Of Mice and Marathons

PM: 10 miles. HR 134.

Lunch: 11 miles. HR 141. Strides + 11 x 10-12 second hill sprints

PM: 35 minutes of cross training (20 stairmaster, 15 bike) + stretching, core, and pushups

AM: Springside Track - 13.75 miles, averaged 7:15. HR 155.

TRACK WORKOUT

4 x 2400 (400-500 jogs) + 1600 with a little pepper on top. 500 jogs for 1 and 2, 400 jog for 3, and 600 job before the 1600. Averaged 8:37 or 5:47 pace for the 2400s. The upper end of half marathon goal pace.

8:38.6, 8:36.9, 8:38.6, 8:36.8, 5:34.5

I did not want to get out of bed today. I had planned on 15 x 1000 a few weeks ago, but wanted some longer intervals so I changed things around thinking 3 x 2 miles, then 5 x 1.5, or mile repeats but decided on 4 x 2400 with some shorter intervals if I was feeling good. I decided I didn't like the pace on my 2400s and wanted another solid 1600 so I dropped that 1600 in there, splitting something like 2:49/2:45.5.

Felt decent overall but not much bounce in my step. Planned on a few shorter intervals but I already wasted half the morning so I headed home.

Am/Lunch: 10.25 miles. HR 137.

PM: 40 minutes on the elliptical. Stretching and core.

I almost fell off the elliptical listening to Wallace's Infinite Jest because I was laughing so hard.

PM: 10.3 miles easy to moderate. HR 147. Did some strides.

Warmed up to the track, which was closed for a meet. Good thing really as I needed another day before my next session, which is very hard.

Had a hard time getting out of bed this morning. Anxiety is very high for some reason. Hopefully I can get to the track at a decent hour tomorrow morning or I am going to pay for it in the wind.

AM: Springside Track - 10.7 miles. HR 156.

TRACK WORKOUT

4 x 1600 w/ 90 seconds standing rest. 5k Indicator/Blowup Workout

Made the mistake of falling back to sleep for another hour or so. It didn't get too windy until the end. Felt pretty decent on the first 2-3 and didn't feel like I was slowing down but I was.

5:21.9, 5:24.4, 5:28.5, 5:37.1

HR 177, 178, 178, 180

Just under 5:28 average for 1600 even with the blown repeat. So 5:30 average. I think I can beat that in the race a week from tomorrow. I need to.

Wind gusts chewed me up on the last repeat but I doubt it would have been much faster than 5:32-5:33 if I hadn't more or less bagged it. Oh well. It's an extremely hard workout for a slow twitcher. I wanted to bail pretty bad on that last one.

About .5-1 second faster than last fall's iteration of the workout but I think I am in a better position to hold pace given that I am not late into marathon training like I was then.

Onward and upward.

PM: 4 mile shakeout. HR 129.

Lunch/PM: 10 miles SLOW. HR 128-130 (Monitor died ~6 miles)