This week begins a more interesting part of training. This week I began formal speed work!
| Monday: | 10 miles easy |
| Tuesday: | 10 miles fast finish |
| Wednesday: | 12 400s average 87 |
| Thursday: | Rest |
| Friday: | 10 miles easy |
| Saturday: | Run for the Hill of it Trail 5m (34:40) |
| Sunday: | 14 miles with my coworker |
| Total: | 67 miles |
Thoughts:
On Monday and Tuesday I ran similar runs. I kept my base miles easy. On Tuesday I finished with a “fast finish”. On my personal “fast finish” runs, I like to end with the last mile about 1 minute faster than the overall pace. It keeps the run more interesting and focusing on the important aspect of the race!
On Wednesday I went to the track for the first time in a very long time. My track workout experience is limited. In all honesty it’s almost nonexistent. I’ve only been to the track 5 times for workouts during my entire running experience. When I was doing formal speed work, I choose tempos.
My body is now able (knock on wood) to handle 2 days of speed right now so I opted for a track workout.
I did 12X400s with 1 minute standing rest in between. My average was 87 seconds for each, which ends up being 5:45 pace.
I was pleasantly surprised with this workout. I was more surprised that I enjoyed it a lot! I’m glad I am getting out of comfort zone and doing speed work.
On Thursday I needed rest. Thursdays have become my tradition to walk to a local coffee shop during my run time. I enjoy chatting with the barista and just relaxing. The last two Thursdays have been nice to do that but if it gets too hot then I’ll drive. 😉
On Saturday I ran the “Run for the Hill of it” trail race in Philadelphia. It was a lot harder course than anticipated but I had a great time with Kara! Plus I found the Wissahickon state park and I will definitely be back for trail and hill training!
On Sunday I ran 14.5 miles with my coworker and friend who is training for the Chicago marathon. I have been enjoying running with others because it makes the miles fly.
Next week:
I’m honestly not sure my plans. I might do a 5k in Super South NJ. I know I’m super south but there is about 40 miles south of me…who knew?! I also plan to do another speed workout.
Questions for you:
Do you like the track or tempo workouts?
The only time I run on a track is when I’m already at the gym and I’m doing sprints as part of a larger workout. Otherwise I’m mostly outside.
Your training week recaps are so inspiring to me. That is such an impressive week of training in terms of mileage, racing, and speed work! The trifecta!
I do like track workouts! I feel like I get more bang for my buck doing those. My struggle is that I do long distance, and when training for a 50 miler…. track is not exaaactly what i’m looking for. But I do it sometimes, because it’s nice to have a different type of running. I also just kind of switched out track workouts for soccer, bc it was very similar… hahah
ps I LOVE the brown hair being back. It fits you!
I went to my local running track this week, for the first time in my adult life.. I haven’t been on one since my schooldays when I was sixteen. It’s not a full lap at my local one, so I just used it to do some running drills and stretches on. Still, I was on a running track in my running gear..
That Run For The Hill of it sounds tough, I’m looking forward to the race review 🙂
That 5 mile trail run was very challenging, but so much fun! Really glad I got to meet up with you! Let me know if you run anymore trails in that area. I need more tempo runs in my next week’s of training!
Me too, I had such a great time! When are you leaving for Maine? I’ll let you know!
Looks like you had an awesome running week! Bright shoes are better for the track as they obviously make you faster. Or at least feel faster! I prefer tempo runs to track runs. I’m planning on hitting up track on Tuesday for some speed work. We’ll see if I make it through….
Good luck Meghan! Let me know how your track workout goes! 🙂
Awesome week, Hollie! Love that you are finding the joy in running again.
I used to do speed workouts on the track as part of my training, but haven’t done them in quite a while. I am the reverse of you…I now do tempo runs or fartleks.
I love going to the track, but I also have a group that I go with each week and that is what I love about it- just doing a group run with the same awesome people. It’s really hard for me to do interval speedwork on a track alone (I can do fartlek or tempo on my own).
It sounds like you had a great 400s workout and a great race even if the race was super tough and hilly.
Glad you got some track time in! You are already so fast so I can only imagine what the speed work will do for you! I ran track in high school so I have always loved it.. 400 repeats are my favorite!
I didn’t know about that Philly trail race – I need to keep my eye on the Philly race scene. Pretty close for me! Great job this week – loving hearing about those sick 400s! I can’t wait for some real track workouts and the 60+ mile weeks in my schedule. My body isn’t quite there yet, but it’s definitely getting there. Great job!!
I prefer doing track, even for tempo workouts. Because GPS is always going to give you a pace of 5 to 10 seconds faster than what you actually are. So I prefer the accuracy of the track to avoid any rude reality checks on race day.
Woohoo for #FireOnTheTrack! In a strange way, I don’t totally hate 400s. Sure, there is usually a ton of pain, but it’s over relatively quickly. 🙂