Weekly Summary 03/17/14-03/23/14

Mileage: ~53; Elevation: ~4100′

Monday PM: 5k uphill recovery run followed by core workout and climbing.

Tuesday AM: 2.5M, 4x400m uphill repeats. Legs were dead tired today, so I cut this workout short and decided to skip my evening recovery run to rest my legs.

Tuesday PM: Upper body power-endurance lifting session.

Wednesday PM: ~7M. My standard neighborhood recovery run to the park behind Winrock. Followed by a leg plyometric workout and some time of the home climbing wall.

Thursday AM: 7.5M. Probably my best speed workout session at the track so far this season. I did my normal workout of 5x1M repeats at 7:20 pace, with a 3:40 recovery (2:1 effort to recovery ratio). However, I was also trying to do cut-downs, where each repeat was around 5 seconds faster than the previous (the goal being 7:20, 7:15, 7:10, 7:05 and 7:00 miles). I came fairly close, with splits of 7:17, 7:17, 7:07, 7:03 and 6:58. Overall, it was a very positive workout and makes me feel like I still have a bit of speed.

Thursday PM: ~3M recovery run, followed by a core workout.

Friday AM: 5k recovery run followed by an upper body power-endurance workout.

Saturday AM: ~21.50M. I wanted a quality long run today, since I knew this would be my last 20+ mile run prior to a brief taper for the Cedro Peak race. This was probably one of my most encouraging long runs yet (in addition to just being my longest long run yet). The fact that I cut my mileage a bit this week was very apparent in the added speed I had in my legs, even during the back half of the run. I also took in a lot of calories, always a struggle for me during long runs. I split my intake between banana chips and a gel flask of Vanilla Gu mixed with water. Both worked out really well. I entertained thoughts of running farther, but my New Balance MT110s have been hurting my feet, specifically my metatarsal region, so I abstained.

Sunday AM: 10k run with Megan. Nice and slow and easy.