Week in Review

101 miles
5 doubles
20-mile long run
3 successful workouts
14 days until CIM

Wow, what a week. Though it wasn't originally intended as such, this was by far my most intense, high-quality block of the training cycle...and I crushed it! Balancing and adapting to the weather proved to be the most challenging hurdle, but I think I did a pretty good job of rolling with it and maintaining my equanimity. From here there is little left to do but rest up, recover, race the 104th Annual Thanksgiving Day Race in Cincinnati and then taper all the way to the starting line!

Personal success aside, by far the most rewarding part of my week was having the opportunity to hang out with the Fit Girls from Village School in Marblehead on Thursday afternoon. The head coach of Fit Girls, an organization similar to Girls on the Run with over 140 participants, invited me to attend one of their practices and spend some time with the girls. There was never a program like this for me to participate in when I was their age (4th-6th grade), and I can only imagine how many more young girls from my hometown would be engaged in the sport of running if there were! I had a blast and will be cheering these girls on virtually as they complete their target 5k on the same weekend I'm racing CIM.

Which is in exactly two weeks. Yikes!

 

 

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Saturday Track Action

AM: 6 miles easy
PM: 2.5 mile w/u + strides
Target: 5x1k @3:20, 3:20, 3:19, 3:18, 3:17 w/2 mins. jog; 5x300 @58, 57, 56, 55, 54
Actual: 3:22, 3:20, 3:19, 3:17, 3:18; 53, 55, 54, 54, 52
2.5 mile c/d
Total: 9-9.5 miles
Daily Total: 16-16.5 miles

After feeling surprisingly fresh on an easy morning run with our boss, Eric--who himself knocked out a 15-miler well below his goal marathon pace--I got the go-ahead from Coach Jordan to tackle my second workout of the week this afternoon. Dropping out of Wednesday's session and pushing it to Thursday meant I potentially needed to push my track session to Sunday, but I was hoping I'd feel recovered enough to do it Saturday and take part in a group long run instead. But, as Jordan reminded me, the point of the second workout was to run fast, not just to "try really hard" or "give it my best effort"--in other words, if I wanted to move it up to Saturday, then I better make it count.

Just before 3pm, after getting a haircut at my old salon in Marblehead, Jordan and I met up at the Village School track. I haven't worked out here in almost a year, but when we lived just a few miles down the street we were regulars. It's not the fanciest facility--and, as I would soon be not-so-gently reminded, it often feels as though it's been dropped down smack in the middle of a wind tunnel--but for our purposes it would do just fine. After a relaxed warmup and some strides, my queenmaker and I were ready to go. With blue skies and the sun shining brightly, it almost, sort of, nearly felt like spring. We'll take it!

From the outset, however, I could tell this would be work. It was never designed to be easy, and this wouldn't be one of those elusive perfect days where everything snaps effortlessly into place. But as we clicked off the laps, I found myself feeling more and more locked into the rhythm of 5:20 pace. The wind proved to be quite daunting on the home stretch, but fortunately Jordan didn't tap me to alternate the lead like he has during other recent workouts. Had that been the case, I know I would've struggled mightily.

As it was, I finished the fifth kilometer feeling quite tired. I hoped that starting the 300s at 58--only slightly faster than what I'd maintained for the k's--would be a breeze. Instead, I found myself straining to stay in contact with Jordan in what felt like an all-out sprint. Was I really that exhausted?! Crossing the finish line, I frantically looked at my watch, only to see that we'd started faster than the fastest interval was supposed to be. At that point, I simultaneously panicked and got really angry at Jordan. He was sabotaging any chance I had to keep it together! Sensing my delicate emotional state, he wisely offered 90 seconds rest, during which I ambled along for the slowest 100-meter walk ever. This pattern would be repeated after each subsequent 300, and with the generous rest I was able to finish feeling fast and strong. I actually think I could've hit the same splits off 60 seconds recovery--not that I was complaining about an extra 30.

Overall, though this wasn't executed perfectly and didn't feel easy, I'm happy at the quality and quantity of sub-5k pace running only 48 hours after an equally challenging tempo workout. All week up until today I've felt uncharacteristically fatigued and sluggish, so hopefully this was just the shot in the arm (leg?) needed to turn things around. And if I actually got a little bit of sun in the process, even better!

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12x800 Success

2.5 mile w/u
Target: 10-12x800 @2:35-36 w/2:30 rest
Actual: 2:36, 2:36, 2:36, 2:34, 2:36, 2:35, 2:35, 2:34, 2:36, 2:34, 2:35, 2:34
Average: 2:35.1
1.5 mile c/d
Total: ~10.5 miles

After several underwhelming race performances in a row, Coach Jordan and I decided to take an analytical look at my training and try to fill in the missing pieces. It's obvious that months of marathon and half-marathon training have made me strong, but what seems to be lacking is a comfort level with sustaining a quicker race pace. In Jordan's opinion, the best way to achieve that is simply by running harder, faster intervals. Sure enough, if you look back at my training under Coach Simmons in 2010, during which I set all my current track PRs, my log is riddled with sessions like 12x800, 20x400, 25x300, etc. I can't even remember the last time I've done 20 times anything, so needless to say my training has changed drastically since then. But if I'm really going to try to throw down a fast track time this spring, then we both agree that's what it's going to take.

Despite our newly steeled resolve, the workout got off to a decidedly inauspicious beginning. We left work a little bit early on Wednesday afternoon and jogged to the Beverly High track across the street...only to discover a high school meet in progress. Refusing to be deterred, we immediately hopped in the car and drove home, then jogged over to the Village School track...where another track meet was taking place. At this point we were out of options and time, so we just acknowledged that it was not meant to be our day and set off for a few easy miles instead. Thursday morning we were out the door early, this time finding the Village track completely quiet and deserted. Perfect conditions.

