This has been a tough running week! I’ve had bigger mileage weeks in the past, but my legs have never felt like this before. They don’t feel injured, just completely exhausted. The “cumulative fatigue” from the Hansons Advanced Plan is in FULL EFFECT!!
I haven’t been able to post any this week, so I’m just going to focus on the SOS (Something of Substance) runs on Tuesday (Long), Thursday (Speed), and Saturday (Tempo).
Long – Tuesday
After an 8-mile easy run on Monday with Nathan and Brian, I met them again for my scheduled 14-mile “Long” run at the Edwin Warner Nature Center at 5am. I was expecting cooler temperatures with lower humidity on Tuesday morning, but it was still 77º with high humidity and dew point. There was a cold-front approaching, but it did not arrive until around 7:30am (bummer).
I decided to relax my Long run pace goals (8:05 to 8:25 per mile), since hitting this range consistently in high temps and humidity is just not feasible. I told Brian and Nathan that I really just wanted our overall average to be less than 9:30 per mile for the run.
From the very beginning of our run we kept encountering large swarms of GNATS!! I guess they were stirred up with the high humidity and approaching cold front. I was wearing a bright yellow singlet, and it was mostly black from the gnats by the end of the run. I also ended up with more than I like to think about in my mouth which is disgusting.
Anyway, we started off with a 6.25-mile loop in the park and then grabbed some fluids back at the cars. The heat and humidity were tough, but my legs felt fairly decent. Brian had to head out after the first loop, so Nathan and I did a 4-mile out-and-back into the surrounding neighborhood, and my legs continued to feel really good, and the pace continued to get quicker.
Nathan had to head out after the second loop, so I finished the final 3.75-miles solo, and ended up having the best splits of the day. Here’s an overview of the run:
This was a challenging run, but I’m pleased with how good my legs felt, especially at the end. Just as I was packing up the car to head home I could feel a cool breeze as the cold front was moving through. The high temp for Tuesday only ended up a couple of degrees higher than when we first started the run. Figures!
Speed – Thursday
After an easy 6-miler with Brian on Wednesday, I met the JSRC track group at 6pm at Vanderbilt on Thursday to complete my weekly “speed” workout. I did the week 7 “speed” workout prescribed in the Hansons Advanced Training Plan. This was 3 x 1600m with 600m recovery in-between each interval. This equates to 3-miles of intervals and just over 1-mile of recovery. Based on my goal marathon time of 3:15, the target splits for this workout are 6:30.
We caught a huge break with the weather Thursday night. The temps were around 80º though the humidity was still a touch high. This felt awesome compared with previous weeks. Hard to believe it could be 80º at 6pm on any night in July!
Overall this workout felt decent, though it took a LONG time for my legs to loosen up. They were still really sore after my Tuesday run, so I got to the track really early for some extra warmup miles. After my warmup and stride outs I still felt pretty tight during the first 1600m, but my legs really loosened up throughout the workout. Here’s a breakdown:
Warmup
- 3.58-miles easy
- 6 x 100m Stride Outs
Workout
- 1600m fresh (6:49) / 600m recovery
- 1600m fresh (6:44) / 600m recovery
- 1600m fresh (6:29) / 600m recovery
Cool Down
- .72-miles easy
So, all told I got in 9-miles of work. As you can see, each interval got progressively faster and I finally hit my target in the third one after loosening up a bit. I ran my cool down with my friend Paxton, and it was good to catch up for a bit.
Tempo – Saturday
After an off-day on Friday, Saturday was my sixth “tempo” run of the Hansons Advanced Plan, and final one at 7-miles before moving up to 8-miles next week. The objective was to complete 7-miles at goal marathon pace (7:26). Brian joined me for this workout at the Edwin Warner Park picnic area.
The temperatures were still very moderate, though it rained for most of this run. This was actually pretty refreshing at first, but did get to be a bit irritating after a while with my clothes suctioned to my body.
I knew this was going to be a challenge as my legs were crazy tired and tight. I decided to just take each interval as they came and not get too wrapped up in my split times.
After a 2.4-mile warmup with 4 stride outs, we hit the greenway for the “tempo” section. We decided to do a 2-mile out-and-back and then a 1.5-mile out-and-back so we could grab some fluid in the middle. Unfortunately I had to stop in the middle of mile 3 for a bio break (and messed up my watch). Here’s a breakdown…
- Mile 1 – 7:55
- Mile 2 – 7:46
- Mile 3 – 8:40 (messed up my watch when I stopped for a bio break)
- Mile 4 – 7:25
- Mile 5 – 7:35
- Mile 6 – 7:39
- Mile 7 – 7:46
Even with the warmup, it took a while for my legs to get loosened up. Once they were loose I felt pretty good during miles 4, 5, & 6. Mile 7 was a bit of a struggle, but I was happy to still keep it under 8:00 considering how tired my legs were. After a .84-mile cool down we got in 10-total-miles for the day, and it was a good workout.
After a 6-mile easy run this morning, I finished out week 8 with 53 total miles. This is my second consecutive 50+ mile week. Here’s a breakdown of the past 6 weeks on the Hansons plan:
This was a challenging week, but is very gratifying to be knocking out this type of mileage again. Big thanks to Brian and Nathan for helping me through many of these tough miles.
In addition to the runs, I also got in the following cross-training exercises this week:
Legs & Back (Thursday)
- Balance Lunge (25 each leg)
- Calf-Raise Squat (25 reps – 15 lb dumbbells)
- Reverse-Grip Chinup (10 reps)
- Super Skaters (25 each leg)
- Wall Squat w Ball (1 min 20 sec)
- Wide-Front Pull-Up (10 reps)
- Step-Back Lunge (15 each leg – 15 lb dumbbells)
- Deadlift Squats (20 each leg)
- Switch-Grip Pull-Ups (10 reps)
Chest (Friday)
- Standard Pushups (30 reps)
- Military Pushups (20 reps)
- Wide Pushups (40 reps)
- Decline Pushups (40 reps)
- Diamond Pushups (12 reps)
Total = 142 reps
Shoulders & Arms (Sunday)
- Alternating Shoulder Presses (12 reps each arm / 20 lb dumbbells)
- In & Out Bicep Curls (16 reps / 15 lb dumbbells)
- Two-Arm Tricep Kickback (15 reps / 15 lb dumbbells)
- Deep Swimmer Presses (8 reps / 25 lb dumbbells)
- Full Supination Curls (9 reps / 25 lb dumbbells)
- Chair Dips (20 reps)
- Upright Rows (8 reps / 25 lb dumbbells)
- Static Arm Curls (16 reps / 15 lb dumbbells)
- Flip-Grip Tricep Kickback (14 reps / 15 lb dumbbells)
- Seated Shoulder Flys (11 reps / 20 lb dumbbells)
- Single Arm Curls (10 each arm / 20 lb dumbbells)
- Lying Down Tricep Extensions (15 reps / 15 lb dumbbells)
Ab-Ripper X (Sunday)
- In & Out (20)
- Bicycle (20 each direction)
- Crunchy Frog (20)
- Wide Leg Sit-ups (20)
- Hip Rock & Raise (20)
- Pulse-Ups (20)
- V-Up Roll-Ups (20)
- Oblique V-Up (20 each side)
- Leg Climb (12 each leg)
- Mason Twist (50)
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Workout VINYL (Sunday): Led Zeppelin II by Led Zeppelin |
“I dare you to train for a marathon, and not have it change your life.”
-Susan Sidoriak