10k Plan Week 5

It was in the mid-40s Sunday afternoon so I went outside for my 9-miler. Going out was fine but after turning around the wind picked up and made things quite difficult. Thankfully the sun was in front of me and still strong so I was warm... but I was soon pretty well bonked out. What took less than 40 minutes out took around 45 back. Maybe going out at 2:30 after only eating a crumb bun at 9 am was a bad idea.

Monday my plan was to do just a 30-minute recovery run on the treadmill but I felt so good I ended up doing a 45-minute "recovery run" on the treadmill.

Tuesday I actually got up out of bed and ran before work (quite a milestone, actually). Did a 45-minute progression run ending with 5 minutes at 7.3 (8:13). The run felt great but by the time I got to work my left hip flexor was extremely tight and sore. Lot's of ice and some very light stretching before bed.

Wednesday it was much better but still a bit sore and a bit tight. More ice and light stretching before bed.

Thursday felt pretty good. Got in a 30-minute 4-mile tempo run mostly at 8.2 (7:19). Hip flexor felt fine. But later my right inner shin had some shin splint like soreness. More ice and light stretching.

So that's 24 for the week... the most since I also did 24 the week prior to my 5k in November.

After 2 days of rest (and hopefully no sore spots) next week looks like this...

Sunday: 10 Long (first ever 10-miler)
Monday: 4 Recovery
Tuesday: 5 Easy/Progression
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: 5 including 4x800 intervals @ 3:16
Friday: 3 Recovery
Saturday: Rest

Total: 27 miles

VDOT 47.0

Completed a Cooper Test (12-minute run) on the treadmill at 9.2 mph and 1% incline covering 1.84 miles. That works out to a VDOT of 47.0. Next month's goal is to run 6:00 for a mile on February 26th at the NYRR Thursday Night at the Races at the Armory in New York.

Boring Update

Since getting back into things after being sick for 4 days I've had some really good runs. On my easy runs my HR has been much lower then even just a week ago and I had a nice tempo run on the treadmill yesterday: 3 miles at 7:24 pace.

First 3 Weeks of 10K Plan

The first 2 weeks were pretty solid, including my first interval workout in I don't know how long (10 years, at least). Everything was on the treadmill as it's been like 5 degrees out some days. We were in Florida for a brief vacation so I was able to start week 3 with my first 9-miler (ever!) in a nice 64 degree morning breeze around Boca Raton. The pace was negative the whole way and almost like a progression run ending at around 8:15 or so at the end. Got in an easy 5 the next day and then got sick. I always get sick during or soon after traveling so I'm going with that hypothesis (rather than over-training -- which I don't think was the case). That put me on the shelf for 4 days until a got in an easy 5 on Saturday to end the week at 19 miles. It was supposed to be 24 -- I missed the tempo run on Thursday -- but since this coming week is a down week I'll put the tempo run in this week.

December Recap

With a planned week off after my November 5k my weekly milage for the last week of November through December was 12, 17, 3 (caught the flu for a few days), 17, 15, 17. I'm going to start a 16-week 10k training plan with a Sunday long run tomorrow. I'm not really ready for racing indoors so I think I'm back to a 2-season year -- at least for this go 'round. I plan to run a mile at the last Thursday Night at the Races at the Armory in late February. Likely in heat 10-of-ten or something as I'll probably be lucky to break 6 minutes.

Indoor Season Kickoff

I had originally planned on doing 2 24-week "seasons" per year (straight out of Daniel) but I now plan on 3 "seasons" per year: a July-Nov fall season, a Dec-Feb winter/indoor season, and a March-June spring season. After taking a week off after my mod-Nov 5k I did an easy 50% week (12 miles over 4 sessions) and I'm now in the midst of an easy 75% week. I started with one hour on the treadmill Sunday (6.7 miles) and a 20-minute treadmill recovery jog on Monday. Tuesday I had planned on an easy 4 miles on the treadmill but my pulse was way too high so I cut it back to another 20-minute recovery jog. A lot of coughing going on at home so maybe I'm on the verge of something. I'll likely skip running the next two days and try for an easy 4-miler again on Friday.

McMillan Running Dot Com

Lot's of good info and an interesting calculator at www.mcmillanrunning.com. I like the ranges given for the various paces and the "equivalent" times for various race distances seem more realistic then Daniel's.