Another Week Without A Post

Slacking again, I know, so here’s a quick recap of the past seven days:

9/22 – challenging indoor bike ride. Decided to do the Spinervals Time Trial Special, which is a pretty intense workout designed to increase your anaerobic threshold. From what I can remember, the workout went something like this:

Warm up
3 x 30 seconds
1 minute rest
1 leg drill (2 x 1 minute, each leg)
1 minute rest
Super spin (3 x 30 seconds, 15 seconds rest)
1 minute rest
Time trial ladder
2 minute rest
1 leg drill
1 minute rest
Super spin
1 minute rest
Time trial ladder
Sprint set
Cool down

I struggled a bit with the 1 leg drills and really had to work hard to get through the 60 minutes. Tough workout, but I’m sure there’s some benefit in there somewhere.

9/23 – Nice easy run around the soccer fields in the rain. Nearly a “progressive”, but one of the soccer complex guys stopped me towards the end to warn me they were locking the gates in five minutes. Better than a shut-in I guess…

Splits: 8:19 8:09 7:58 7:47 7:48

9/24 – Another easy run on the soccer fields, but today my legs felt tired – probably due to running 4 out of the last 5 days. Decided to take Friday off and rest up a little. Need to look after the foot. Walked a brisk mile back to the car as a cool down.

Tried out the eight-ounce New Balance MR790 trail shoes which felt tremendous – lightweight, comfortable and very responsive. Nice to add a bit of variety to the shoe collection.

9/25 – total (much needed) rest day.

9/26 – ran the Neptune Festival 8k. Felt pretty good through three miles, but my lack of endurance definitely showed towards the end of the race. I’d predicted a 30:50 finish time, so it was nice to finish 6 seconds quicker in 30:44. By the way, thanks to Fergie and Jon for (a) giving me something to chase and (b) pulling me through for 1.5 miles. Definitely a productive day and another step in the right direction. The comeback continues!

As an added bonus, I picked up 3rd place in the Masters category too. Nice. One other milestone; with the race warm-up and cool down I ran over 9 miles today – the furthest since I started running again three weeks ago.

9/27 – arranged to meet good friend Fess at 7:15 who was planning to run 18 miles. I was hopeful of an 8 to 10 miler and decided to tag along with him on the latter stages of his long run. Semi-intentionally, I arrived a little early and ran three miles on my own (8:20 7:51 7:50) before meeting up with Fess on Great Neck Road. Took it nice and easy for another 11 miles and ended up with a 14 miler. Great to have company and enjoyed just chatting and getting in the miles.

Ended up with 38 miles for the week, quite a bit higher than the previous two weeks which may explain a few of the aches and pains I’m feeling today. Think I’ll treat myself to a recovery day (aside from the 200 Squats and 100 Push-Ups of course) and resume running on Tuesday…