A peek at a not-weak peak week!

[ilanarama]

Or, miles what I have run lately. A lot of them. I am...really looking forward to taper.

Monday - 9 miles trail running averaging 11:16 pace. I felt slow and creaky, but that's actually a fairly typical pace for this route, only slightly slower than usual.

Tuesday - 9.9 miles as 2 easy, 3x (2GMP, 2 min easy-but-not-too-easy), then easy home. I faded a little toward the end but overall it was a good run: 9:00, 8:37, 7:45, 7:43, 8:24 (2 min), 7:42, 7:45, 8:32 (2 min), 7:47, 7:48, 9:28 (2 min), 8:59. It's pretty hard for me to maintain MP outside of a race, particularly while my mileage is high, so I'm not too worried. The one thing that did worry me was my HR seemed on the high side for these paces.

Wednesday - 8.3 miles easy-ish. Or rather, I started easy, but as I got into the groove I allowed myself to speed up, as long as my HR stayed in the easy range. 9:28, 9:11, 9:02, 8:52, 8:32, 8:27, 8:28, 8:31, 9:11 (.3). Overall average pace 8:50.

Thursday - 9.1 miles on the trail, with 6x10 sec hill sprints near the end on the community ski hill (where I have never actually skied). Avg pace 11:01.

Friday - 6.4 easy with strides, avg pace 8:50.

Saturday - 6.8 easy-ish, or what I call the hard end of easy; avg pace 8:33. Ended with 6x10 sec hill sprints on the last hill home. I have slacked on my hill sprints in the last few weeks and so I did two easy sets this week, but wow, I shouldn't slack, they are fun!

Sunday - My last 20-miler of the cycle! Well, to be honest I haven't actually done ANY 20-milers, and this one wasn't 20, either; it makes a very nice 19.3 mile loop to run up one side of the Animas Valley, cross at Trimble road, and run back down the other (I try to alternate clockwise and counterclockwise) so that is what I do. And did. This was a 'hard long run' aiming at 2 miles warm-up and the rest between 8:10 and 8:30 pace (that is, my GMP+5-10%). (For me, this is a hard long run! But a lot of my friends with similar PRs run that kind of pace all the time.)

For once, my route worked with the wind, and I had a gentle headwind going up-valley, and a tailwind for most of the return (until about 4 miles out when it turned to a light headwind).

Here are my splits:

Dist    Pace         Elev. chg  Avg HR (%WHR)   Max HR (%WHR)   Elapsed
1	08:45.9 	-39	152 (79%)	159 (85%)	0:08:46
2 	08:42.0 	25	153 (80%)	159 (85%)	0:17:28
3	08:33.1 	76	148 (76%)	158 (84%)	0:26:01
4	08:26.3 	-17	144 (72%)	156 (83%)	0:34:27
5	08:20.6 	-41	141 (70%)	149 (76%)	0:42:47
6	08:27.6 	25	147 (75%)	155 (81%)	0:51:15
7	08:17.8 	-5	147 (75%)	153 (80%)	0:59:33
8	08:15.8 	11	148 (75%)	151 (78%)	1:07:48
9	08:16.0 	16	148 (76%)	154 (81%)	1:16:04
10	08:14.3 	-63	146 (74%)	154 (81%)	1:24:18
11	08:13.8 	21	146 (74%)	155 (81%)	1:32:32
12	08:11.9 	6	148 (76%)	151 (78%)	1:40:44
13	08:12.7 	-10	150 (78%)	154 (80%)	1:48:56
14	08:05.0 	-18	149 (77%)	153 (80%)	1:57:01
15	08:24.1 	38	151 (78%)	153 (80%)	2:05:25
16	08:19.3 	-22	151 (78%)	156 (82%)	2:13:44
17	08:32.2 	14	154 (81%)	158 (84%)	2:22:16
18	08:37.0 	-40	151 (78%)	158 (84%)	2:30:53
19	08:16.2 	-39	153 (80%)	157 (83%)	2:39:09
19.32	11:00.1 	59	152 (79%)	156 (82%)	2:42:41

Okay, ignore that last one - it's the hill to my house, and really steep, and I might possibly have walked the steepest part of it la la la. Overall (ignoring that last one) I averaged 8:23, and not counting the first 2 miles either (my warm-up, which was actually a lot faster than my usual warm-up) I averaged 8:20 - right in the middle of my target pace range! I was also really pleased by my HR, which showed some drift but not too much. (Data in the first three miles are bogus, affected by static from my clothes.)

Anyway, this was a solid workout for me to cap a solid week of 68.8 miles, again (barely) setting a new mileage high. Next week will have more MP miles, a shorter LR, and a slightly lighter mileage load; I'm going to aim at 60+ but not many +, as it were. Then 40-45 the following week, and 20ish the week before the marathon.

Comments

[traveller42]

Those are great HR numbers.

Now you just have to survive taper madness. :-)

[ilanarama]

Man, I'm already feeling antsy, and my first week isn't much of a taper!

[the-place-i-am-right-now.blogspot.com]

Awesome peak week! I am so excited for you to crush MCM!

[ilanarama]

Thank you!

[meri_oddities]

Time to taper...

Your training looks so solid. I would love to have time for it. I think you're going to rock it for CIM.

[ilanarama]

Averaging about an hour and a half a day...come on, what can you get rid of? :-)

[meri_oddities]

Hahah. I exercise every day as it is. Plus, I work full time (40+) hours a week -- though retirement isn't THAT far away.

[ilanarama]

I work full time, too! But I don't have to commute, which helps, and I can shift my hours around the week so as to free up a nice block of training time.

I really don't know how my friends with commutes and kids and more than 40-hour jobs (one of them is a doctor!) do it.

[smalltownraces.blogspot.com]

That's a pretty good looking long run! And you are right... the hill sprints are fun :)
Nicely done, Ilana. Can't wait to see how your race will go!

[ilanarama]

I keep forgetting that I love hill sprints :-)

[justrunjim.blogspot.com]

Rock solid run and paces. You're ready!

[ilanarama]

Thanks, Jim! I AM EXCITE.