After the big miles last week, my legs are feeling fine, but not ready for workouts. Hopefully I will get some T-pace stuff in later in the week. Check out the new Jack Daniels' Running Calculator page on my blog courtesy of the Run SMART Project.
Monday: 8.5 miles - SK roads and bike path with Galoob. This was an easy lunch run and just an excuse to gab about running. The bike path was a little slick, thanks to a fresh coating of snow over either pavement or ice.
Tuesday: 16.5 miles - long NK ramble (half roads, half snow/ice covered trails) alone. I haven't tried LSD in a while, but today was perfect for it. Work was a ghost town. I had no motivation to run even a normal easy pace, never mind a workout. The weather was drab. This just screamed a nice Long Slow Day. I parked at Rome Point and began wandering. The trails here were still a nightmare. The trails are literally glaciers. Sometimes I could find uncovered sections on the edges. I didn't stay here long, and popped out on Terre Mar Rd. I then made the long road trek over to the high lot for Ryan Park. I don't necessarily like doing long runs by myself, but alternating roads and trails keeps me distracted and happy. Ryan Park was mostly still snow covered, except there were longer stretches of bare trail on the railbed. The Rte 4 trail was hardpacked snow, most of the time anyway. Every once in a while I would sink in. I ran in here for 35 minutes or so, and it was challenging. I then ran different roads back to Rome Point. My legs were fatiguing, and I wished I wasn't wearing trail shoes. I finally entered Rome Point and suffered on the glaciers for a few last miles. I averaged about 7:50 pace on the roads and who knows what on the "snow". I'll give myself an extra half mile credit.
Wednesday: 10 miles - Gilbert Stuart Rd hill repeats solo. Another gray, cold day. Another day of lacking motivation. I parked again at Rome Point and headed over to the big hill on Gilbert Stuart Rd. I decided on some controlled repeats. I still ran them rather hard, but not all out as I typically would. I worked on my descending form a bit. Not sure if I can change anything, but it's definitely a weak spot in my running. I was happy with the overall pace on the day, especially since my legs were pretty beat up from yesterday's run.
Thursday: 14 miles - 3 x 2 miles @ T-Pace workout in Narragansett with Galoob. I let Mike talk me into this. I couldn't stomach another solo run, so I just went along with his plan. Daniels workout day: 3 x 2 miles @ T-Pace with 2 minute recoveries. My target was 11:50 (5:55 pace). I wasn't sure how it would go considering how many miles I've logged the last 10 days. It all went well. Results: 11:41, 11:04, 11:53. I ran each one exactly two miles according to my watch and then Strava adjusted things slightly, so maybe the 2nd one wasn't that fast, but then again it was mostly downhill with the wind at my back. The last one wasn't flat and the wind was an issue, so I'm fine with it just being a couple of seconds off. It felt good to run fast. The five mile cool down into the bitter wind on dead legs was killer.
Friday: 7 miles - Calf Pasture Point loops alone. My legs are exhausted, especially my quads from the hills on Wednesday. Today's run went much better than I thought. In fact, I actually enjoyed it. Although not as warm as first forecasted, the mid 30's with the wind at my back was rather pleasant. The bike path still has stretches of ice/snow, as does the main trail in the woods. The beach has changed shape in spots since the last time I was here.
Saturday: 15 miles - Charlestown roads workout/long run with Muddy, Galoob, and Garvin. We met up at the bakery and used a scone reward as motivation to complete today's task - 6 miles @ MP (for myself and Muddy). We had a sweet, not flat, 2 mile loop to use for this. Muddy and I met a half hour earlier to log some extra miles. The four of us then made our way to the loop and then got to work. What's fun about marathon pace, is that we were still able to talk and joke at the same time.
After my ambitious two weeks of running, there was no way I would have done this today without help from friends. Conversation was a distraction. The six miles passed relatively quickly. The loop may have been a tad short of 2 miles, since the overall time was 37:02 for the six. Strava had the GAP for the six miles as 6:18, so that's perfect. Mike was anxious for scones and pushed the pace on the cool back. We were doing 6:50 pace and I was suffering behind the rest of them. The post-run feast did not disappoint!
Sunday: 3 miles on two runs. First I took my son down to the Burlingame campground to check out some of the trails for the upcoming Brrr-lingame 10 Mile Trail Race course. We ran the zigzagging trails from the guardhouse and then returned via the North South Trail. As I had hoped, most of the trails in the moraine were clear of snow. The backside of hills and some of the dark valleys still had spots with icy snow, but they too should be gone soon. I stopped to drag a huge dead oak tree from the trail. I was pretty surprised I could actually move it at all. Bob Jackman will be pleased he won't have to run into it. The run measured 2.1 miles on GPS, and in reality a little longer. We ran for 35 minutes. When we got home, my daughter wanted to run on our home trail loops with me. The plan was to do three laps for a mile, but she lost interest after (really during) lap two. We switched to playing tag instead. The easy miles were just what I needed and really fun.
Weekly Total: 74 miles
Last Week: 74 miles
Year to Date: 572 miles
March Total: 99 miles
Jonny, impressive weeks you've got going here. Awesome Tempo workout on Thursday with a lot of miles to go with it on that day. I know I always seem to give advice, and you're not asking for it, but I want to see you have fun and be successful and run healthy. So here goes. You don't need to do another T paced workout on Saturday. If you're not feeling up to it, then just run easy. The most important runs for being a good distant runner are your easy runs. That's where you make cellular adaptions (mitochondria are built in your cells and such). You don't need to run hard so often. Same thing with long runs. They build endurance and don't need to be done that much. Once a week is a lot, you could do long runs every other week and still get a great deal of benefit. The most enjoyable runs are the slow easy runs and they give you a lot of bang for the buck. I know I don't always follow this in my own training, but I know it to be true. Just some food for thought. Have fun, you WTAC'ers are very inspiring! You guys are all running great!
ReplyDeleteI always appreciate your input. You've been doing this a lot longer than me. Thanks!
DeleteAlthough all were impressive, your best run(s) was/were obviously Sunday.
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