A Bit Out of Reach

JT had a very tough workout slated for early this week and she wanted me to take an extra easy day beforehand which would have pushed the w/o to Wednesday.  Unfortunately, I have my CMT appt scheduled for Wednesday morning, and I was unable to change it.  With the quad perhaps still a mild concern, and the left hip flaring up I really didn't want to cancel, so that meant I'd have to do the session today.  

With that being the case, we switched up the session giving me one that would be less demanding:

2 x 200m:  31-32

5 x 400m:  68 (90-second rests)

4-minutes break

3 x 400m:  66 (90-second rests)

3-minutes break

2 x 200m: 31-32

Yeah, that's the 'easy' one - the other one was a real beast!  I knew looking at this, that I was probably in trouble.  Two weeks ago I did 8 x 400m at about 70 w/ 2-min rests.  Today I was cutting 2+ seconds/lap, cutting 30-seconds off the rest, AND it was 25+ degrees warmer today.  (not a great combination)  I decided to give it my best shot and see how it went.

The highlight of the session was the opening 200s.  Being careful to baby the quad, I ramped the pace up very slowly for the first 30 yards or so, got up to a halfway decent pace by the 100m mark, picked it up a little for the next 70 meters and then eased up towards the finish.  Nice and smooth, never pushed it - 28.6  Did the same on #2 - 28.6  I was fully expecting to see 30-31s w/ that effort, so to see 28s was a pleasant surprise.

However, the rest of the w/o didn't go quite so smoothly!  The good news was that the hip and quad gave me ZERO issues (probably all that digging into the hips w/ the tennis ball yesterday to alleviate the stiffness) But damn - my glutes were SORE!

The first couple quarters were fine, but the short rest started catching up to me after #3.  Times were:

69-67-68-68-69  (the last one was tough)

By now I was feeling pretty dead.  How the hell was I going to do a second set at 66 w/ the same 90-second rests??  Answer - I wasn't.  I took an extra minute between sets, but I was still feeling pretty awful.  I gave it a go, but after an opening 32-second 200 the wheels started to come off and I finished w/ a 68.  Now in fairness, I was not gunning these things - if I was going to do that, there'd have been no point in going away from the original workout.  This was supposed to be a more 'relaxed' session.  But no matter how you sliced it, I was pretty dead at this point.  I imagine I could have toughed it out and thew a 69 up there, gone right to the 3-minute rest (dropping the last rep) and done a couple of token 200s to close the session, but I got everything I wanted out of this one . . . . I was healthy!  Exhausted, sore, hot (it was about 85 degrees), but healthy.

Later I headed over to the gym to get in my primary leg lifting session for the week.  I'll have to talk to coach to see what she thinks about this session.  Clearly I wasn't able to do what she thought I could do.  Was it the soreness, the temperature, or just a slight overreach for my current capabilities?  Perhaps a combination of all of them.  For some reason, I'm not overly disappointed w/ the session - although I didn't hit the goal, I'm pretty sure I gave what I had out there today.  

The most important thing now is to have that appt w/ the CMT, make sure I'm healthy, get some rest, (a few VERY easy runs over the next couple of days) and get ready to really start hitting it.  I've got to start the serious speed work ASAP - the season is little more than 2-months away!!

Training:

Mon, 4/20:  Off  (stretching, rolling)

Tues, 4/21:  2x200 (28.6, 28.6), 5x400 (69,67,68,68,69), 5-minutes, 1x400 (68)  90-seconds between reps

PM - lifting on legs, stretching, rolling

On to the Tough Stuff

Well, the 5k race was the official end to my base phase.  Thanks to all for the kind words in the comments section - very much appreciated!!  Now it's time to start gearing up for the season.  Dropping my 5k time down 40-seconds compared to the winter build makes me feel as though I've made some solid progress on the endurance front. (officially I knocked off 50-seconds, but I think the first course was a little long)  

Roughly, the way this is going to go is as follows:

April - volume speed work, long intervals, easy long run  (per week)

May - higher intensity speed work/anaerobic work, lower volume long intervals, quicker and shorter long run

June - very high intensity speed/anaerobic work (twice per week), up-tempo longish run (maybe 8-miles)

Essentially I start w/ higher volume, lower intensity speed work and as we move along, the volume will decrease some as the intensity ratchets way up.  The next 10-11 weeks are critical, and I have to be mentally ready to handle the challenges I'll face week in and week out.  As coach described it, "You'll feel OK for the first couple of weeks.  But soon the fatigue will build up and you'll feel pretty horrible almost every day for a good 7-8 weeks."  Ah, gotta love middle distance training. . . . 

Today marked day #1 of the new phase.  On tap 8 x 400m (was going to be 10, but JT cut me some slack due to some residual soreness on Sunday from Saturday's race)  Target was to start at about 74-seconds and then quickly get down to 72 for the bulk of the reps.  In between I would be jogging a 200m.

As luck would have it, we got some rain today so this track session would be a bit of a slosher.  I skipped the 2 x 200m as part of the warm up due to it being cold as well as wet.  (why chance a strained whatever in these crappy conditions)  This usually makes the first rep or two a little sluggish and that was the case today.  I opened w/ a 74, and rep #2 also clocked in at 74.

By number three I was hoping I'd start to get into the flow a little better and I was happy to see a 3rd rep of 70.  A little fast, but at least the sluggishness was gone.  I figured I'd dial it in to 72 on the next rep, but it was fast again - 70.  I was feeling pretty good, so I just went w/ the flow - the last four were:  70-70-69-67.  (I know JT's going to ding me for the last one.  She said "no 69s" for this workout.  She might let one 69 slide, but a 67 - nope, I'm gonna get yelled at)

What was nice here was that I felt I could do a few more w/ no issue.  This is a complete 180 from the long interval sessions where I'm almost always praying for the darn thing to be over. . . . after interval #2.  Well, I've got a LIH (Long Interval from Hell) session scheduled for Fri/Sat - so we'll see how that one goes.  So far the change in phases is very refreshing - but that could just have been the rain!

Training:

Sun, 4/5:  4-miles recovery, 7:15 pace

Mon, 4/6:  lifting (upper-B, abs) stretching, rolling

Tues, 4-miles including, 8 x 400m (74, 74, 70, 70, 70, 70, 69, 67)  200m jog rests