon pace on tired legs.  I warmed up six miles.  The race started at 8:45, so it was really warm during the race.  Between the heat, a small field that left me by myself for the whole race, and continuing stomach issues from the last few days, I was pretty happy with the outcome.

I got out a little quickly at the mile, running through in 5:46.  After that, I didn't get consistent mile splits.  I missed the two mile, and thought that the 5k mark was for the 10k, when it actually was the turnaround point for the 5k.  At this point, I just got into a groove, and tried to keep even effort.  I did see that I was 30:44 through 5 miles, so I picked up the last 1.2 miles, and managed about 6 minute pace for the last mile. 

I felt comfortable with the pace the entire race, just not the heat.  I liked the course, and wished that it had been run a little earlier in the morning.  The good thing is that I felt like I could run 6:10 pace for a long time.  If I could hold this pace through a marathon, I would run a 2:40, which would be great! 

So, the real test is next week.  I cooled down 3 miles, and started to crash.  15 for the day is good, but if Teren gets home from work at a decent hour, I may try to get 5 more in.