After last week it was nice to have a 'normal' week and get training back on schedule. Although this week was not completely without incident, but sometimes inconveniences are there to test your mettle and show how much of a badass you are (or dumbass as the case may be)! After my speed workout was rained out last week I was determined not to miss another session. By Thursday night the weather forecast was a 60% chance of rain on Friday afternoon...when I typically do my workouts. So my brilliant solution was to do my workout in the morning. Only problem is that I have to be at school by 9a to TA my lab. So after running the numbers and devising a plan my Friday morning went as such: 2:30a - got up and ate my pre-morning run granola, 4:45a - got up, dressed and drove to my selected running spot (had to find somewhere with street lamps and few, if any, stop lights), 5:15a - started running. So yeah, basically it was completely dark when I started, and worse than that (something you wouldn't think about in LA) very, very cold. I even broke out my tights...it was that cold. Turned out my selected course was not as well light as I had hoped, but by my 6th mile or so the sun was dawning...before that I was pretty much in the dark. The dark was not the problem...it was the cold. I have never felt so much pain from being cold as I did when I finished. I was wearing my gloves, but it felt like I my hands had borderline frostbite. I was much worse than any other pain I have experienced from the cold. The pain I felt was in my nerves not the surface of my skin, and it resonated throughout my body...not fun, but I felt super cool running that early in the morning. The dumbass part was that, of course, it didn't rain in the early evening and I could have just as easily completed my workout then...whatever...
After all that I had a pretty good tempo workout. I tried to implement a suggestion that I read recently about progressively increasing pace on tempo workouts. After the success I had with a negative split in the half-marathon I think doing tempo workouts this way is good practice. So I started with 4 miles at around 6:55 pace and the last 4 were a bit quicker. Finished the workout averaging 6:50 pace, which was my goal.
On Sunday the team completed our first 20 miler (as a team that is), and for me it was my first long run pace workout. I decided to do a fast finish this week (planning a marathon goal pace run in two weeks). So for my fast finish run I ran the first 10 miles easy at my usual 8:05 - 8:10 pace. On the way back I split the distance into 4 segments (9 miles of it anyway, I left 1 mile for a cool down) and tried to run 7:40, 7:20, 7:00 and 6:40. I came pretty close to doing this and averaged 7:09 over the entire 9 miles, which is below my goal pace. Overall, it was a great workout. The last segment was very difficult, but I am building a little more confidence for the race.
My glucose sensor is working out very nicely. I really like that it helps prevent lows by giving alarms when my sugars drop too low. I have still had a couple of problems, but so far it has helped a lot. It is interesting to see what happens overnight after workouts. Actually not as much as I had originally thought, but I still get some funny readings.
And I am experimenting with making my own bread! At first I think I will just make bread to have as an additional carb source, but if I find a recipe that is good and cheap I might make all my own bread. The first loaf I made is very fiber dense with flax and almond meal. I am going to try to reduce some of the fat by removing the oil and a few other things. It is really easy and fun to make bread...who knew?!?!
Besides that I have been eating a little more. Kind of goes with the territory of upping the mileage. Nothing exciting with eating more, but tasty nonetheless.
Last weeks training:
Tuesday - 11.07 Mile Run w/ Fartlek - 1:24:10 min, 7:36 pace
Wednesday - 6.02 Mile Easy Run - 48:19 min, 8:01 pace
Thursday - 5.23 Mile Recovery Run - 45:26 min, 8:41 pace
Friday - 9.44 Mile Run w/ Tempo - 1:06:07 min, 7:00 pace - 1 mile warm up and cool down - 8 miles @ 6:50 pace
Sunday - 19.80 Mile Run w/ Fast Finish - 2:32:43 min, 7:43 pace
Shoe Mileage -
Asics DS Trainer 13.1 - 342.33
Asics DS Trainer 13.2 - 122.59
Asics DS Trainer 13.3 - 45.61
Asics Gel Bandito - 67.52
