Running Lately, a Tempo and a Big Week

After my trail run on Labor Day I had the week of training all planned out. I would run easy on Tuesday and Wednesday to recover, do speed work on Thursday, run easy on Friday, take Saturday off, and then run a tempo run on Sunday. My Thursday speed work went terribly. I know in part because of factors I hadn't taken into account, but also because I wasn't fully recovered from the trail race. I wasn't sore in any of the places I'm sore after a road race, I was sore in stabilizer muscles like my ankles and up the side of my leg, muscles that kept me from falling and strained more as my feet landed on rocks and roots. It took me a considerably longer amount of time to recover from the race than what I had allotted. The night before my speed work as I was planning out when I would do the run, I knew I was still sore and would struggle. Ty suggested I run it with Elise in the single stroller while Carter was at school. At first I thought that would make a run that was already going to be a struggle even harder, but then I started thinking it might be a good thing because I wouldn't stress as much about my pace on repeats since I was running with the stroller. That was not the case, it just made it a lot harder. Add in the fact that I inadvertently chose a really hilly course and it was over 90 degrees since I was running later than normal and I honestly thought about walking during my cool down and even stretched my recovery between repeats on the way back from a tenth of a mile to a quarter mile because I was bombing that hard.

One of the hills we ran on during the trail race.

After such a terrible outcome on Thursday, I wasn't very optimistic going into my tempo run on Sunday. I had planned to run a mile warm up, 8 mile tempo, and a mile cool down. I went into the run with low expectations. I figured I'd run the warm up mile and then try to pick up the pace for the next mile. If it went okay I would continue on with the tempo, if it did not I would just run easy for the remainder of the run to get in a 10 mile long run. I had run a 7 mile tempo a couple weeks beforehand in 7:25 pace so I figured 7:30 pace was a realistic goal for an 8 mile tempo. I took off for the first mile of the tempo and 7:28 felt easy. I was afraid to pick up the pace because I didn't want to crash and burn during the second half of the run. I hit my 2nd mile of the tempo in 7:28 as well and I was surprised by how good I felt. I continued on with the tempo, slowly dipping a bit lower each mile until finishing strong with a 6:54 last mile. I finished with an average of 7:21 pace per mile. When I got home I looked back at my training from last year. I had run an 8 mile tempo run two weeks out from my goal half-marathon in November and finished it in an average of 7:17 pace. I was only 4 seconds per mile off that pace today with about two months of training until the half marathon. I feel pretty good about that!

Ty and I have been talking about my running goals and what I should be shooting for. I had originally planned to train decently hard this summer and fall and push to break 1:35 in our half in November. Then depending on how close to 1:30 I was, I'd adjust my winter and spring training to possibly shoot for a sub-1:30 in the spring. The more we talked about, the more we felt like why wait until spring? Why not just put the hammer down with my training now, go for broke, and see where it gets me. I know sub-1:30 is a super lofty goal since I was only able to run the last mile of my 8 mile tempo even close to the 6:50 pace I would need to do that. But I would like to get as close to my 1:31 PR as I can. Plus, there's no harm in putting in extra miles and training harder. It will only make me faster! I had hit 30 mile weeks in mid-August and then when we decided why not give this training cycle my all a couple weeks ago, I started slowly increasing my mileage a bit here and there. I hit my first 40 mile week in I'd guess about 7 years this past week! The last time I ran that many miles in a week was when I was training for a marathon. I don't know that I'll get too much over 40 miles, but I'd like to stay right around there for a while until I start my taper. I've hit a point with Elise where I'm getting a decent amount of sleep at night and I don't feel tired all the time. I feel like my body is capable of putting in more miles since I'm more rested and recovered. Right now feels like the right time. I have more flexibility in my schedule than I will as the kids get older and I go back to work. Early 30's feels like the time to really drop some PRs for me, so I'm going for it. I ran 7 miles on Monday, 6 miles on Tuesday, 3 miles on Wednesday, 8 miles on Thursday, 6 miles on Friday, and 10 miles on Saturday. It's also the first time since college I've run 6 days in a week. Although the mileage is much more than I've put in during the past few years, it was gradual and feels really manageable. I'm excited to see what I'm able to do in November! And actually, even before that with a 10k coming up in the beginning of October and a few 5ks later in October.

I love running with my cuties!