Summary of last week’s training:
- Monday – short 1.5 mile morning stroll, followed by a brisk 4 miler at lunch time. Groin sore from Sunday’s 13 miler, but some mid-morning ice and stretching sorted things out nicely. Also started back on the 100 pushups and 200 situps programs – need to work on the core/basic upper body strength.
- Tuesday – 1.5 mile morning stroll/jog (it started raining, so I hurried back home). Also logged a post-work 8 miler at a very conservative pace.
- Wednesday – 4 easy morning miles in the Saucony Hattoris (base building), followed by the latest round of 100 pushups and 200 situps. After work I hopped on the bike for some easy spinning, and ran another couple of outdoor miles to complete the shortest brick workout in history.
- Thursday – started off the day with 4 foggy miles. Groin felt okay so ran a bit quicker during lunch. Actually, the 1/2 mile on, 1/2 mile off lunch run was the best I’ve felt for a long, long time – 6 miles at 6:24 per mile pace with 1/2 miles “on” splits of 3:00 2:55 2:55 2:53 2:50 2:48.
- Friday – short pre-work run to Starbucks for some oatmeal and coffee which has turned into something of a tradition for me lately. Mid-morning I logged some more 100 pushups and 200 situps, before heading out at lunch time for a blustery 7.5 miler. Pace was nice and relaxed and the legs felt good.
- Saturday – signed up last minute for the Girls on the Run 5k – no big expectations, but wanted to establish a baseline for the summer months. The race went well. Once everyone had settled in to their rhythm, I found myself in 3rd place behind Ryan Carroll (pushing his daughter Taylor in a stroller no less!), and a swift-footed high schooler. In typical style, fellow Masters runner Tommy Neeson soon breezed by to relegate me to 4th spot, but I dug deep and managed to pass him back before the 1.5 mile mark. From that point on my sites were set on catching the high school kid who had fallen off Ryan’s speedy stroller-pushing pace. Gradually I reeled him in, and at 2.5 miles made my move for the finish – potentially too early, but I didn’t want to risk a sprint at the end. I crossed the line in 17:50 (pic below), a little disappointed with the time (it felt faster), but well happy with the 2nd place overall. The race legs appear to be coming back!
- Sunday – headed out for a 13 miler in the rain. Legs felt better than last Sunday, and after a steady start, managed to push the pace quite nicely. [Thanks Kris Lawrence for the motivation on Facebook by the way.] Despite getting drenched I managed to cover just over 13 miles at 6:50 per mile pace, so all in all a solid workout.
Not a bad week with just over 57 miles in total. After steadily increasing my mileage over the past month, I’m probably due for a “down” week, and with the Elizabeth River Run 10k this coming weekend, that sounds like a perfect plan. No real goal in mind for the 10k. My 5k time from Saturday predicts around 37 minutes, so I guess something in the 36:50 range could be good to shoot for. We’ll see….