Week (1+1=11) ... The "Rossi" Week

This week will be the first race of the season. I am running the 3k at the Rossi Relays. The race is usually won between 8:15-8:30, the 8:15 in only really fast years. There is usually a slew of guys between 8:50-9:10 so that will be my group to chill with over the first mile, after that who knows. My 2 mile and 8k PR's predict a 9:01 3k and my mile PR predicts a 8:45. Thus the goal being get as close to 9 flat as possible, with a tinge of hope on 8:59!

Monday (12 miles) AM ran 4 miles and did my core workout at the gym. The PM I went for 8 miles out at the lake and felt pretty good.

Tuesday (12.5 miles) Took the AM off and headed out for the usual Tuesday workout at CSUSM. Today's workout is warm up - 8x100m strides - 6x800m with 400m recovery - 8x100m strides - 1.5 mile cool down. Repeats went (2:42,2:37,2:35,2:28,2:24,2:24). The rests averaged about 6:40 pace. The goal of the workout was to run as fast as possible but without forcing anything, and to also make it a step down so that we averaged around our 5k pace. For me my 5k PR pace is 5:03's or 2:31.5 800m's. My average 800m today was.... 2:31.4!  I felt little to no pop in my legs during the faster repeats, so I need to make sure to rest on my rest days and sleep more. Oh...I bought a new pair of flats and a "tub" of accelerade.  As seen above.

Wednesday (7 miles) For the first time in a long time I decided to just take it easy. I went out and just chilled at easy pace for 50 minutes and felt pretty relaxed at the end.

Thursday (10 miles) Today's workout was the adapted 30-40s workout. We did 35-45s repeats. I did a set of 3, took 2 laps jog, then a set of 3 then some more laps jog, then a set of 1. Before and after we had a mile of Bowerman strides. Then we did our cool down back to the cars just like the warm up.

Friday (8.5 miles) So for some reason after heading out on my pre-meet I meet up with Kbeck and Reed and just did my run with them. They were doing a base run and I just headed out with them. I discovered very early that I had a tight tendon and I have no idea why. I am worried about how it will hold up tomorrow.

Saturday (10 miles) Headed out to the track around 12 PM. I did a 4 mile warm up which was rather painful since my left Achilles tendon was giving me a lot of trouble. By the end of the warm up it felt fine, but it took 4 miles to get there. By the start of the race I was tired from being in the heat all day and my allergies were killing me. The first mile went out fine, and I came through in 4:48 which felt very good, but when the break was made before the 2k mark I couldn't respond and I felt spent. I hit the 2k in 6:01 and was feeling confident I could hold the pace. With 800m (so 200m later) I had changed my mind and threw in a push to offset a painful last lap. I think I ran a 77 last 400m which was terrible, and hit 9:05 at the tape, covering the final 1k in 3:04. I wasn't happy at first, but 9:05 is a 6 second PR and I felt strong for the first 2k of the race, which is a good improvement given the conditions. I went off on a 4 mile cool down with my tendon still bothering me.

Sunday (0 miles) I took it off, no reason to push a recovery on this tight ankle especially if I want to be 100% by next weekend for the Ben Brown 5k.

Weeks total mileage 60 miles

A little disappointed that I missed my goal of sub 9 by just 5 seconds. However I am happy with the performance given the weather and my calf issues late in the week. I know the 8.5 mile run the day before the race probably wasn't the best idea, but given that plus the 4 mile warm up I am very happy with the 9:05 clocking.