Week three was marked by two things: a continuation of my nagging right groin issue and a really good 20K race/training run on Sunday. I also unexpectedly reached, after five long weeks, my treadmill tolerance saturation point in dramatic fashion, stopping a 14 mile aerobic run at 13.3 miles, simply unable to take another minute in that room, on that contraption.
I hesitate to even call this a high mileage week since in just a matter of weeks my recovery week mileage will resemble what I ran and I’ll be hitting triple digit weeks again for the first time since the summer. But last week I ran a lot of miles, with all except the race run inside on the treadmill again.
Since my leg was still bothering me, I did almost all of my recovery runs at a ridiculously leisurely pace, skipping the strides as usual. I also skipped the 400m intervals in favor of giving my leg further opportunity to heal. I did feel quite good on Thursday, something that’s reflected in the pace at which I did my easy run.
I’m guessing that the extra helping of R&R offered by skipping the speedwork contributed to my good effort on Sunday, which I would characterize as something falling in between a training and a race effort. I raced about 75% of the course.
The good news is that we’re finally getting a spell of warmer weather. I can see our lawn for the first time since December. I’ve got a set of 1200m intervals scheduled for Friday and, unless we get colder temps plus precip again, it’s looking like I may actually be able to run them outside, on a snow- and ice-free track.
The next Mpace training run is in three weeks — the Boston Buildup 25K. I ran that one last year and, unlike the roller coaster course for the 20K, the 25K course is easy to get your head around, if not run: go uphill for sevenish miles, then go downhill for eightish miles. Total climb: +2,456; total descent: -2,600.
Week 4 is a recovery week, with just a little tempo running on Tuesday, one doubles session on Thursday, the aforementioned intervals on Friday and a fast finish 17 miler on Sunday.
Filed under: injury, racing, recovery, training | 7 Comments »
Races Like a Girl 