Miler Method (Week 2 of 6)

Week beginning thoughts:
Seriously...AGAIN?? 😭

Monday
Planned: rest
Did: rest
A full weekend and a solo-mom week ahead (well, 2.5 days) and rain rain rain made for a rest day. We did get a brief family walk around the neighborhood and I eeked out my 10k steps for the day. Just a few more days to close out the May steps challenge at work! So far the streak is good!

Tuesday
Planned: hill repeats during 10kTuesday
15-20 min WU
4x 30s + 4x 45s hills (60-90% effort, gradual build on each repeat)
10-15 min CD

Did: as planned
Predicted thunderstorms all day = early morning neighborhood hill repeats for #10kTuesday (67th consecutive week).

Lights on for safety.

Got sprinkled on a bit, but nothing too significant. Really really loved getting this done before sunrise!
I used the "workout" feature of my watch for the first time... I programmed the workout times into my watch, so it could tell me when my warm-up was done, when my 30 and 45-second intervals were up, etc. I wasn't sure how it would go since I'd never used it before (or if it would even work correctly) but it went well! Plus, this was a nice feature when I was done:

My watch is proud of me.

I used one of the steepest hills in the neighborhood for these repeats, but I'll need to find a different one because I ended up running out of hill on some of the harder 45s repeats.

Just look at that progression!

I had the "gradual progression of effort" in the back of my head during the repeats but didn't really focus on it too much... seems like my body took over and knew exactly what to do, though! Felt good to push, though I know I could have gone harder. The hill grade was somewhere around 7-9%, depending on which "elevation gain" measurement I use to calculate. Will be interesting to "test out" different hills in the 'hood and see which ones work well for different workouts!


Wednesday
Planned: strength
Did: strength
I needed a change from my normal routine, so I did a "12 Days of Xmas" workout... starts with 1 rep on Day 1, then 2 reps of Day 2 + 1 rep of Day 1, then 3 reps Day 3 + 2 reps Day 2 + 1 rep Day 1, etc... all the way through Day 12.

Happy Holidays?

This workout is deceivingly tough... you get through the first 5 or 6 days pretty quickly and start thinking, "hmmm, there aren't enough reps for this to be challenging..." and then you get to day 9 or 10 and are begging for MERCY. My form got a little sloppy towards the 11th and 12th Days, especially on the Day 3 (Arnold + overhead press) and Day 5 (25# dumbbell curls). I also couldn't do anymore unweighted pull-ups, so I would start at the top, let myself halfway down and hold, then slowly let myself down the rest of the way.

Thursday
Planned: tempo + intervals
10-20 min WU
10 min tempo / 5 min rest
4x200m / 2 min rest, 4x300m / 2 min rest (goal mile pace)
10-15 min cooldown

Did: as planned
Got this workout done as soon as I arrived at work, and had it all programmed into my Garmin once more. I really like this feature - crazy it took me this long to use it! Though I suppose I haven't done this "structured" of a workout before, either.

Pace vs Heartrate - whee!

I did my easy warm-up and almost forgot that I had to do a tempo because I was so focused on the intervals... so I was on my way out to the flat-ish area on the frontage road when I went "oh wait, I have to do 10-min tempo" so I turned around to allow for more distance. The tempo was tough... I wasn't sure how hard to push, so I felt like I might have been pushing too hard, but couldn't tell if it was just due to my legs being sore from lifting yesterday or maybe not being quite warmed up enough. I didn't feel "ready" to push hard when my watch buzzed to start the tempo, but I felt OK once I got my legs moving.

Niiiiiice.

Amazingly enough, I nailed the almost-5K-PR pace goal for this. YES! No wonder it felt hard.

Next was the 5-minute "rest" i.e. walk as I made my way towards the frontage road for my interval repeats. It felt weird to walk during a workout... I was like "I SHOULD BE WORKING HARDER". But... I've learned to "trust your training" and follow what it says to get the desired results.

Flat-ish.

Thoughts: 200s felt hard but do-able and they were "done" in a reasonable amount of time before I felt too exhausted. I told myself "go 90%" and then went all-out sprint on the last one. The 300s were tough. They felt longer than I thought they should have been, and I felt like my form & quickness / turnover cadence was sluggish on the 3rd and 4th ones.

Well then.

Turns out I just went WAY too fast on everything. Oopsies? I guess I need to get a better "feel" for what a goal mile pace feels like (targeting right around a 6:00, hopefully under for the actual race). I guess that explains why I felt like this at the end.

Schweddy.

Anyway, definitely happy with the results of this run and pretty excited to see how I can improve in the coming weeks! Also, I think I must tense my arms oddly when I sprint because my right elbow always hurts after intervals... weird.

Friday
Planned: yoga
Did: yoga
This was needed. SO sore from Wednesday and probably Thursday.

Saturday
Planned: long run + 15-min tempo
Did: 7.17 mi @ 9:18/mi avg
Didn't do the tempo today, just a steady-state "long" run (7 miles isn't that long, but it's all I had time for). I ran through Green Valley so got some nice hills, and felt nice to get out in the morning on a weekend and just... run.

Sunday
Planned: bike ride
Did: 16.4 mi @ 14.8 mph avg
Thought about getting up to do my tempo before bike ride, but apparently my body decided it needed 9+ hours of sleep, so there's that. Got out on the bike and enjoyed a hilly ride through the country roads. Legs were definitely tired from this week's efforts, so it felt good to spin them out a bit. The hills were challenging, but doable. Met a few dogs who were curious but friendly.

Week-ending thoughts:
Didn't get everything done, but got the most challenging / critical workouts in which is good. I'm excited to see how this mile will go at the end of the training cycle!