This was a rough week. I started feeling the fatigue of being on a set training schedule and working full-time. It didn’t help that my schedule fluctuated this week so one morning I got up at 7am to run and another 6am. Things should continue to settle down. I am also getting a little bored with running the same routes each day and really miss the opportunity to run on dirt trails. The weather has been a little wild too, fluctuating up and down – nothing like doing speed work with several layers of clothing on!

Monday – Run 2 x 400/800/1200 meter supersets. Run 400 meters at 20 seconds per mile faster than 5K pace, 800 meters at 5K pace and 1200 meters at goal half marathon pace. Do not rest between the distances. Recover between the sets with 800 meters at an easy pace. Cool down with 800 meters at an easy pace. Supersets are an interesting concept I had not heard of before last year and are specific to this training program as far as I can tell. I’ll write a post shortly about them in more detail. Basically it is a 1.5 mile interval with alternating paces inside the interval. My goal times were: 400 1:21 – 1:28 800 2:53 – 3:06 and 1200 5:07. I did this as an out and back run on the Midtown Greenway with a -24 wind chill at 6:20am (there were other runners on the trail!). After my mile warm-up here are my splits for the first set: 1:29, 3:23, 5:32. I didn’t know my pace but knew I was off-pace. After my 800 rest here are the splits from my second set: 1:44, 3:44, 5:52. I think it was definitely a mental challenge, I would much rather have run this on a track so to get constant feedback about pace and distance. I finished with about a mile cool-down and the entire run was 5.57miles in 45:01. It was nasty!

Tuesday – Run 6 miles easy. Run 5 acceleration strides. Biked at the YWCA for 14 miles for 45 minutes. Nothing too exciting happens on these workouts! I did do some accelerations increasing my cadence for a minute or so towards the end.

Wednesday – Standard warm up. Run 8 x 800 meter repeats at 5 seconds per mile faster than 5K pace. Recover between the repeats with 400 meters at an easy pace. Cool down with 800 meters at an easy pace. This was also an out and back run, it was 10 above which made it a lot easier to run. I think the same observations about doing interval training on a track versus on the road plays out here. Plus the change in surface would be nice too! My goal pace for each interval was 2:50 – 2:56. After a mile warm-up here are my splits: 3:08, 3:17, 3:16, 3:24, 3:23, 3:17, 3:23, and 3:28. Again none of them were in my goal pace. Each interval was still sub-7 minute pace though.

Thursday – Run 6 miles easy. Run 5 acceleration strides. This was Valentine’s Day! I woke up at 6am and felt exhausted and didn’t want to run at all. We also were expecting lots of snow when we woke up so I reset the alarm and went back to sleep. I think there is something to be said about resting when you are extremely exhausted to prevent burnout/over-training.

Friday – Run 4 miles easy. Run 5 acceleration strides. I spiced things up a little bit and instead of running down the Midtown Greenway I took off north towards downtown. I followed Chicago Ave which takes you right past the Metrodome – which is just over a mile from our house! I ran around it once trying to find a way to start running back south and after looping around it just over one complete time I found a sidewalk which ended up in a parking lot which took me to the trail leading from downtown south towards the Greenway. I jumped off the trail at Franklin Ave and wound my way home through a variety of side streets. I forgot to do my strides until after I was out of the shower! The weather was -4 air temperature but still sunny! I totaled 4.4 miles in 36:15.

Saturday – Run 10 miles. Run the first 8 miles at an easy pace. Run the last 2 miles at your goal half marathon pace. I was finally able to join the MDRA Polar Bears for a run this morning. It was a good size group and the weather was perfect 12 degrees above with the wind chill at 1 above. The sun was shining, a perfect day to prevent Seasonal Affective Disorder! There were lots of groups going out at different paces and distances I went with the second pack running just under 8 minute pace. We ran along the Minnehaha Parkway for about 5.4 miles and turned around at the Lyndhurst Community Center. We came back stopping for water with 1.5 to go. We finished our run in 10.75 miles at 1:26:40 (8:04). I decided not to do the pickup for a variety of reasons, but it was an excellent run.

Sunday – Rest! You better believe it!

Total Miles: 28.2 miles running and 14 miles biking. Combined total of 4 hours and 33 minutes of working out!

Week 4 should be a little easier week and the 10-day forecast looks a little more promising!

[tags] Half Marathon, Training [/tags]