Week in Review – w/c 7/30/12

Monday:
Planned – 35 minutes easy
Actual – just a short, easy run to kick off the new week; 4.5 miles with average HR at 125 bpm. Bit of a fail really though – heart rate should be about about 10 beats per minute higher for an “easy” run. Live and learn!

Tuesday
Planned – Memorial Scholarship 5K
Actual – just over 5 miles warm-up/cool-down, with a hot & humid 5K sandwiched in the middle. Happy with my effort level during the race, but the splits could have been a bit more consistent – 5:40, 6:01, 6:05 is not ideal. Finish time was 17:44 on a night when 95% of the runners took a wrong turn and the official race results are a bit of a mess. Probably finished top 10, but definitely need to work on consistency and smarter race execution!

Wednesday
Planned – 75 minutes easy
Actual – plan was an easy 75 minutes keeping the HR between 135-140. Decided to cut the lunch run short by 5 minutes due to a pretty scary storm, but not before banging out several 50m strides. Average HR = 138. Success!

Thursday
Planned – 35 steady
Actual – nailed this run nice and early. HR in the zone and the pace (6:36/mile) was pretty good too! Just over 5 miles in the bank.

Friday
Planned – 35 easy
Actual – finding the zone a lot quicker now. Great start to the day with a beautiful sun rise and slightly less humid conditions.

Saturday
Planned – WU, 10k Time Trial, CD
Actual – warmed up for a couple of miles w/ a few 50m strides to get the blood flowing. The TT was tough, especially the middle miles. Mile 1 felt nice and relaxed in 6:01. Mile 2 was steady at 6:03, but then I probably ran a little quick for the third mile (5:59) which caused a bit of a meltdown in miles 4 and 5 (6:17, 6:13). Recovered somewhat with a strong 6:03 mile to finish the TT in 37:29 – not a bad effort on a very humid Saturday morning. Max HR was 169 – thought it might have been higher, but I couldn’t have pushed harder if I’d tried.

Sunday
Planned – 15 miles w/ 10 easy, 5 steady
Actual – another humid morning which meant I had a tough time holding myself back through mile 8 – hence the pace slipping all the way back to an 8:17 mile as I tried to keep my HR under 140 bpm. Finally at mile 10 I was able to open things up and run steady (7:08, 7:01, 7:02, 6:59, 6:45). Ran out of water with a couple of miles to go, so I should probably plan a better route next time to take in more shade and pass at least one water fountain. Enjoyable run. Longest for a while.

Another good week finishing with 58 miles on the cards (8 more than last week). Next week will be relatively easy, with some hill work, a weekend run in the park and plenty more heart rate specific training. Definitely excited to see what the next couple of months training will bring. Bring it on!