I had an incredible tempo run last week. It might be the fastest I've run since my college days, so yeah, I was walking a little taller than usual. ;) It was 7.5 miles at 6:54 pace. The slowest mile was 6:59 (at mile 3) and the fastest was 6:50 (at mile 1), but most miles were right at 6:54. Weather wise, I couldn't complain with the temperature right around 70 degrees (a good 10 degrees cooler than last week's tempo). Overall, a great running day.The rest of week generally went fine. The day before my tempo I actually ran a four miler at 7:30 pace. Faster than I planned, but it just happened and it didn't feel hard. Of course, this all sounds great, but the last week or so I've started to have some crazy tightness in the old Achilles tendons. Yes, both. I've been pretty faithful with stretching and my mileage hasn't been increasing at a rapid rate, which leads me to believe that perhaps I'm paying a price for the hard tempo runs. I was a little nervous for my long run. I purposefully took Thursday, Friday, and Saturday easy in hopes that I'd be okay for Sunday's long run.
Sunday came, the long run was completed, and that's the important part. It was just warm, ridiculously humid, and I felt sluggish. I wound up averaging 9:11 pace for 18.6 miles. I did run negative splits. My last several miles were at 8:40 pace. Honestly, the pace wouldn't have bothered me if it had felt easy, but it felt hard. I was literally soaked with sweat when I got home, like I jumped in a pool soaked. Seriously, Nick had to wash the floor where I entered. I asked Nick to hand me a small bottle of Gatorade (so as not to increase the sweat radius), which I sucked down in 30 seconds. Then I asked him to hand me another along with the ice cube trays. To which he gave me a befuddled look and asked, "What are you planning to do with the ice cube trays?" He looked concerned. Nothing too crazy, just an ice bath, silly! He looked relieved. I wonder what he thought I was going to do with them...Anyway, I took an ice bath, drank the second Gatorade, and felt moderately better. I had a splitting headache and felt tired, but I was feeling like my perky old self a few hours later.
My Achilles tendons did feel tight throughout the long run. I might cut out the speed work for the coming week and go back to running only three days a week. The last month or so I've been running four days a week because I love running and I've been feeling good, but it might not be good for my overall training goals. I'll let you know how it goes!
Last Week's Training Log:
Monday: 4.5 mile run at 8:59 pace
Tuesday: 4 mile run at 7:30 pace
Wednesday: 7.5 mile tempo run at 6:54 pace
Thursday: Off
Friday: 50 minutes on the stationary bike
Saturday: 1.5 mile easy run (didn't have my watch so no pace)
Sunday: 18.6 miles at 9:11 pace
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2 comments:
Your tempos are amazing! So fast and it seemed easy? Sweet! As far as the long run goes, I had a similar experience during my last long runs...it's a horrible feeling to be running and dripping sweat. Lets hope for better weather this week! Hope the Achilles feel better!
I am always so inspired by your training. I can't imagine running in that kind of whether. I tend to run early (as early as 5 am) when it is usually in the 58-62 range, and we just don't get that kind of humidity here in California. And your times were amazing!
As for your achilles--the HealWell night splint has been the thing that has taken care of my achilles tendonitis. Hopefully you won't need it!
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