Miler Method (Week 6 of 7)

Week Beginning Thoughts: Uh, maybe this will be a normal week? idk.

Monday
Planned: strength
Did: strength

Felt good today, though a little bored of my routine (again). Deadlifts are feeling easy, so I'll up the weight next time. I want to get more core work in, but I'm still cautious about what to do / what to avoid so as to not undo all the hard work I've put in to "fix" my abs. Maybe I'll try some things next week. I also feel like I want some specific goals to work towards... generally "get stronger / prevent injuries" isn't quite motivating me lately.

Tuesday
Planned: #10kTuesday... with tempo/intervals?
Did: 6.94 mi @ 8:03/mi avg
Yeah, we'll call this a tempo run. Met up with the early downtown crew to run the RU7 route. I thought I might be trotting along with the slower crowd, but ended up hanging with one of the faster guys and chatting for a while... I didn't think I could keep up, but managed to hang on and clocked a 7:14 for mile #5! 0_0 Whew. That was a tough one but felt so good to run fast.

Wednesday
Planned: bike
Did: 15.9 mi @ 16.4 mph
HOT BIKE RIDE. Yup, it's summer. Still, was surprised how well I was able to keep up with Scott & Donnie today, who easily will hit 18-20 mph averages on their lunch rides. Legs are sore from lifting Monday + yesterday's hard run efforts, but felt good to pedal!

Lunch ride

Thursday
Planned: tempo + intervals
10-20 min WU
10 min tempo / 5-10 min rest
4x400 mile pace / 90s rest
10-15 min CD

Did: as planned, 4.81 mi total

I ended up doing this workout at the end of the workday after I got home. I hated to do it at that time, but needed to know what to expect since my "event" is going to be around this time of day & this level of heat.

tl;dr, I'm not overly hopeful of breaking 6 minutes. This is my lowest-energy time of day, I'm usually hungry for dinner by 5:30pm when I get home, and plus it's now the hottest part of the day.

Anyway, I felt alright during the warmup, and even the tempo felt decent though it wasn't all that fast (7:37/mi). I guess that's a sub-10k pace, so not awful, but not as close to 5k (7:00/mi) as I'd like to be.

I walked a lot of the rest period before the 400s, and I even stopped my watch so I could make it to the top of a big hill before starting my repeats. The repeats were flat-ish but did have some slow grades in both directions (I went back and forth along this one stretch of road, which kind of dips in the middle, so I finish on an UP both ways).

400s: 1:30, 1:35, 1:31, 1:38

Ugh. Only one even AT the 6:00/mi, the rest above. Oh well... adjusting expectations is a good thing. And I'm glad to have done this run to know that IT WILL FEEL CRAPPY to run at these paces in this heat at this time of day.

Friday
Planned: yoga
Did: rest

Saturday
Planned: bike or long run
Did: 11.6-ish miles @ 10:something pace avg?
Yeah, I stopped at one point mid-run and forgot to restart my watch, so my true distance & time is a little questionable. I ran from my house over to Furman (2.4 mi) to meet up with Megan, Robin, and Dale for some miles together. Clocked a 8:21 mile for the second mile on the way over, so that was nice to get the heartrate pumping.
Ran together as a group for 30 mins and then Megan & I continued for a few more miles (about 4 total with just Megan, I think). All of these were nice and steady around a 10:00/mi pace.
Parted ways and headed back home, but did not pick up the pace significantly. Apparently missing a long run for several weeks makes it difficult to just pick back up where you left off! Still, was happy with a solid double-digit run in the awful heat.

Sunday
Planned: bike or long run
Did: 26.8 mi road bike ride @ 16.2 mph avg 
Originally planned a mountain bike ride, but for some reason really felt like getting in some road miles. So, after lunch I pedaled out from the house unsure of my plan. There's a nice 15-mile loop that I sometimes do, so I started out on that route, but once I got to the turn-around point, I decided I wasn't ready to be "on my way home" yet, so I continued on a longer version that takes me out through a really pretty cow farm. It felt so nice to just be out riding!

Just me, two wheels, and some country roads.

I could have done more, but was happy with the ride and also surprised at my speed given the fact that I haven't ridden much more than 15 miles at a time in recent months.

Week-ending thoughts:
Not much focus on the actual mile training plan this week, but still felt like a good week where I put in some solid miles and just enjoyed running and biking.