Wow training is quickly flying by, I’m almost half-way there. I had some good runs this week and it did warm-up although that created some different problems which you’ll read about below!

Monday – 6×1600 meter repeats at 10K pace or 15 seconds per mile slower than 5K pace. Jog for 800 meters between repeats. This ended up being a really good workout. I had to get up a little early to make sure I got it done before catching the bus to work, but I didn’t have any problems with that. It was 30 degrees at 6:30am so I was actually able to wear only a couple of layers! The warmer weekend temperatures had melted some of the snow – but that created icy patches where the water had refrozen – and that impacted some of my split times during the intervals. It was a beautiful run – I ran along the Midtown Greenway to Lake of the Isles around it and then to Lake Calhoun and around it before heading home for a total of 11 miles in 1:25:25. Each mile should have been around 6:26 – 6:30 My actual splits were 7:17, 7:00, 6:45, 7:26, 6:40, and 7:21. My rest intervals stayed approximately the same amount of time which isn’t usually the case, but some of the splits weren’t excessively hard either. I felt good with the workout overall, it will be nice to get on a track or something for speed work.

Tuesday – Run 6 miles easy. Run 5 acceleration strides. I ran 5.85 miles in 50:30 – dang that was slow! I was sore and it was really windy. The windchill was 4 above with the actual temp at 18 at 6:30am. This was out and back along the greenway.

Wednesday – Run 20 minutes alternating between 30 seconds at 20 seconds per mile faster than 5K pace and 30 seconds at an easy pace. Cool down with 5 minutes at an easy pace. I did this along the Greenway as well and ran into the same problems that I had on Monday with the icy patches. It was also about 14 above with a 5 above windchill at 6:30am. I ran for 4.97 miles in 35:11. I ran one 30 second segment at 5:19 pace.

Thursday – Run 6 miles easy. Run 5 acceleration strides. I was going to try and run everyday except for the Friday 4 miler and start weaning myself off the bike. By Wednesday evening though my foot and legs were starting to hurt so I decided to hit the bike again. I biked 17 miles in 58:20 at the YWCA.

Friday – Run 4 miles easy. Run 5 acceleration strides. I ran 4.2 miles in 36:04 on fresh snow. It was about 30 above at 10:30 when I went running. I ran around little Powderhorn Park which had several inches of snow covering and ice! I had fun with it and took it easy. It was a nice run!

Saturday – Run 12 miles. Run the first 9 miles at an easy pace and the last 3 miles at goal half marathon pace. I ran with the MDRA Polar Bear group again. We met at the Theodore Wirth Park’s Wirth Beach parking lot and then ran up Theodore Wirth Parkway down Memorial Parkway to Humboldt Road and back to the Beach. It was a pretty good run with some hills and lots of icy patches. The middle miles were mostly flat without a lot of ice so we opened up the pace a little bit there. The out split was 5.86 miles in 48:53 while the return was 6.11 (I ran a little extra) in 47:55. I picked up the pace between mile 9 and 10 – there was a couple of guys ahead of us that I slowly reeled in catching them right before the final turn. I also slipped on the ice and fell on my rear end – hopped up and kept running. We started the run at 9:16 pace and I finished the last 0.97 miles in 7:04. I felt pretty good for most of the run – it was really hard to get into a rhythm due to all the icy patches along the way. It was about 12 above with a 4 above wind chill at the start and had warmed up throughout the run with the sun shining!

Sunday – Rest. No problem with that!

Totals: 37.9 miles running for 5:03:58 and 17 miles on the bike for 58:22.

[tags] Half Marathon, Training [/tags]