Pulling it out

Training Summary
Jan 7-13
7 runs
69 miles
17 mile long run

This week was a solid week of training. I started the week feeling slightly off, and wondered if I was coming down with some nasty bug. Luckily that passed, but I still wasn't right, even through Wednesday.

My main workout was scheduled for Wednesday: 10 x 800m with 2 min jog recovery. I have no idea what happened that day with my schedule. I intended to get out in the late afternoon and get after it. Late afternoon turned into a 5:20 pm start. I got to my starting point for my repeats after a 3 mile warm up. I looked down at my watch and realized there was no way I would finish the workout by the time I needed in order to get to band practice. Crap. How did that happen? I had no choice but to postpone the workout and run back home.

This scheduling mistake was actually a blessing in disguise. I really struggled on my run home that night. I mean, I could barely move my feet to keep running. I really have no idea what was going on that night, and I will admit I was worried about my prospects for trying to get the workout done in the morning.

Nonetheless, I woke early and went out into the cold dark morning to try out some half mile repeats. I actually felt really good and was able to knock them out smoothly. I was to keep them between 3:00 and 3:05 and I averaged 3:01.

The next day, my schedule got all jacked up trying to troubleshoot and fix my internet connection at home. I have a home office now and am my own IT person. This frustrated me to no end, but I finally got it all working. This didn't happen until 8:00 pm, and I still needed to run. Believe me, the last thing I wanted to do was lace up my shoes and get in an 8-miler.  I thought about how much I wanted to be consistent with my training. I also thought about having to explain to you and Coach Hadley why I had decided to miss a day. If I want to achieve big things with my running, I have to be willing to run at 8:00 pm some days and 5:00 am others. It's unacceptable to miss a day (unless I have a legit reason, of course).

On Saturday, I had the pleasure of running with a group of folks that I hadn't run with in a long, long time. We had all gone to a memorial service for our dear friend Phil Barnett. Phil was an amazing person and athlete. He had lost his leg in a car accident later in life (got hit by a drunk driver), but never let that keep him from chasing his dreams. One of my favorite memories of Phil was going to watch him compete in his first triathlon. I had the great honor of running him in to his finish in that race and my heart was so full at that moment watching him achieve what most people would have never considered, even with two healthy legs. Did I mention he was in his 60s when he did this?

Our group ran together that evening and then decided we would make this an annual event. So, Sunday, January 12th 2014 will be the second annual Phil Barnett memorial run from Old Fair Oaks, CA. I hope we can expand the group next year!

Finally, I wrapped up the week with another fantastic long run. This was meant to be a 16 miler with 4 x 1 mile @ marathon pace in the middle with 1 minute jog recovery between repeats. Coach Hadley prescribed 6:30 as my marathon pace for this run. I thought I'd focus on marathon effort rather than try to lock in a pace and this worked out rather well for me. I ended up with 17 miles total for the run and my mile splits were 6:23, 6:18, 6:13, 6:16 for the workout portion.

You may notice that I backed off the strength training this week. I actually read an article this week, thanks to Runners Feed for posting, about Kara Goucher's (old) strength training as prescribed by Salazar. In this article, he suggested taking every 5th week off from strength training. Coach Hadley agreed with this principle, so I'll plan to make it a new training rule.

Next week, I start ramping the strength training up by adding some weight to some of the exercises, and I hold my mileage steady in the 70s.