Training week in review: 8 of 18

Posted on January 29, 2008 by threlkeld

This week’s training theme:

Timing is everything

I’m a little late getting in my review post since I was too busy posting about my half marathon race on Sunday. So here it is Tuesday already and I’m finally feeling back to normal.

Last week was tough, let me tell you. Since deciding to replace a tempo run with a race, I needed to do a bit of rearranging last week. But with so many miles, and long runs, it was basically impossible to come up with the ideal schedule. So I punted and front-loaded all the hard stuff early in the week so I could be as rested and recovered as possible on Sunday.

Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday were all recovery days, with anywhere from 7 to 10 miles spread over double sessions. All on the treadmill. The hard work was on Tuesday (a 22+ miler) and Thursday (15 miles). Followed by sitting around hoping my legs would recover from that over Friday and Saturday sufficiently enough to race well.

Since this was coming off of a hard 20 miler the previous Sunday, by the time Thursday rolled around I was basically a zombie. One thing I’ve noticed is that I’m sleeping an average half to full hour more a night now, and I’m dreaming a lot. Or at least remembering more dreams than I ever have in the past. Epic dreams that seem to go on for hours, consisting of several distinct narratives. This is some serious, deep sleep. (I also slept the sleep of the dead for a full three hours after the race on Sunday.)

Despite all the mileage, I think running 40% of my miles at recovery pace allowed me to go to Central Park on Sunday feeling fresh and reasonably rested. So I guess it is possible to incorporate some quality racing into training if you schedule things right. This is good to know since I’m going to be doing the Bronx edition of the Grand Prix series on February 10th.

A look back at the week:

  • Monday: 6 miles recovery pace (AM), 4 miles recovery pace (PM)
  • Tuesday: 22.4 miles, long run (steady) pace*
  • Wednesday: 6 miles recovery pace (AM), 4 miles recovery pace (PM)
  • Thursday: 15 miles, long run (steady) pace
  • Friday: 4 miles recovery pace (AM), 5 miles recovery pace (PM)
  • Saturday: 4 miles recovery pace (AM), 3 miles recovery pace (PM)
  • Sunday: 13.1 mile race

Total mileage: 86.5 miles

Paces this week:

  • Long: 8:50 – 9:10
  • Recovery: 9:30 – 10:20
  • Race: 7:35

This week’s quote:

“You’re all crazy”

— Sign held by a spectator at 2006 Chicago Marathon

Coming up in training week nine: About the same number of miles, plus an extra session. I’m running doubles five days this week. Recovery miles make up close to 50% of the total, which is good because I’m doing a 16 mile marathon pace run (probably in Central Park) on Sunday. I’ve got two shorter long runs (15 miles and 13 miles, respectively). All the rest are short recovery runs. Which reminds me — I’m late for this evening’s 5 miler…

* Longest run I’ve done in about a year — and much easier this year than last.

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