Tuesday, May 16, 2017

Getting the Work Done: Chicago Marathon Base-Building Week 2

Although waking up at 4:45 am is tough, I sometimes think it helps me get through hard workouts. You see, I'm still half-asleep and maybe don't realize what I'm doing and tempo runs scare me. When I see them on a training schedule my brain starts spinning ways for me to attack it. I think about location or routes. I live in an area with lots of hills. Hills are great to build strength but not so good for training for a flat marathon and tempo runs. I prefer intervals. Give me intervals any day, any length (love mile repeats). 

This week's tempo was an alternating pace tempo which means exactly like it sounds. Instead of staying within one pace or pace range, e.g. sub-lactate threshold, the pace changes. Alternating pace tempos train your body to clear lactate while still running fast. They are also great for teaching you to handle race day situations, i.e. going out to fast or getting caught up in a surge and then returning to pace. The fast portion of my tempo was 10k pace. The "recover" portion was marathon pace. Oh boy. Since it is early in my training, it was only 3 miles of work. 

I debated between running on the track or running on the streets. I ended up doing the work portion on a mile length of a fairly flat street in my town with stop signs and other markers conveniently placed at 1/4 mile, 1/2 mile and 3/4 mile. This helped me know how much I had left without constantly checking my watch. 

Coach Becki wanted me to run the tempo at: 8:10/mi, 9:00/mi, 8:10mi. I nailed the paces! I ran: 8:10/mi, 8:57/mi, 8:10/mi! This workout was a big boost for me. Last week I was doubting whether I would be able to hit my goal for Chicago or get back into running shape. 

Now I can start thinking about my next tempo run. This time it's a progressive tempo! Eek!


Base-Building Week 2 Recap (May 8-14):


Monday: Easy 4 miles (4.5 miles, 9:17/mi) + strides/drills with Dana and Dani pre-work. After work I did Beachbody's body weight video, Power Strength and 10-min Hard Core video.

Tuesday: Easy 3 miles (3.0 miles, 9:26/mi) + strides/drill in the morning. Pre-run I did Jasyoga's Pre-run Warm Up and post-run I did the 5-min Quad Reset and 5-min Calf Reset. In the evening I did Beachbody's Upper Fix for some upper body work.

Wednesday: Workout day! I woke up extra early so I would have time to do Jasyoga's Align Your Stride before meeting Dani. Details are above, but overall it was 5.2 miles (9:08/mi). In the evening I did a 30 minute Pilates video. 

Thursday: Off. 10 minutes on the row machine then heavy weight-lifting with Paul. Squats and Deadlifts. I felt my glutes all day! After work I did Beachbody's ABC Extreme video (which is all abs and butt). 

Friday: 30 minute Tabata class (all body weight) followed by an easy 2 miles (2.0 miles, 9:23/mi). In the afternoon, I went for a 1 hour massage followed by 30 minutes of ART with my sports chiropractor. In the evening I did a 30 minute upper body video. 

Saturday: Easy 4 miles (4.3 miles, 9:15/mi) +Strides/drills. I was supposed to do 4 x100m strides at the end of my run but I lost count and ended up doing 5. I did Jasyoga Run Your Core before my run and Jasyoga Full Body Recovery after my run.

Sunday: Long Run, 6-7 miles (7.1 miles, 9:50/mi). Before my run I did Jasyoga How to Warm Up and after my run I took a 1 hour yoga class.

Total Weekly Miles: 26.2 miles (4 hours, 7 minutes)
Total Cross-Training/Pre-hab: 6 hours, 45 minutes
2017 Miles: 407.0 miles


Now that I'm back to training, I've rejoined the training link up on Eat Pray Run DC. See the link up HERE

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