Sunday, September 8, 2013

Dallas Marathon Training: Week 8 Complete!

Last week's workouts:
Sun 9/1: 6.5 mi trail run, 1:16:54
Mon 9/2: 75 min vinyasa flow
Tues 9/3: Speed workout, 8x400's 5.75 mi total (not sure on the time, my watch ran out of batteries)
Wed 9/4: Recovery 45 min run 3.25 mi, 37:00
Thurs 9/5: Lower body strength training (with 15 min elliptical warmup)
Fri 9/6: 60 min base + strides 5.27mi, 59:21
Sat: 9/7: 14 miles long (part of that will be the DRC Breakfast Bash 5 mile race) Total: 13.94 mi, 2:30:02

Monday's yoga class was an intro to vinyasa. I'm not new to yoga or vinyasa in particular, but it was still very beneficial to take a beginner's class. I learned a few new things and got a refresher on proper alignment for poses.

Tuesday's speed workout was tough! We started with a one mile warmup and then alternated 400 meters (one lap around the track) at high speed with 400 meters of recovery, followed by a .75 mi cooldown. For the high speed laps, our goal was to make it around the track in about 1:52, a 7:28 pace. My legs were crazy sore afterwards. In fact, I cut my recovery run a little short on Wednesday because I had a lot of pain in my shin. I did a lot of foam rolling afterwards and that really relieved the pain!

Saturday's run was a fun one. Our group was doing 14 miles, but a few of us had signed up for the DRC Breakfast Bash 5 Mile race and wanted to participate. So my buddies Michael and Jessica met me at Winfrey Point and we did a loop around White Rock Lake. With one shortcut, our total mileage was 8.87 miles in 1:37:39. We got back to Winfrey Point about 7:40 am for the 8:00 race. We got our bibs and headed to the start line. I also dropped my hand-held water bottle off at my car, I decided I would be fine just using the race's water stops.

The three of us started together, but Jessica turned around just after the half-mile mark. She was having some pretty major shin pain that started when we had been waiting for the race to start. She was smart and decided not to push it and risk an injury. Michael and I ran the rest of the race together. We had planned on keeping the same pace as our earlier mileage, about 11:00 min/mile. However, we were both feeling pretty good (and probably got caught up in the race excitement) and finished in 52:17 (official chip time), an average of 10:20 min/mile. My watch showed 5.07 in 52:23, and I used this for my log only because that extra .07 got me closer to our planned 14 miles. :)

We found Jessica and got in line for breakfast, provided by Rusty Taco, yum! I got two egg, cheese and potato tacos and they really hit the spot! I'm not sure that there is anything better than breakfast tacos after a long run! The weather was humid and I was definitely sweaty but I stayed well-hydrated throughout the run and afterwards.

I started off Week 9 with another trail run! This week, I met some trail runners at the Northshore Trail off of Lake Grapevine. I only did a short loop because I needed to get about my day, but it was a good way to get in an easy run.

This week's plans:
Sun 9/8: 3.27 mi, 39:28 (I'm not sure how accurate my watch was, some of the other trail runners said the loop was closer to 3.5 miles)
Mon 9/9: Rest
Tues 9/10: Intervals 3x2 mi
Wed 9/11: 50 min recovery run
Thurs 9/12: Strength training
Fri 9/13: 1 hour base + strides
Sat 9/14: 16 miles long

We actually only have 14 miles on the schedule for our long run, with 16 miles the next weekend (9/21). However, I have a 20k race on that day so I'm going to add on 2 miles this coming Saturday so I don't have to do any extra on race day.

Have a happy and healthy week!

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