The plan this week is for 46 miles, an increase of 3 miles from last week. One new change this week is to add a short run on Sunday, so now i'm running 6 days a week and my off running day will include a short set of upper body weight training. Will include an indoor trainer workout midweek and swimming on the weekend. Monday- Left from john street around noon after finishing with clients for a 8 mile run. My garmin did not pick up a satellite for the first mile or so and i feel the data is a bit skewed. I think i ran slower than indicated in the data. I was feeling really good for the first 5 miles then lost some energy toward the end. I ate about 4 hours before the run and didn't plan a snack and should have. Dank pure water on the run. The weather is beautiful, its 62 degrees or so and a ton of people are out for mid day lunch break in battery park. Was supposed to be 8 miles total but was more like 8.5. My warm up was nice and slow and the main set was 6.11 miles at 8:52 and hr 158bpm. My plan was 9:20 at 152bpm so i was a bit fast and worked a bit too hard, but not sure about the speed data as i said. cooled down for a mile and stretched.
Tuesday- no running, just short upper body weights session.
Wednesday- My run plan is an easy run of moderate 8 mile distance at 9:20 pace. After clients i had half a shake then left for my run. Warmed up 1 mile and then it's a 1 mile hill all the way to the park. I went clockwise to start to switch things up. Had no problem holding an easy pace, was actually a little fast but my legs are heavy. Particularly feeling my quads but felt recovered when i awoke today. Yesterday was no running and only a short set of upper body weights, but maybe i'm feeling the leg weights from Monday. Turned around at 4 miles and continued home. Did a 1/4 mile cool down. Main set was 7 miles at 9:09 and HR av was 156. Was planning on an indoor trainer session today as well but will put that off for tomorrow to follow an easy run. Partially due to time constraints but also because my legs are feeling so heavy.
Thursday- I have a few hours free in a block so will run, bike and weight train within about 4 hours.
I went for this 6 mile easy run with an empty stomach and really didn't need any fuel. It's much windier than I expected and feels cold. Should have dressed warmer. Started with 1 mile warm up to the bridge. My pace started fast for the 5.5 mile set and i slowed a bit on the incline up the bridge. It's really windy which made me want to go faster to get over the bridge and its drizzling a bit. Legs feel great today, breathing is good and I'm not going to worry about going too fast. Took the down side of the bridges slower to recover a bit. AV HR for the main set was 158 (a little bit high 155 was goal) and pace ws 8:54 (9:00 was my goal). After the run i had a single scoop shake. I had about a 30 minute break to set up the trainer and plan my ride.
Did a new program tha I call Level 1 seated climbing at sub threshold level. Warmed up for 15 min then went into the following set at HR goal 153-162bpm and 65-70rpm 8-6-4-2 min intervals with 2 min rest in between at easiest gear spinning 90rpm. I followed this with 8 min at 75rpm at a level equivalent to a long endurance ride. For the main set my HR ave was on target at an av of between 158 and 161 for each set. Cadence was a bit low though at 62-64 per set. Would like to do this again with less warm up and go through the cycle twice. Was fairly easy but if it was later in the day and I had more time allocated would have been good to do two sets of this. Broke down my bike, changed clothes and went to basement for my 30 minute legs and shoulder workout.
Friday- Today is almost just like yesterday, dreary, cold, and windy. I fasted 12 hours overnight and had half a shake before my run. Running 6 miles in my neighborhood. Mostly flat, but the headwind was pretty rough. Goal is to warm up 1/2 mile and then run the 5.5 miles at 9:00. Noticed when I go for these wandering runs through the neighborhood that i get really bored and seems like a much shorter run to go over the bridge and back. But i wanted to run flat and easy today. Need to come up with another flat easy short run. For the 5.5 miles i ran exactly a 9:00 but my HR was a little high at 161bpm. Walked for 5 min after my run, stretched, did 10 min of abdominals (been bad about that this week) and 10 min of yoga. Hope weather is better tomorrow for my 14 mile run.
Saturday- Lovely damp day for a long run. About 55 degrees out. Today instead of using my speed goal of 9:20mm i'm going to use HR. Over the last 2 long runs, one being hills and one being flat my ave pace has been 9:09. On the hilly run my hr av was 148 and on the flat 159. So today i'm going flat for 14 miles and setting hr average at 153bpm and watch my pace accordingly. First half had the wind against me much of the time. Average HR was 153 and pace 9mm. My water pack had want more energy in it and I had a gel and a bathroom stop around mile 7 and turned around. On the way back it was really easy to pick up the pace and averaged 8:39 whith 153 hr. This was a really encouraging run. My average speed for the main set of 12.26 miles ws 8:49 and HR 153. Think by time i get to the end of base training I may be able to increase my race pace goal. Time will tell.
Sunday- I'm on a roll. Two weeks in a row making it to team swim on Sunday morning. Missed the warm up for today's team swim. Started out with a bunch of sets of 200m. Spent the first 1/2 hour focusing on frestyle. Second 1/2 hour was more IM but i modified that and added some drills where butterfly would have fit in. Everyone was wearing fins in my lane except myself so had a hard time keeping up at times. Therefore if the group was doing backstroke but i was behind I would swim free style to catch up. Last 15 minutes was 25 meters which i would like to have been able to keep up on. Were supposed to be 25measy 40s then 25m hard 20s x16. Better goal for me would have been 45s, 25s. Did 2350 yards total today over the 1:15 min wokout.
Folowing the swim there was a long commute home. Snacked, and got ready for a short run. There were lots of stops on todays route and the garmin did not pause sometimes when i stopped, so average speed is actually a bit faster than what was indicated here. This is the first week of 6 days running, and this is the new 6th day. Felt good to run the day after my long run. Helped that it was 60 degrees out and i'm not swamped with other things to do today. Got in the swim early and by time done with run it was 1pm. Dont' want to put anymore time into working out so will skip my weight training today. For a short easy run my pace should be 9:00 and hr around 162. Today was 9:02 and HR 158. Like i said i know this run was faster than the data indicates so feel good about these numbers. Must say it wasn't an easy effort though. Since i ran to the bridge, half way over and back, there were some parts that took some effort. Note Max HR was 178.
Next week should be interesting. I really have 3 days of local running then i'm getting on a plane and going to FIji. Between the air travel time and the jet lag I'm not sure how my training is going to go for the next two weeks. The vacation focus is scuba diving, so will fit in my running where i can.