Hello from Windham Mountain, NY, where I am enjoying skiing with my daughter and a little cut back at the end of five weeks of building mileage and two challenging workouts this week of long hills at half marathon pace and a solidly sub-8:00 six mile tempo which included a huge hill. Here are the details:
Monday 1/11 – 10 miles in dark, 28 degree weather plus high winds on track and trail while listening to “All the Light We Cannot See,” very easy with strides at end (9:48 avg). Felt proud of myself for being out there.
Tuesday 1/12 – 12.5 miles with 7×5 mins uphill at HMP (7:46, 7:35, 7:55, 7:42, 7:41, 7:41, 7:35), 2:00 steady paced downhill running plus 1:30 rest recovery. 8:08 average running pace for workout. I worried over this workout for a week and was proud that I got it done. Ran on Central Park’s long west side hills, whose length allowed shorter recovery than the uphill portion to increase Interval benefit. Ran with joy and felt one with the effort! I modified this workout from Hanson’s prescribed 12×3 mins uphill with slow jog (more than 3 mins) downhill recovery – but I think it has at least as much benefit with lower risk of repetitive motion injury from running the same hill hard 12 times. Activated my core and glutes before the run with planks, bridges and single leg goblet squats with 20 lb weight.
Wednesday 1/13 – 7.5 miles easy on treadmill at gym while listening to “All the Light We Cannot See” and (9:41/144 bpm) with 4x MP “strides” at end. Also did solid strength and plyo work: 2 set weighted eccentric heel drops, 3 sets deadlifts, 2 sets Kettlebell hamstring exercises, 2×10 box jumps, bounds and various planks.
Thursday 1/14 – 12.5 miles in Central Park, including a hair shy of 6 miles to my turnoff for home at GMP (7:54/175 bpm) in freezing, snowy weather. Activated glutes and core before the run with weighted goblet squats and planks. This was a hard run: I had to run home to poo before starting the tempo part of the run, then felt very nauseous about a mile in from trouble regulating my body temperature while running hard in cold and wind. Hanson’s said to run this on a hilly course (preparing for Boston) at GMP effort. So I ran the full CP loop including the 4/10 mile great hill that is an 8-9 pct grade. Held average GMP through up and down of that massive hill (7:56 for that mile) About a mile later, I started to lose pace so allowed myself a less than 60 second stop at 3.65 miles, til my heart rate recovered to 130 bpm. When I resumed, I really pushed hard and picked up the pace, concentrating on using my muscles and smooth, strong movement. Felt surprised and pleased when I saw my average pace at the end.
Friday 1/15 – 7.1 miles heart based recovery pace (9:24/135 bpm) on trails with Deena doggie. Reverse lunges and lateral lunges with 45 lb kettlebell before the run.
Sat 1/16 – Planned day off to ski!
Sunday 1/17 – Planned day off to ski!
Weekly total: 50 miles
The training stimuluses from the Hanson’s training plan appear to be working and I look forward to my workouts next week.
Posted by Caper. Check out more at Salty Running.