This was a great week of running and my biggest week since June of 2011. The highlights of the week were a strong tempo run on Wednesday and the group long run on Saturday. Both were a first of sorts for this training cycle. Wednesday's tempo was my first pure speed session 2012. (I had one cancelled after blowing up my quads on a huge trail run). And Saturday's long run was my longest road run of 2012.
In case you missed the news, I am running the
Grand Canyon Rim2Rim2Rim on May 19th with
Sherpa John. Now that I have finalized my
training and race schedule for the summer, I will be converting to an ultra plan that focuses more on endurance over the coming weeks. Twenty mile runs will be come a staple of my weekends once again. I hope to mix in some speed work on shorter runs during the week and the occasional "quality" long run where I mix in some marathon pace (or near) miles. If you have a twenty mile run planned, give me a call!
I retired two pairs of shoes this week (Columbia Ravenous Trails and Brooks Ghost 3) to make room for the latest addition to my collection -- the
New Balance MT110. This shoe has been widely anticipated in the trail community for more than a year. The early reviews are that it did not disappoint. It has been described as a combination racing flat and trail shoe. My New Balance MT101 trail shoes were among my favorite shoes in my rotation and I wear them for road running all the time, particularly in snow.
And one last piece of news, I bought a
treadmill. It has been a subject that I have gone back and forth on for more than a year. I really don't think I will use it often, but I have two types of workouts for which it is convenient: power hiking steep grades and speed work (tempo, intervals). (I will also use it to mix in more consistent barefoot running workouts.) The additional work required to pack a gym bag and go somewhere else and leaving sweaty clothes sitting a locker all day finally beat me down. Another thing that pushed the decision over the edge is that my wife is slowly becoming a runner. She is not near as hardy as me (or is it as crazy as me?) and will not run in poor weather. Her general level of motivation goes down when she doesn't have a running partner as well. I think this provides a good option for her to keep up training. And since she weighs so little and rarely runs more than 5 miles, she won't be over working it like I would :) It is not a bells and whistles model, but it seems like a good enough machine to handle the 5 or 8 hours a week we'll use it. It also has
iFit, which I am excited to try.
| Day | Miles | Notes |
| Monday | 10 | GA pace with Fartleks |
| Tuesday | 7 | Recovery Pace |
| Wednesday | 9 | Tempo Run (6:50 tempos) |
| Thursday | 10 | GA Pace |
| Friday | 4 | Recovery Pace |
| Saturday | 22 | Long Run |
| Sunday | 6 | Recovery Pace |
| Total | 68 | About 4700 vertical feet gained |
No comments:
Post a Comment