Week 6 Quality Workouts

Q1- Sunday long run with Justin, Rusty and Mark. It started out awful as we got another snow storm last night. During the preceeding week I had hopes of taking this out to W. Unity and doing my first trip out there of 2011. However, based on the conditions that wasn't to be. As a result, I kept it to River Road and ran the 20+ mile route that has now become a staple of this training cycle. Rusty, Justin and I hung together for 7 miles when Rusty peeled off and went back to the house via Calavant Hill Road. Mark did an out-and-back 10 miler. Justin and I continued on and he finished up when we got back to the school. He helped out over the next several miles, then peeled off to get ready for breakfast. When I was in the neighborhood of 16 miles I really felt the effects of running through the snow, as it zapped a lot of the energy from my legs. Whatever, I finished. I was freezing cold, wet and starving when I finally got home, but our wives had prepared a wonderful feast for us. A fine end to a difficult run.

Q2- Wednesday interval session. Thank God this is my last I pace workout of this cycle. Not only is it the last one, but it was the hardest. Justin and I headed out to Syd Clarke Drive and banged some 1200s out there. This was insanely hard. Unfortunately, I didn't feel like I had a lot of snap today and trying to run over hills at Interval effort is just demoralizing. I hit my splits in 4:26, 4:32, 4:36, 4:37, 4:38. I closed it out with a hard 400 in 78 seconds. My legs felt like logs. This loop has about 165 feet of elevation gain over the last 800m. Once you get to the 400m mark you run uphill without any break until the finish line. I routinely hit the 400 between 82 and 83 seconds (perfect I pace), but the last 1/2 mile just killed me every single time. When you get to the 800m mark you make a 90 degree corner and continue the climb. That corner also seemed to break my rhythm and it forced me to try and get it back while climbing and staring up a 400m hill. It was just plain brutal! Happy birthday Justin!

Q3- Friday tempo workout. On the treadmill once again because it was way too cold to do this outside. The standard 3 mile warm-up with strides preceeded the hard running. The repeats were 3 miles, 2 miles, 1 mile. The recovery was 3:00 and 2:00, respectively. I did the 3-mile repeat in 17:48 (5:56 pc), and followed that with a 3:00 recovery jog which was about 0.4 miles long. I then did the 2-mile repeat in 11:48 (5:56,5:52), and followed that with a 1/4 mile recovery jog. The final mile I did in 5:52. My legs were heavy and I couldn't see the benefit of cranking out anything faster than that. The difference in time would have been negligible, but the difference in effort would have been exponential. I am very pleased with this. I felt awesome through the first 4-miles of hard running, and then I started feeling the lactic acid burn. I was very happy with the workout overall.