Hold steady

Another week done. During the school year I find myself in the sweet spot of 50-60 miles, usually closer to 50. The demands of home and school pull at the time, making a typical weekday run around 35-50 minutes. If I could get my act together I'd like to hit 60-75, but that's saved for when the days start to get a little longer.

One workout this week: 10x400 at the Dempsey Indoor at UW. Average was 69 seconds per rep, and had a solid 2 minutes of rest. It felt great to be inside where it's warm, lit, and fast. My running bros ran 300s a tad quicker. I'm glad coach didn't toss me into the deep end, as I would not have survived.

Mileage: 51.17 miles
Races: 1- 2 mile series, XC! Muddy and sloppy. Came in 12th in 11:20. Considering I ran 11:15 about a month ago in significantly better conditions (a bit muddy, but dry), this is great.

Next up: 2 mile series (track!) in 2 weeks, followed by the Valentine's Day 5k at Green Lake the following week.

Making Left Hand Turns

January is the speed cycle in my training. Goal is to get some speed before cycling into marathon work by mid-February. So far so good.

I've run 3 hard workouts indoors, along with a set of tempo intervals on the outdoor. The results have been encouraging. First was 3x2k indoors. They were 6:27s, and felt good. I ran outside with 6xMile in 5:30 on short rest, followed by 4x200 (33s). Then mile reps in 5:05-5:08 (4xMile) indoors. Last was tonight going 6x1200 in 3:45-3:52. I struggled with 3, 4, and 5 before rallying on the 6th.

Speed work is the great unknown for marathoners. You know you need it, but really don't do it enough to know how far into the well you can go. The thought of running 6 sets of 75-76 second per 400is daunting when you rarely do it. The doubt crept in after rep 2 tonight- how  I going to do this?!

Ultimately it's left hand turns. You focus on the person in front of you, and I'm fortunate to have a great club with people to run with. Zone in and hang as long as you can- hopefully through the line.

Next race: 5k in February. Gotta get fast.

It's cold outside...

We ventured indoors today for our workout. By we, I mean myself a few clubmates. We're fortunate to have the Dempsey indoor in town at the University of Washington. 

While not that cold out, the chance to run inside with your shirt off in December is pretty great. The goal of the workout? 5k at 5k race pace.... 5x1k with 0 rest. If nothing else, I wanted to gauge where I was at fitness wise coming off the marathon.

Result: 16:28. Back in March I ran a PR indoors at the Dempsey, going 15:58. So this is a good starting point. With no speed work, I was able to hit 60 second laps (307 or 308m), putting me under 5:20 per mile (5:18). Considering I did a 3.5 mile progression last week and struggled to go under 81 per 400, this is great. I didn't kill myself to do it either. Up next will be a good December block of training leading into a potential January 1/2.