Races Like a Girl

Okay, people. Now we’re cooking with gas.

This was a funny week. It was the first attempt at doing the summer maintenance plan I was originally scheduled to start a month ago, before a disastrous couple of races and Rip Van Winkelian sleeping patterns necessitated an intervention. So I was a bit nervous and that expressed itself as a tiptoeing into the harder work that started on Wednesday.

My watch is still on backorder (with numerous apologies from Road Runner Sports after my notes of protest), and it rarely worked out for me to borrow Jonathan’s heart rate monitor, so with the exception of Wednesday I guessed at effort all week, as well as distance when it came to the treadmill (which I suspect is way off).

Anyhoo. I started by swapping the Wednesday and Friday sessions for weather reasons. I took it easy on Wednesday, mostly because I did something bad to my right hamstring (right at the insertion point below the buttock; TMI?) during last Saturday’s “let’s see how fast I can run” experiment and didn’t want to aggravate it. Still and all, I cruised along at a respectable pace that was probably in the 8:30 range or faster at an average 75% MHR; I threw in a fast last half mile at more like 7:30 pace, with an MHR that topped out at 85%. So far so good.

The rest of the week just got better and better. My recovery runs were easy and faster too, dipping under 10:00 pace on Thursday. Friday was a good day at the track, with a four mile warmup through the streets beforehand at, again, around 8:30 and then four miles at what felt like something between half marathon and 30K effort.

I woke up on Saturday to temps in the 60s and a dewpoint in the 40s. Ooh la la! My resting heart rate had shown no fallout from Friday’s session, so I decided to take advantage of the fantastic weather and do my planned Sunday 16 mile long run on Saturday instead. I’m glad I did. I did something resembling a progression run (although I have no data). I started out at around 10:00 pace and sped up to finish the last few miles at probably around 8:00. Don’t know what my HR% was, but I’m guessing it averaged in the middle-to-high 70%s.

Today the heat and humidity were back, but all I had to do was 10 miles at recovery pace. So I hoofed it up to the Hartsdale train station at a nonetheless relatively speedy pace considering the weather and coming off of two hard days in a row.

I am pleased.

Next week adds another 10 miles to the total, with another block of lactate threshold running, some 10K pace repeats and an 18 miler on the weekend.

Also, today I saw a groundhog. It was so weird seeing it just out in the open that I thought it might have rabies. But then I remembered that I can play with rabid animals if I so wish. So I shook the groundhog’s little paw and wished him a lovely Sunday (okay, I made that part up).

Filed under: basebuilding |