Well, somehow I managed to string together a 56 mile training week. Actually, if I look at my training log I’ve logged at least one run in each of the last 17 days. I’m still not feeling 100%, but at the moment, am able to run, recover and run again with relatively few issues. Am I ready for the Richmond Marathon next weekend? Definitely not. But the plan is to use the race as a long training run as I rack up some miles before the Cayman Islands Marathon on December 2nd. Not ideal preparation, but I’m hopeful things will work out.
So, here’s how last week panned out:
Monday:
Planned – AM 35 minutes easy. PM 40 minutes steady.
Actual – nice easy run on the treadmill to start the day. Averaged 7:17/mile pace and felt okay. Skipped the afternoon run and opted for a nap instead.
Tuesday
Planned – 45 minutes with 15 warm up, 4×5 minutes “hard” with 90s jog recovery, followed by a 10 minute cool down.
Actual – felt guilty about missing Monday’s steady run, so decided to get up early and hit the treadmill again. Kind of tough to get the heart rate up to 150bpm, but once there, it was fairly easy to keep it going. 6 miles in 40 minutes.
Nice change of pace in the afternoon. The warm up went well, and even the 5 minute “hard” efforts were pretty comfortable. Nice to log my first two-runs-in-a-day for a long time too. Progress?
Wednesday
Planned – 5 miles made up of 2 easy and 3 steady.
Actual – nothing too exciting for this run. Just over 5 miles in 35 minutes with a slight step up in effort for the final three miles.
Thursday
Planned – same as Monday. AM 35 minutes easy. PM 40 minutes steady.
Actual – another easy, morning run. Heart rate monitor was acting up so I just ran by feel. Pace dipped under 7:00/mile, which hopefully means my fitness is coming back. The afternoon run went out of the window as I managed to arrange a last minute appointment with the chiropractor. It was a great session, with a pretty intense 5 or 10 minutes of Graston treatment. Let’s hope the pain was worth it! Oh yeah, I ran a brisk mile on the treadmill after the chiro visit – he wanted me to get the blood flowing to help speed the healing process.
Friday
Planned – rest day.
Actual – no rest for the wicked as I decided to run the Thursday afternoon session instead of taking a recovery day. The first mile was an easy warm up, then I picked up the pace to finish with splits of 6:16, 6:19, 6:22, 6:23 & 6:29. Nice to log a solid workout!
Saturday
Planned – 15 miles easy with an increase in pace in the last 5 miles if feeling good.
Actual – still feeling a bit stiff & sore from Thursday’s Graston treatment, but at least I managed to get the planned 15 miles in. Definitely slow to get going, but the middle miles were good until I ran out of gas with a couple of miles to go.
Longest run since September 9th, so all in all a good stepping stone I guess.
Sunday
Planned – 40 minutes easy
Actual – nice, easy 40 minute run at 143bpm. Feeling okay after yesterday’s 15 miler and pleased that my pace is coming back for running at the same effort level. Good end to the week!
Summary
So, the last 4 weeks look like this – 10 miles, 26 miles, 37 miles and 56 miles. Not exactly a perfect marathon build up, but I guess I should be thankful to be back running consistently again. Richmond should be very interesting if nothing else. Wish me luck!
See you this weekend!