After last week's setbacks, I wasn't sure what to expect from this week. I still can't sit for very long without a lot of discomfort, but my hamstring pain doesn't seem to be affecting my running - for which I am grateful. Crossing my fingers that I'll be able to string more than one effective week of training together this month!
Monday: Just a 20 minute walk in some nice sunny weather. Monday is my rest day.
Tuesday: The workout this week called for 12 x 300 at 5K with a 100 m recovery, but I already know that 5K pace is not a friend of my hamstring these days. I opted for an effort-based workout at roughly 10K pace (it was quite humid outside) and walk/jogged my recoveries. My leg felt a little stiff but not too bad, so I'm calling it a win. I also completed a 30 minute strength workout on Tuesday evening. (6.3 miles total)
Wednesday: Woke up to thunder and lightning - no running for me this morning. I went out for my easy miles in the evening, and instead of rain I got to run in some pretty strong winds. (5 miles total).
Thursday: Back to the hills today! Just over 8 miles of rolling hills this morning. I very nearly ran perfect positive splits, so I guess I either didn't push hard enough on the second loop (it's a 4-mile loop that you run twice) or went out too fast on the first one. I was nervous about this one after tripping and hurting my hamstring on a hill run last week, so I'm thankful to have completed this without incident. 30 minute strength workout in the evening. (8.1 miles total)
Friday: 5 easy miles before work.
Saturday: This is a cutback week on my schedule. I'm not too worried about cutbacks with my current mileage in general, but I know the next two week are going to be a doozy, and last week my longest run was only 7 miles, so I kept things conservative with a 10-mile run for my long run. I started out feeling a little stiff and tired, but it was a beautiful morning and after a few miles I loosened up and started feeling good. There's nothing more satisfying than being able to pick it up at the end of a long run and feel like you still have more to give! (10.3 miles total).
Sunday: Easy miles with a brief walking break when I stopped to befriend a cat along the way! It came running up to me and as a cat parent myself, I couldn't help but stop and say hello. It was a very friendly cat with a collar letting me know it lived nearby, so I think it was just living that indoor/outdoor life. I do wish people wouldn't leave their small animals outside overnight, though! (5.6 miles total).
Weekly Mileage: 40.3 miles
I'm still doing a lot of standing during the day as sitting for more than 20 minutes at a time seems to very specifically trigger my hamstring pain. I managed to average more than 7 hours of sleep this week as well, and I've noticed that truly makes a huge difference in my ability to perform and recover during runs. If there's one thing the last year has shown me, it's that recovery, strength, stress management, and all of the pieces of training that aren't actually running are really nonnegotiable. By prioritizing these things, I set myself up for better running and more consistent training. If I blow them off, you better believe it's going to show up in my workouts. These next couple of weeks are likely to be the highest mileage and most intense weeks before my goal race at the end of April - so we'll see if I can keep the train rolling for at least a few more weeks!