Miler Method (Week 3 of 7)

Week Beginning Thoughts:
I'll get around to complaining about the heat, I'm sure, but for right now... NO RAIN. YAY.

Also, I changed this from 6-week training to 7-week training since my event is a little bit later... I'll just repeat the last week. Or something.

Monday
Planned: strength 
Did: strength
Good lift today. Didn't have time for extensive PT at the end, but the rest was pretty solid.

Tuesday
Planned: hill repeats with 10kTuesday
10-20 min WU
8x45s  hills (60-100% effort)
10-15 min CD

Did: as-planned, 6.23 mi @ 9:03/mi avg
Ran this at work this morning and it was actually a pretty nice temperature and humidity level... thank goodness! Took an easy warm-up and went over to the pair of hills near USC Upstate. I ran 4x on one hill, then 4x on the other hill, both were of about a 5-6% grade. I forgot my heart rate strap so I don't know how hard I was pushing, but it felt pretty tough. Was about a minute per mile faster on the second half vs the first half of repeats... didn't think I was that much faster or slower but maybe there was enough of a different elevation gain that my Garmin didn't pick up but affected my pace. I dunno. But these were tough!

Wednesday
Planned: bike
Did: rest
Felt blah, got some kind of post-nasal drip. Decided on a rest day.

Thursday
Planned: tempo + intervals
10-20 min WU
10 min tempo/5 min rest
8x300m / 90s rest (goal mile pace)
10-15 min CD

Did: as-planned
omg this was hard to do during the heat of lunch hour, and my paces show it. I mean, they're OK but not as fast as what I was running last week in the early morning.

Tempo

Not bad on the tempo pace, felt like I was pushing but not too bad. Pretty happy with this result - solidly between a 5k and 10k pace.

300s

Oy, 300m feels SO FAR. I flubbed on the first one because I forgot I'd set a separate rest period segment on my workout program, in case I needed more time to get to a good flat spot on the road. So I took off on what I thought was my first 300, and kept running and running and running until I looked at my watch and it was still telling me to "recover" - oops! I hit the lap button then hit it again to end the first 300m interval. That's what happens when you forget what you programmed in your watch. :P

Got into a decent groove after that, though I wasn't very consistent on my splits (1:01-1:15)... I guess <15 seconds isn't all that big of a difference time-wise, but I could tell which ones I pushed on and which ones I kind of just let happen.

Friday
Planned: yoga
Did: yoga
Yay, yoga Friday.

Saturday
Planned: 8k Race + mountain bike ride
Did: Simpsonville Sunrise 8k + 8 mi mountain biking 

Details of the run in the race report here: Sunrise 8k

Got home in time to do a quick change, shovel some food in my face, then get picked up to head to Bent Creek for some mountain bike fun. It was a fun group, most of whom I didn't know but a couple I'd ridden with before or knew, and the rest were mutual friends. We had a nice, chill ride and climbed up to the top of Green's Lick then made it down the challenging descent. I was pretty happy with how I was climbing and was able to navigate the entire way down. Hooray!

Arriving at the bottom of Green's Lick

Climb of ~1,000'

We took a very leisurely pace but felt good to get out and ride!

Sunday
Planned: 10 mi easy
Did: 11.1 mi @ 9:22/mi 
Had a visit from fellow mother runner A, so we got this run done starting right after 6AM. Thank goodness because it was already sticky and gross at that time! We did most of the Green Valley route, then added a loop through Furman for a quick campus tour. It was great catching up and always wonderful to run together. :)

Yay!

Week-ending thoughts: Pretty happy with how all the workouts went this week, though not happy with whatever sickness this is... thankfully it seems to not be affecting my ability to workout effectively, though it is doing a bit to toy with my motivation. Eh, can't win 'em all. Solid week with close to 30 miles (28.3) - haven't had that high mileage in a while!