The Lone Workout of the Week

I wish I could say I was enjoying the down week, but work's been a bit crazy, I haven't been sleeping all that well, and I've managed to come down w/ a bit of a cold the past couple of days. 

On the positive side, the knee is feeling better and instead of slogging through a 1-2 hour session on the elliptical machine on Tuesday, I ran an easy 5-miler.  Ditto for Wednesday.  Today (Thursday) was my lone workout of the down week.  I have to get in at least one decent workout even in a week I'm resting up, just for my own sanity.  I've learned to enjoy most of my runs, even the very slow ones, but at the end of the day, there's only so many easy miles I can run w/o having something more up-tempo to look forward to.

Back to the track for some Threshold work - today's effort:  3k - 3-minute break - 2k.

Coach wanted the pace of the 3k a bit towards the back end of the Threshold range (about 6:00 pace) and then the 2k in the 5:50 range.  We've got some wind and rain on the way, but in the morning the weather was perfect for running:  58-degrees and overcast.  This set me up nicely for a good session.

I ran the 3k in 11:08 which is about 5:58 pace.  I figured the 2k might be a little quick in part due to the perfect weather conditions and that turned out to be correct.  2k - 7:01 (5:39 pace)  HR averaged 165 for the 2k and peaked out at 172 (about 92% of max)  A little on the fast side I guess for a down week workout, but I was definitely not as winded as I was after my 5:34 finishing mile last week (even though the HR in that mile topped out at a similar spot - 171)

A nice little workout.  I just received an email from coach stating that she was glad to see me go out a little aggressively on the 2k after the much easier 3k, so that was nice to hear.  However, she also mentioned that she chose this workout (3k/2k) to get me ready for next week's workout where I'm doing the dreaded 2-mile repeats again. Oh what fun.  

That thing I said about me really looking forward to the up-tempo stuff each week - scratch that for next week!!

Training:

Tue, 10/28:  Lifting (upper-B, abs)  stretching, rolling 

                  Easy 5-miler @ 7:19  HR-148

Wed, 10/29:  Easy 5-miler @ 7:04  HR-150

Thurs, 10/30:  5-miles, including 3k in 11:08 (5:58 pace), 3-min break, 2k in 7:01 (5:39 pace)