The Training Crucible

Monday: 4 Miles, 36:30 (9:10 pace) Not really much to say about this easy workout.

Tuesday: 4X Hills, 3.83 miles, 40:02. This week I was back on the big hill. My warm up and cool down runs of 1.5 miles went much smoother, especially the cool down at the end. This hill simply drains you, but it really helps build strength.  While I didn't run up the hill as fast as my previous workout on it (48 seconds vs. 45), I also added one more repetition into the mix. Also my overall pace was 20 seconds faster per mile than the previous effort.  Mainly this is due to the fact that I actually ran the 1.5 miles back home instead of walking half of it like I did last time.

Wednesday: Rest. I was tempted to get up and workout at home, but I stuck to my plan to rest.

Thursday: 3 Miles, 27:05 (9:02 pace). I followed up this run with P90X Core Synergistics which is about 50 minutes of actual workout time.

Friday: 35 Minute Fartlek. 3.88 miles (9:06 pace). I love using my Garmin to create my fartlek workouts. On Friday I built up from moderate aerobic all the way to VO2 Max. For the most part I stayed within the appropriate ranges for each transition, although I learned a couple of tips I need to apply. 1. Switch from Smart Recording to Constant Recording for this workout.  Constant recording takes measurements every second, making the information more accurate during the 1 minute intervals when I was running at my VO2 Max.

Saturday: 7 Miles, 59:49 (8:33 pace). This was a great workout.  I barely felt like I was running.  Running this good on Saturday made me realize that I need to be pushing the pace more on my 3 and 4 miles runs during the week. While I don't want to press too hard on those easy days (because the day after them is really the workout I want to focus on). However, I'm running almost 30 seconds a mile faster on a run that is twice as long. I need to pick up the pace.

Sunday: P90X Chest and Back. The plan was to try and get another 3 miles in, but some time on Saturday (not during my run) I tweaked my right ankle. My Achilles tendon has been tight ever since.  So I've tried resting it, Icy Hot, and now an ibuprofen routine to be ready to run this next week. Even when I woke up on Monday morning it was still sore, so I did my Core Synergistics workout and hope to get a run or another workout in later today so I don't get too far behind.

Overall another great week of training!