My official Meet of Miles results came in and they had me at 5:53 instead of the 5:51 I had. With this year’s goals being all about improving as the year goes on, I thought I’d also track my age graded %. The one mile results calculate to right around 68%. I can’t remember ever being below 70%, so I have some work to do.
Before leaving for Houston I squeezed in a 4 mile tempo run at 6:54 pace. That was the first time I dipped under 7:00-pace this training cycle, so that was encouraging. Last Friday I followed that up with 5 miles at 6:53 pace. So things seem to be going in the right direction.
This new “Endless Season” approach emphasizes alternating short and long intervals every week. That’s one thing I haven’t been very good about incorporating. I did an okay job in December when the weather was still nice, but I went from December 26th to January 24th between interval workouts. In my defense, the meet of miles was on January 9th.
In any case, this morning I did 4 x 1 mile at my 10K pace with ½ mile jog in between. The workout actually called for five mile repeats, but I stopped after four because 1) it was my first such workout and I was more concerned with easing into it and 2) I’m running a half marathon on Saturday and don’t want to be trashed. Those seemed like good enough reasons at the time.
Mileage-wise I’ve been hovering between 50-60 MPW, but dropped to 40 during my trip to Houston. I have thoughts of going higher, but I keep reminding myself that the “Endless Season” is about consistency and mixing in speed and tempos. I’m just afraid if I creep up much higher, the workouts will fall from my program.
I will say that while I love to ski, I really needed a winter like this where I can focus on getting back into running shape – especially after my foot injury. If we would have had enough snow to ski on, I’m afraid I wouldn’t be running as much, which would delay me regaining my running fitness even further.
Quote of the Day;
"Then I heard I finished in 10th place and that was pretty exciting, and someone told me I won $4,000, too. But I don’t care about the money. That will go away, but the time never will.” - Jimmy Grabow, 10th at the Olympic Trials Marathon
3 comments:
I had to look up "endless season" as I had not heard of that before. How is this working out for you?
Andrew, it's too early to tell. 1) because I missed 6 weeks to injury and 2) because it's the middle of winter and I'm just trying to do what I can.
Once I start entering some races, I should have a better idea.
Good Luck this weekend!
Timob
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