Week Dos

This is a look back on Week 2 of Base Training for me. The week went well millage wise as it topped off at 46 and change for 6 runs with one off day. The pace for all my runs would also indicate a very positive improvement from the previous week, however there was a hiccup on Wednesday which forced me to take off Thursday instead of Sunday.

Monday (8 miles)  A good training day indeed. Went out to a park in Walnut Creek and ran a 7 mile plus canal trail loop. Clocked a time of 50:20 for the entire run for 617 pace and closed the last two miles in under 12 minutes. The run felt good and relaxed and easy to pick up at the end. Did core work and the Myrtle routine as well.   

Tuesday (7.3 miles) Another day where I went a bit faster than I should have. Averaged 623 per mile for a rather hilly route. Went through 4 miles in 26 high or about 640 pace and then picked it up finishing the last 3.3 miles in 559 pace.  I had done CMS strength work in the AM.   

Wednesday (8 miles) Today felt terrible. I utilized some wisdom my college coach sent me, called the trial mile. The concept is to use the first mile as a judge for your feeling urning the run. The article goes on to say if its going terrible call it quits. However I am rather stubborned so I just didn't push the pace, and slugged through 7 more miles. I ran just over 8 miles in 56 and change so over 7 minute pace per mile. I was glad to get the run done with. Looking back on it i did more in Mon and Tue than I did in half my week last week. That plus the added strength work and the increase in pace and weird eating times threw my body off.   

Thursday (0 miles) After that shitshow yesterday I decided giving myself a day off would be a nice Xmas present. Running wise I got a asics hat, 6 pairs of running socks and a pair of Asics Kayanos. Those will come in handy as running shoes are expensive and my millage is high.   

Friday (5.6 miles) After an off day I don't like to jump back into things very quickly. I have learned the hard way that pushing miles after off days leads right back to tiredness a few days later. You want to be able to make it 12-14 days of running if possible, and feel good for them all. I woke up late and decided to do my run around 4PM. As it turns out I needed to go pick up my car from the shop and didn't get started until 5PM. With the sun almost set I was running 1.4 mile loops at NewHall Park. It was 40 degs when I started the run and dropped quickly from there. My first loop took 928 which was 645 pace but the loops got quicker, quickly... Went 845, 830, 830 so right at 6 mins a mile for the last 2.8. Not my idea of a perfect ease back in, 

but at least it was only 5.6 miles.   

Saturday (7.3 miles) As per my training plan today was a 7ish mile run. I took today much easier and focused on staying relaxed and it worked very well. I didn't pay attention to any splits, didn't even take any in fact and felt great at the end. Run time 47 and change.   

Sunday (10 miles) OOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH NO its a long run. Just like last week calling something like this a long run feels, oh shall I say awkward, but its a stepping stone, and running is a sport of many....steps. Wow I was in trouble really early into that one. Anyways this run went very well. I felt tired but never out of control and my breathing felt great. Covered the 10 in a blistering 66 mins or 639 mile average. Now compared to some runs I have done this is very much behaved so I am happy with this especially when looking at my splits. 14:14, 28:30, 41:55, 54:22, 66:36. I essentially started at 707 and worked my way down to 606 pace by the end. I decided at mile 9 i was going to hammer and did, dropping mile 10 in 5:36. First 5 mi were done in 35 last 5 in 31:36 so a 7 avg to 6:20, but the eventual goal is to hit 615-630 for my long runs and sub 6 for my base runs.   

Summary Over all a good week and good lesson to be learned. Ran 11 more miles and 67 more minutes and 10 sec per mile faster avg on all runs. Since I only ran 6 times and thus 6 days I averaged 7.7 miles per run which is a good effort. Overall with the off day its lower obviously but in running its good to look at both. The first indicates the volume I am putting in when I do go for a training run. The second indicates total stress I put on the body. I like to look at 4 main factors to my running, miles per run, miles per running day, miles per day (total / 7), and pace per run. Here I have 7.7, 7.7, 6.6, 6:33. This means though I ran 7.7 a run, I put 6.6 miles a day stress on my body. Its no big deal now but when you put 80 miles on the body in 6 days of running the numbers tend to jump around and mean more.  I do look at other things such as weight, weather, shoes, but I can only write so much.