Next Visit to the Track, Next Mesocycle
Today's run: 5.5 miles of General Aerobic at 8:45 pace and VO2 Max workout of 6 x 600 m
Just two days after the longest run of my life, I nearly
forgot that I might not feel fresh and ready to run today. Then I started my warm-up run of 5.5 miles, and my quads were the first to complain. I felt sluggish, but my heart rate never really got up. I hit the turnaround point and headed back up the hills on MLK Drive, and just didn't feel like going very fast. Still, 8:45 pace is perfectly acceptable, though it is the slowest General Aerobic run I've done in San Francisco. On the way back, I caught a few pitches of a baseball game. First pitch for a strike, next pitch a single to right-center, and then an overthrown pick-off attempt brought the runner to third.
I felt like the first of my 600 meter runs, targeting a theoretical 5K pace like last time, was going to indicate that the set would be rather difficult. I finished it one second faster than my target pace, but that was four seconds slower than all of my 600m runs last time. Then I got a little excited since I peeled off the next three at 2:21, pleased with my consistency, and also pleased that I was close enough to the target pace. But then I sensed the end was near, and sped up.
A comparison between last time (blue) and this:
All of them under the target, all of them slower than last time, but the last one being the same speed (#5 last time = #6 this time).
• • •
I've now begun the third mesocycle of the training program: Race Preparation. This mesocycle, four weeks long, features a trip to the track every week, and two 10k races (one of which will be simulated this Saturday). There will be the longest Marathon Goal Pace run (14 miles after a 3 mile warm-up), and I will attempt another longest run ever at 22 miles. I will average 50 miles each week.
I think this is like the last, long hill in a big run. If I can stay healthy and get these four weeks done, I'll feel like the remaining weeks before the race will be, in effect, downhill.
Then there's just the race itself.
Just two days after the longest run of my life, I nearly
forgot that I might not feel fresh and ready to run today. Then I started my warm-up run of 5.5 miles, and my quads were the first to complain. I felt sluggish, but my heart rate never really got up. I hit the turnaround point and headed back up the hills on MLK Drive, and just didn't feel like going very fast. Still, 8:45 pace is perfectly acceptable, though it is the slowest General Aerobic run I've done in San Francisco. On the way back, I caught a few pitches of a baseball game. First pitch for a strike, next pitch a single to right-center, and then an overthrown pick-off attempt brought the runner to third.I felt like the first of my 600 meter runs, targeting a theoretical 5K pace like last time, was going to indicate that the set would be rather difficult. I finished it one second faster than my target pace, but that was four seconds slower than all of my 600m runs last time. Then I got a little excited since I peeled off the next three at 2:21, pleased with my consistency, and also pleased that I was close enough to the target pace. But then I sensed the end was near, and sped up.
A comparison between last time (blue) and this:
All of them under the target, all of them slower than last time, but the last one being the same speed (#5 last time = #6 this time).• • •
I've now begun the third mesocycle of the training program: Race Preparation. This mesocycle, four weeks long, features a trip to the track every week, and two 10k races (one of which will be simulated this Saturday). There will be the longest Marathon Goal Pace run (14 miles after a 3 mile warm-up), and I will attempt another longest run ever at 22 miles. I will average 50 miles each week.
I think this is like the last, long hill in a big run. If I can stay healthy and get these four weeks done, I'll feel like the remaining weeks before the race will be, in effect, downhill.
Then there's just the race itself.
posted by Brent at
8:24 PM
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