Wheeler Farm Loops

AM - 8 miles. Horsepark w/ Andrea and then added on a bit more.

Afternoon ski tour in Little Cottonwood Canyon. Spring slush conditions.

A couple days on the Pacific coast was nice, but I love my backyard...

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.

AM - 8 miles.

PM - 6 miles. Most w/ Andrea.

I made a NCAA bracket on ESPN. Search for Fast Running Blog DOT COM (or click here). I will mail a prize (of my choosing) to the overall male and female winners.

AM - 6 miles.

PM – 18 miles. LT Shuffle: 5 x 8 / 1 minute efforts (8 minutes LT, 1 minute easy, 1 minute 3K/5K, 3 minutes easy. Repeat x 5). Average pace for the 8 minute efforts was 5:01/mile and for the 1 minute efforts was 4:35/mile. Average pace for the 18 miles was 6:00/mile (that's my long run for this week!). Felt really good today. Things are clicking.

I’ll do iterations of this workout several times between now and Indy (down to 8x5/1, 10x3/1 and then back up the ladder). 

Splits:

*I don't put a lot of stock in the specific pace of a 60 second effort on a Garmin, but you get the idea... it was faster.

Here is a more thorough explanation of the physiology behind these sessions from the creator - 

The long reps will produce a small amount of lactate that the body will pick up and utilise during the effort - there will be some residual lactate that the body will 'shuffle' into the system during the 1 min recovery. Then, during the 1 min faster effort the body will utilise the lactate for energy and at the same time produce a larger amount of lactate. Through the 3 min active recovery the body will, again, use and 'shuffle' the remaining lactate into the system, which the body will then utilise during the next long rep and so on.

As the session progresses, more and more lactate is produced, shuffled, utilised - at LT and 5k/3k pace/effort. Towards the end of the session, the body floods with lactate and struggles to utilise and shuffle it into the system - the body goes into 'panic' mode and 'shunts' (forces) it into the system.  This stresses the body and teaches it to pick-up and utilise lactate when the system is fatigued. This in turn helps to improve pace at LT.

With this in mind, as you do the session, you'll physically feel it happening - it hurts like hell but in a nice way :)

AM - 7 miles.

PM - 7 miles. Half w/ Andrea.

We need another pantry.

AM - 8 miles.

PM - 5 miles (most w/ Andrea) + 8 x 100m strides.

AM - 10 miles. 5 x 800m in 2:17.5 average (2:00 rest). Splits - 2:16.6, 2:17.5, 2:18.0, 2:17.8, 2:18.0. Highland HS. 4 miles warmup w/ Andrea + 8 x 100m strides, 3.5 miles cooldown back home.

PM - Ski tour in LCC. Skied off the east side of Twin Lakes Pass, then skinned back up and made another run off the shoulder of Patsy Marley. 

This week has been a good microcosm of how my approach has evolved this year:

-Faster interval workouts at the correct paces (not slower but with extra volume thrown in)
-Shorter recovery runs (most between 45-60 minutes)
-Very targeted LT session
-Don't be lazy... strides twice a week!
-Foam rolling / stretching / general strength work almost every night
-Massage (Tim hammered me again on Thursday night)
-No candy and less crap in general!!! (weaning off Dew, too)
-Eating balanced recovery foods with plenty of protein within 20 minutes of finishing harder workouts
-More skiing / skinning, which is excellent for all the reasons Andrea mentions here.

A lot of this is common sense, but I'll be the first to admit that I haven't always been consistent with the whole package over the last couple years. 

On that note, I decided that I'm going to skip the spring marathon season and keep my focus on getting faster through the end of June, then take a break and put all my marathon eggs in the Chicago basket.