From the outset, my plan was simple: Latch onto Jordan. Stare at his back for two laps. Rest. Repeat. I can tell he's getting back into shape as he's recently started adding on amidst his queenmaking duties, and today was another example of that. I'd stop after 800 while he continued on for another lap, which meant the 2:30 rest was more like 1:15 for him. I'm ecstatic that he's getting back in shape, but on days like this I'm even more grateful that he still deigns to drag me around for a bit at girl pace. I can't expect these days to last forever, but you can bet I'm going to take advantage of them for as long as possible!

As should be expected, it took me a while to ease into a pace I'm seldom accustomed to running. It wasn't until the end of the third interval that I finally settled in, only to be thrown for a loop when Jordan dropped the pace seemingly significantly on number four. Seeing 2:34 on the watch sent me into a mini-panic, and I immediately asked that we back off a bit for the next few. (Mind you, at this point I still thought we were stopping at 10. I would've probably had a full-blown panic attack if I'd known we weren't even close to halfway through. I guess sometimes ignorance really is bliss.) The middle section of the workout felt the most comfortable, and I breezed through intervals four through eight with minimal discomfort. Then, Jordan dropped the bomb: 12 is the new 10. Ugh. Mini-panic #2 ensued, and admittedly I backed off way too much on the ninth repeat to compensate. This snapped me back to reality, and I closed out the final three with strong, if unremarkable, splits.

In order to put this workout into perspective, I think it's worthwhile to reflect on the two times I did something similar in the spring of 2010. On April 6th, I completed 12x800 with two minutes rest and averaged 2:36.7. This was several weeks after I ran 34:37 at Stanford. Just over a month later--in what is widely touted (by me, the only person who cares about it) as the best workout in the history of my entire life--I ran the same workout with 2:30 rest and averaged 2:33.3. Several weeks later I would run a tactical 34:50/16:35 double to earn All-American honors at D2 Nationals. Today I didn't come close to that average, or to the 2:30 I hammered for #9 and #12, but I still surprised myself with how close I came. With another month of work I might even be able to better that 2010 workout, which would be no small boost for my confidence. I'm excited at the prospect, and excited to learn that perhaps my fitness is (almost) there after all.   

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Longest Track Workout Ever

3 mile w/u + strides
Target: 3200, 2000, 1600, 1200, 1000, 800, 600, 400, 200 all w/400m jog
Actual: 11:50 (5:55/5:55), 7:14 (5:46 through mile), 5:44, 4:14 (2:49 through 800), 3:30 (2:48 through 800), 2:44, 2:01 (79 through 400), 76, 35
Total time: 58:17 for 14.2k/8.8 miles (11k workout plus 3200m jogging)
3k cooldown
Total: ~14 miles

Any way you dice it, this workout was destined to take up a large chunk of time. Jordan and I were up well before 6am to prepare, and after firing off a few work emails we put on our costumes and headed out the door. Continuing with the past week's trend it was unseasonably warm this morning, and I was already sweating in my light windbreaker by the time we reached our destination at Village School. (This is the track that eluded me several weeks ago which I erroneously thought was located at Marblehead High. Turns out it's not that far away, and Jordan and I have been using the adjacent grass fields for some of our evening shakeout runs ever since.) The warm weather also brought with it a prevailing wind which would prove especially obnoxious on the top curve of the track, but fortunately my trusty coach and pacer would be front and center to provide me with a significant drafting opportunity throughout the workout.

Last night when we were discussing this morning's details, we revisited the blog archives to find a similar effort that took place when we were visiting my parents for Thanksgiving last year. This time around I wouldn't necessarily be shooting for drastically faster times, but rather increasing the total workout volume from 8k (6 miles including jog recoveries) to 11k (8.8 miles including jogs). Two weeks after that session last year I ran 21:05 for 6k at USATF Club XC Champs, so I certainly wasn't in terrible shape at the time. With all that in mind, I was interested and not just a little bit eager to see if I could sustain similar paces today for a longer duration.

As is often the case with me, the first half of the first interval felt uncomfortable and a bit choppy. It took well over a mile for me to settle in and allow my limbs and breathing to relax. I quickly learned that checking my watch after each lap would make for an extremely long morning, so I decided just to glance at key markers in each interval and otherwise simply focus on tucking in behind Jordan. There was a point midway through when I had a minor mental freakout--for some reason I thought the sequence went "1600, 1200, 800" and I had no idea there was actually a bonus 1000 tucked in there--but otherwise I grew more comfortable and confident as the workout progressed. Once the 1000 came and went, I knew the most difficult sections were behind me. While Jordan added on an extra 200 meters hard after each of my intervals, I tried to keep the 400-meter jogs between 2:15 and 2:25. This seemed to be just the perfect amount of time to allow my legs and lungs to recover, maybe even a bit long as the interval length decreased. I may or may not have run blades out for the final 200, which was more of an homage to my training with Tanya at Queens than an actual attempt to muster up more speed; either way, the lighthearted moment indicated that I hadn't completely drained my energy or gone to the well.

Overall I was satisfied with my execution of the workout, especially compared with the November 2010 workout, and I could tell that Jordan was as well. I cannot stress enough how much of a help he was from start to finish--I literally could not have done this, physically or mentally, without him. So often he sacrifices his own training to improve mine, and I try never to take that for granted. His efforts certainly did not go unnoticed today. I know Caitlin and I both are already looking forward to him doing the same for Friday's tempo. It will be just like old times! Just a few easy runs between now and then before the band gets back together again. Can't wait!

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