Weekly Training Wrap - 1/6 - 1/12

Another solid, even if unspectacular week of training. I intended to make it a cut-back week, and I think I honored that. Overall, it was only 5 fewer miles than last week, but it was one additional run as well. So the mileage per run dropped significantly. I did nail a hard TM workout on Wednesday called Faster/Faster from McMillan running. Here is the description of the run from my Strava log:

TM workouts, it's called Faster/Faster. The idea is to w/u. (I did 12 mins with two fartleks to get the legs going).  Next, do a quarter at "easy pace" (I avg'd about 7:30), then a quarter at "tempo pace" (I avg'd about 6:40), then a quarter at "speed pace" (I avg'd about 6:15), then a quarter at recovery. I repeated that sequence four times, all at 1% grade. Then I cooled down for 10 mins and did some light stretching afterward.

I was happy with result of the workout in that I could nail the paces, mostly on the faster side, and my HR data lined up well.

Another good run was my weekend, hilly, road, mid-long. I was intending to do this workout at 8:45 or 9:00 pace, but wound  up pushing it so about 8:20 with some friends. The good news was that it wasn't that hard, as indicated by my HR data. In fact, we were even getting progressively faster as the run went along. However, my left hamstring still gets a bit annoyed at these long road runs (not so much on the trails).

One last note, I signed up for my second race of the 2014 season, Quad Rock 25 miler. Honestly, I wasn't prepared to sign up for a race this soon, but it filled up faster than I wanted. In fact, I got the last spot in the 25 mile race. I felt like I needed a Spring race to give a little purpose to my training and to start focusing my mentality away from being injured. My original plan was to run a Spring marathon, but I realized that my only goal would be BQ and, if I did BQ, it would create a scheduling conflict between Boston 2015 and Western States 2015. Long story short, I decided against doing that. I wanted to think about QR a bit longer, but I wasn't given the choice. The other deciding factor was that the climbs are similar to the Bear 100 so I can count this is good practice. And, I have great respect for Nick Clark. I am excited to see what kind of race Nick puts on.

Day	Miles	Notes
Monday	Off	Yoga
Tuesday	7	Easy with Fartleks Strength Training
Wednesday	7	4 x Progressive Mile (McMillan Faster/Faster)
Thursday	4	Recovery Yoga
Friday	Off	Yoga Body Weight Strength Training
Saturday	13	Road Mid-Long
Sunday	4	Recovery
Total	34