AM - 7 miles. 8 x 400m in 66.0 seconds average (1500m pace, 90s rest). Did the workout at the Olympic Oval to avoid the wind. That was the fastest I've run 400s in a long time... and about as fast as I could go while keeping my form good. Now I have a starting point as I move into the next phase of this training cycle.
PM - 6 miles.
As a follow-up to what I posted a few weeks ago, here's how the last 7 weeks of training have looked (and for an expanded calendar view - here):
I accomplished what we hoped with the LT efforts - starting at 2x20, dropping down, then rebounding back up and seeing some improvement when I repeated the 2x20. The combo workouts with the hills were meant to strengthen my musculoskeletal system, and the breakdown workouts helped usher in the next wave of track workouts. Long runs provided aerobic support. Total mileage was lower than what I've done during "hard" training blocks in the past... but man, it feels good to be healthy right now. I can't even think of any aches or pains. My feet have gotten stronger (which was starting to be a problem last fall) and my form is getting smoother.
Now with 7 weeks until Indy, I'll primarily focus on two types of workouts the rest of the way - 1) Multi-pace (1500/3K/5K) track intervals (simple!) and 2) LT Shuffles (LT efforts with 3K/5K injections). I have two races, 5K and 10 mile, which are both coming up soon. I'll get in 2-3 more long runs for aerobic support, but will aim to keep those around or under 2 hours. The LT shuffle workouts will end up being quite long anyways (14-17 miles by my estimation). I'll start incorporating phase two of Jay Dicharry's program this week, as I've pretty much mastered phase one at this point (he might disagree!).
During my next marathon cycle, I'll switch back to one midweek workout and one quality long run per week.
I think laying out what you actually did in training (as opposed to what was planned) and then looking back in this fashion is really helpful, more so than a text blog format, because it lets you see the whole picture. I have calendars like this that date back to early 2011... I've made a lot of mistakes and there are too many places where I (now) think: What the $%^# was I thinking? Not so much anymore... I feel like I'm finally putting the pieces together in the right fashion, and I'm gaining confidence because of that.
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