The week in training . . . January 20, 2013

The Pueblo Reservoir

The weather gods have continued to be generous in their allotment of sunshine for Southern Colorado.  There have been some absolutely gorgeous days and while I haven't made it out as much as I'd like, it has been nice to be able to run without worrying about tights, mittens, hats, base-layers, etc. My training this week began with the second half of back to back longer runs (13 miles each) and then finished on Saturday with my longest training run to date.  Here's the rundown for the week:
Sunday, January 20th:  The day before I'd done 13 miles and it was a bit of a slog.  I just didn't feel as good as I'd hoped and I finished the run feeling beat up, tired, and sore.  I'm not sure why this happens, but I may have to look at moving back my Wednesday strength training to Tuesdays to see if that helps me get a little more recovery.  Sunday morning it was time to set out for the other 13 miles for the weekend (this is a modification that I'm going to be incorporating into my training schedule.  I will be alternating one long run of 20+ miles with slightly shorter back to back runs on opposite weekends).  This time I decided to incorporate more of the 5 min run:1 min walk practice, and it definitely made a difference.  Even more surprising, my overall time didn't change that significantly.  On Saturday, I ran 13.3 miles in 2:23:36.  On Sunday, I ran 13.1 miles in 2:29:06.  That's less than a six minute difference, and I walked at least 20 minutes or so on Sunday.  I also felt much better after the run today than I did the day before, and recovery was much easier.  Go figure?
Monday, January 21st:  Taking advantage of a day off, I decided to get to the pool this morning.  I haven't been in the water much lately so it was fun to go and get a swim workout in again.  I had no expectations really so I swam for just under an hour and managed about 2000 yds.  By the end of the day, I was pretty spent, so I looked forward to a day off on Tuesday.
Wednesday, January 23rd:  Back at the YMCA for an early a.m. workout.  I worked on weights first followed by an incline treadmill workout.  When I got home, I discovered my daughter was sick, so I wound up staying home for the day.  It wound up being a good thing, as I felt really tired myself.  In fact, I decided to take an extra day off on Thursday so that I would have more time to recover for Saturday.

The Reservoir Trail runs just to the right of this road.

Saturday, January 26th:  I didn't feel terrible today, but as anxious as I was to run, I didn't feel 100% either.  I can't really put my finger on it, but I still felt a little spent from the week, despite resting on three of those days.  The only thing that I can surmise is that my Monday and Wednesday workouts (swimming, weights/treadmill) were essentially strength training workouts, and perhaps I'm not quite used to doing that much strength training since I've mostly been about the aerobic lately.  Nevertheless I set out for my long run which I'd planned to be 24 miles and I felt pretty good after a couple of miles.  I decided to employ the 5:1 ratio right from the start today in hopes that it would help me to manage the distance a little more effectively.  I chose the Pueblo Reservoir for my route as it has a nice combination of uphill/downhill, and there are a fair number of dirt roads and trails to run on as well.  That said, I have go to get up into the mountains to do some run/ hiking so that may be the key workout for next weekend. 
I felt very strong and comfortable through the first half of the run and I kept a solid pace and was managing to cover about five to six miles every hour.  This is the pace that I hope to keep for the CPTR in May as it will allow me to complete the race in around 10 hours which will be well below the cutoff.  The second half of the run was much tougher however.  My legs felt very heavy and tired, and my heart rate began to rise above 145, even when I was running downhill.  I continued to employ the 5:1 when I could, although it was difficult at times when I encountered steep but short hills which would cause my heart rate to quickly jump above threshold.  I've seen great progress with the MAF method of training and in a couple of weeks I'll do my third MAF test (Starting next month, I'll likely begin to add some speed work back into my training which I'll talk more about later).  My pace per mile also began to drop from about 10:00-11:00 minute miles to 11:00-12:30 per mile by the end of the run.  And as an added bonus, I'd miscalculated my route a little bit, so the return trip wound up being a bit further than I'd planned.  By the time I reached the car, I'd covered 25 miles.  By 8:30 last night, I was completely spent and I feared that the exhaustion, along with the aches and pains would really inhibit my training for the next week.  This morning however, I'm actually quite pleased with my recovery and while I'm still a little sore,   I'm already thinking about a spin on the bike trainer or a short run later today.  We'll see if I continue to feel as good.

Plenty of single-track . . . just watch out for Mountain Bikers!

 So the week in review looks like this:
Swimming: 2000 yds
Cycling: 0
Running: 40.21 miles
Weights: About 15-20 minutes
Beers Sampled:
Compass IPA (Bristol Brewing)
Tecate (Montezuma)
Craft Lager (Upslope Brewing)*
*The can says this one's made with snow melt!