Weekly Work-out Wrap-up

This week I learned an important lesson that one would think would be common sense:

**Writing down a goal pace for any given work-out does NOT mean that pace will be achieved!**

Doh!

This was the first week of my Furman FIRST Run Less, Run Faster marathon training program. Since there are only 3 runs a week, they are all hard efforts. Hard effort I can do. Effort-beyond-what-my body-has-ever-even-contemplated-doing I cannot do. When I put this plan together I calculated my BQ pace and looked at my current best paces and split the difference in half for the paces I would use for this training program. I figured that would bring me a step closer to a BQ race in the next few years. (Current BQ for me is 3:40).

Essentially, I'll be training at paces intended for a sub-4 hour marathon. My current PR is 4:20:58, so this may seem absurdly ambitious (and maybe it is) but that PR was in a race in which I was relaxed, running for fun, and not short of breath or in any amount of distress at all until the last 6 miles. And the last 6 miles were mostly just hot, I still wasn't short of breath or pushing too hard. So if I can keep it together mentally throughout this training cycle and push, push, PUSH, the workout paces for a 4 hr marathon should be *close* to doable.

But, they won't be automatically doable, that's for sure. On Monday I was supposed to run 4 x800 @ 7:20 pace. I'm not sure I've ever tried to run 7:20 for any distance, ever. Hmm. Why did I write that down on the schedule and think nothing of it??? I got down to 7:41 pace though and probably, maybe could have gone a bit faster. Yow-za, this is going to be a tough training cycle!

Overall, it was not a great training week for me. I didn't get my long run in, I didn't swim, my weight workouts were short. I'm still working to get back on my regular sleeping schedule.

But I HAVE to kick a** this week because otherwise one bad week will turn into a trend, and we don't want that do we?

By the numbers:

Miles run (completed/planned): 14/25 (ouch!)
Days of Week I Ran: 7/7
Long run: 0/1
Speed work sessions: 1/1 Speed work completed at goal time: 0/1
Hill Work: 0/1
Biking sessions: 1/2
Swimming sessions: 0/2
Weights: 2/2
Days I Ate Healthfully and Sparingly: don't remember, but don't think it was too bad!


For next week, there will be no excuses:

Monday (Long Call): weights
Tuesday: 13 miles @ 9:30
Wednesday: swim, spinning (6:15p)
Thursday (Day off): xc-ski (w/ enough intensity to count as x-training)
Friday (Long Call): 1200 @ 7:50, 1000 @ 7:40, 800/600/400 w/ 200 m rest intervals
Saturday: swim, 7 miles w/ 5 miles @ 8:45
Sunday: weights, xc-ski

Looking at that schedule makes me nervous. That's a lot of freakin' exercise!

Happy Sunday to all!