This was one of those weeks where things just click. I was worried after a disappointing week last
week that I had somehow lost fitness during my week of minimal running. But this week proved that theory wrong. I changed up a few things with my schedule for the rest of this training cycle, and while some of them are working better than others, I'd say overall I am feeling more motivated and excited to keep working towards my goals.
Monday: Rest Day. I did about 20 minutes of easy yoga to stretch things out.
Tuesday: This week's workout turned out to be pretty similar to last week's - 2x2 miles at lactate threshold pace with a 2 minute rest in between sets. I am very happy about how this workout went, mostly because I have a tendency to bail mentally before reaching my physical limits, and also because I tend to go out too fast and flame out. This time my last mile was my fastest. It was a tough one, but a good confidence builder that I'm making progress toward reaching my goals. I also managed to fit in my strength workout in the evening. (7 miles total)
Wednesday: EZ Miles in the morning. Didn't sleep that well, so just kept things very chill (5 miles total).
Thursday: Changed things up this week for a hill loop - it's a 4 mile route that you run twice, so 8 miles altogether. My goal race is downhill, so this was effort-based on the uphill and letting myself go a little bit on the speed on the downs. It was fun, it was spicy, and even though my Garmin felt that I was "unproductive", I knew it was a good workout. Another strength workout in the evening for ~30 minutes. (8.25 miles total)
Friday: Just a quick easy run a little over 3 miles. I slept in today to get some extra rest after a good effort on Thursday.
Saturday: Long run day. Today we had a fast close. The plan was to pick things up for the last 2 miles, but I ended up picking things up starting with about 3 miles to go and working my way down over the last 25 minutes. Started off the day a little nervous about the fast close and not sure how things would go. It was one of those mornings where my stomach felt a little upset and things could have gone either way. Fortunately the weather was beautiful and we had a fun conversation going, and I honestly felt great as we closed. It helped that I knew I had a cupcake waiting for me at the end! (12 miles total)
Sunday: The second big change I made to my schedule was to try incorporating more trails into some of my easy days. This is a little challenging for me because I don't live near a lot of trails and I usually run in the dark. Today I slept in and ventured out for a little over an hour on a trail about a 20 minute drive away. I am not a seasoned trail runner and it was reflected in that I definitely got lost (in my defense, those trails are poorly marked) and wiped out a couple of times. On the up side, my heart rate stayed low and I know it was a lesser impact compared to running on pavement, so I accomplished the goal. (~6.5 miles total).
Weekly Mileage: Roughly 42 miles total.
This week sounds like it will feature even more hills than the last, so that should be interesting. I'll be doing my best to focus on sleep and keeping the progress going with my hamstring recovery!