Week 2 - Quality Workouts

Q1- (Sunday) I ran my first 20 miler of the cycle this morning by going out River Road and putting on a couple big add-ons. Rusty joined me for the first 9 miles then broke off and went his own way back to the vehicle that we staged. We ran the first 9 at 7:30 pace, then I dropped the pace for the next 10 miles to 7:00 pace, and pushed the final mile down to goal marathon pace at 6:19. It was a really good run and I felt great the whole time. I am pleased that I was able to rip off a quicker mile towards the end. I wanted to hit marathon pace (6:25ish), but I was a touch fast. Overall, I came in at 7:11 pace but it was negative split. It was closed out by a hardy breakfast prepared by our wonderful wives.

Q2- (Wednesday) I did a 40:00 progressive tempo run this morning. I started with a three-mile warm-up in which I hit 4 x 30s strides @ 5:00 pc. during the final mile. Once I hit the three-mile mark I dropped down to 6:15 pace. I ran that for the first mile, then went 6:11 for the next. After two miles at T pace I dropped it to 6:07 pace and held it there for three more miles. Once I hit 5 miles of T pace running I dropped it again to 6:03 pace. When I hit 6 miles of Tempo running I dropped the pace to 6:00 for the final few minutes. I ended up running 6.55 miles in 40:00, which represents a 6:06 overall pace. It felt really good and I know that I could have shaved more time off that. 12 miles total in 80:00. I checked my running log from 2010 and found that one year ago tomorrow I did a 20:00 tempo run at 6:27 pace. Boy how things have changed!

Q3- (Friday) I did a similar workout to last Tuesday's, but I did one less rep today. I was planning on doing this in the middle of a 12-miler on the roads but it was -15 degrees when I got up, once again forcing me downstairs to the treadmill. Anyway, I did a three-mile warm-up in which I hit 4 x 30s strides at 5:00 pace during the final mile. Once I started the workout I did 5 sets of 4:00 hard/3:00 easy. The hard reps I did progressively harder, and the easy jogs were all at 7:30 pace. This is how it looked:

Rep 1 - 5:49 pc. for 0.686 miles
Rep 2 - 5:42 pc. for 0.696 miles
Rep 3 - 5:36 pc. for 0.713 miles
Rep 4 - 5:30 pc. for 0.727 miles
Rep 5 - 5:27 pc. for 0.733 miles

Total distance of quality running was approximately 3.55 miles in 20:00, which is an average pace of 5:37 min/mi. 10 miles total on the morning with warm-up and cool-down.

Week of 1/30/11 - 2/5/11

30- 20 miles (9 miles w/Rusty, 11 miles solo) (7:11 pc)
31- AM 6 miles (7:16 pc) / PM 4 miles (7:19 pc)
1- AM 8.5 miles w/Montgomery (7:22 pc) / 6.5 miles w/strides (7:05 pc)
2- 12 miles w/middle 40:00 at 6:06 pc.
3- AM 8 miles (7:19 pc) / 6 miles w/strides (7:03 pc)
4- AM 10 miles w/fartlek workout / PM 4 miles (7:01 pc)
5- 8 miles w/Montgomery (7:10 pc)

Total- 93 miles

1/25/2011 Q2 workout

Workout: 6 sets of 4:00 "hard" with 3:00 recovery jogs between. "Hard" was defined subjectively with no real target paces. I hit the tredmill for the workout because of cold temperatures outside. I started with a 3-mile warm-up in which I hit 4 strides of 30 seconds at 5:00 pace during the last mile. Each stride was followed by 90 seconds of easy running at 7:30 pace. When the workout started I hit the following splits:

Set 1- 5:52 pc/7:30 pc
Set 2- 5:46 pc/7:30 pc
Set 3- 5:39 pc/7:30 pc
Set 4- 5:36 pc/7:30 pc
Set 5- 5:33 pc/7:30 pc
Set 6- 5:27 pc/7:30 pc

Overview: It was a good workout. Not overly challenging, but certainly enough to make me know that I worked hard. I found that the strides before the workout really got me loose. The first three sets felt incredibly easy. Sets 4 and 5 were a bit tougher, and I dug in for set 6 and ran pretty strong. I shook everything loose with about 3 more easy miles to cool-down. A good first week of quality running is now in the books. Now, just adding some easy miles until Sunday's first 20-miler.

Week of 1/23/11 - 1/29/11

23- 17.5 miles w/Montgomery (6:55 pc)
24- AM 8 miles w/strides (7:11 pc) / PM 6 miles (7:19 pc)
25- 12 miles w/fartlek workout (6:41 pc o/a)
26- 10 miles (7:02 pc)
27- AM 8 miles w/Montgomery (7:17 pc) / PM 6 miles (7:18 pc)
28- AM 12 miles (7:12 pc) / PM 5 miles w/Rusty (7:24 pc)
29- 7 miles (7:28 pc)

Total- 91.5 miles

Week of 1/16/11 - 1/22/11

16- 17.5 miles w/Montgomery (7:11 pc)
17- 9 miles (7:15 pc) w/strides
18- AM 11 mile progression run (6:38 o/a pc) / PM 5 miles (7:19 pc)
19- 8 miles (7:19 pc)
20- AM 5 miles (7:19 pc) / PM 8 miles w/ 5 miles at Tempo Pace
21- 9 miles w/strides (7:11 pc)
22- 7.5 miles w/Montgomery (7:05 pc)

Total- 80 miles

Week of 1/9/11 - 1/15/11

9- 0 (sick)
10- AM 8 miles (7:20 pc) / PM 6 miles (6:32 pc)
11- AM 10 miles (7:20 pc) / PM 6 miles (7:15 pc)
12- 11 miles w/progression run (6:47 o/a pc)
13- AM 9 miles (7:16 pc) / PM 7 miles (7:04 pc)
14- AM 10 miles (7:18 pc) / PM 4 miles (7:06 pc)
15- 12 miles w/Montgomery (6:51 pc)

Total- 83 miles

Week of 1/2/11 - 1/8/11

2- AM 15.5 miles w/Montgomery (6:53 pc) / PM 5.5 miles (7:05 pc)
3- AM 8 miles (7:30 pc) / PM 6 miles (7:00 pc)
4- 12 miles (7:11 pc)
5- AM 10 miles w/Montgomery (7:06 pc) / PM 6 miles w/strides (6:48 pc)
6- 10 miles (7:12 pc)
7- AM 7 miles (6:50 pc) / PM 9.5 miles w/strides (7:03 pc)
8- 11 miles w/Montgomery (7:26 pc...snow)

Total- 100.5 miles!!!