Sunday August 6, 2017
49 dayst to go until Quad Cities!
This week was a cutback week… I had a 5K race on Saturday and was gearing up for it. Normally I like to have 3 hard weeks followed by a cutback week the next week. With the upcoming 5K, I pushed it back a week and was able to get an additional So waiting an additional week wasn’t too bad but looked forward to a shorter Saturday morning run.
Tuesday– Track day…
400 hard @ 5K race pace goal, 200 easy, 200 hard faster than 5K race pace goal, 400 easy
This morning I was incorporating a new workout with my upcoming 5K race on Saturday. The workout bookends 400’s with 200’s in between with alternating hard and easy workouts.
It was a great workout and a little tougher than I expected. It was good having Carrie who volunteered to come out and pace me. I liked the variety and just enough rest on some of the workouts then back to hard effort. I hit all of my targets except one so I was thrilled.
Wednesday– Recovery run
6 on the dock with this mornings run. Coming off of a track workout I thought I would feel extra sluggish but actually felt decent. Ran with Carrie for the first 3 miles then ran the 2nd half on my own. I lost a few pounds of sweat when I came home.. the weather is just miserable and you can see it in every runner you see on the road.
Thursday– Easy day at the track
I was planning on going to the gym to get on the Treadmill but decided to run to the track and run a few miles there. I also wanted to see to old gang who were out at track doing their workouts. Carrie was also putting in her training and had a long speedworkout as well. I felt good and did an easy run and ran a little with the gang and caught up with them then ran home.
Saturday– 5K race
It was time for another race since my last one on the 4th of July. This race was out at Arizona Falls and put on by Starting Line, a well-managed racing event. It was a very warm morning when the race started at 6:30am with temps in the mid 80’s and humidity and barely a cloud in the sky so the sun was beating down. My ideal goal was to run a 24:30 but I would have been happy somewhere in the 24:40’s.
The course was nice and flat which helped and after the first mile, I was at 7:45 by the 1 mile marker however my watch buzzed at 7:51 but its the mile markers that count since that is where the race marked them and everyone’s watch is going to buzz differently.
Mile 2 and 3 were exactly the same 8:07 and 8:07 and I had my signature sprint with .10 to go!
After the race the boards showed me finishing in 32:51! Wow!! Their timing system was way off. I had 24:46 by my watch and when speaking with the race officials, they were going to make the change and update the results. In fact, everyone’s times were off by about 18 seconds but mine was off by over 6 minutes! So in reality I was 5th in my age and I was happy with my effort.
It was good to see my good friend Paul racing out there this morning as well!
It’s very hard to race in Phoenix in the summer when the temperature feels oppressive in every way. But a measure of how my training is going was felt this morning with a strong performance and I wanted to get back under 8 mins for my pace and did so with a 7:58. I still have work to do but compared to my last 5K at the end of May in Tucson in the evening, I cut 34 seconds off my time.
Saturday– ART (Active Release Technique)
I had an appointment with my Chiropractic office to see Auden Leyva the onsite Masseus worked on my hips, psoas, legs, and feet with ART which helps to release some of the tightness and help lengthen some of my muscles. It’s not a relaxing massage by any means nor is it meant to feel comfortable but is necessary. I know my hips are tight and I need to work on some other areas to help loosen up the tightness which my help alleviate some of the pain in my foot.
Sunday– Recovery run
Just an easy 4 miler to get the legs moving after a race. I actually felt better than expected but it’s also been a cutback week and no long run. Besides, the temperature this morning felt bearable with the lower humidity… perhaps the humidity is starting to dissipate slowly.
After my early morning run, I took the bike and met Carrie and her friend Kara at the park. Carrie was doing a 20 miler and started out earlier in the morning and was meeting Kara who volunteered to run with Carrie the last 8 miles.
I was on the bike for hydration :).
On the Coaching front, Anne had a 5K over the weekend. It was a little bit of a struggle with the hills, but she overcame and had a strong 2nd half of the race. This was a good test to see where she is at this point of training and to measure how her summer running has been going. We still have work to do but also making some positive strides towards the end goal of a strong upcoming Half Marathon race in the fall.
Meredith was up in Flagstaff putting in some training on the bike and run and has had a good summer of training as she continues to work on the Full Ironman Arizona in November.
Lane is getting in some good base building as he will dive into full training in a few months and is getting in some quality miles before then.
Finally, I recently picked up another athlete to Coach. Her name is Hannah who is targeting a winter Half Marathon in February with some goals in mind. She’s been doing some strong boot camp and strength training of her own and seems very motivated. We will be doing some one on one sessions by September and introducing fundamentals as she looks to make her goals a reality.
I’m excited for what the fall and winter months will bring. Soon the temperatures will start to break and the hard summer months of running will prove an asset to everyone who stuck with the running and will be ahead of the competition!
That’s it for another week, it was nice to have a cutback week. Back to a few more miles and quality workouts!
n2running 