Thursday’s Run
On Thursday I met the JSRC track group at 6pm at Vanderbilt to complete my weekly “speed” workout. I did the week 6 “speed” workout prescribed in the Hansons Advanced Training Plan. This was the first “speed” workout with more than 3-miles of intervals. It was a ladder that consisted of 400m / 800m / 1200m / 1600m / 1200m / 800m / 400m with 400m recovery in-between each interval. This equates to 4-miles of intervals and 1.75-miles of recovery.
While the humidity was down a touch from normal, then temps were hovering around 90º at the start time for the workout, which made this workout a BEAST!
It was a HUGE challenge, but overall I did WAAAAAY better than I expected. Here’s a breakdown:
Warmup
- 1.65-miles easy
- 6 x 100m Stride Outs
Workout
- 400m fresh (1:40) / 400m recovery
- 800m fresh (3:23) / 400m recovery
- 1200m fresh (5:09) / 400m recovery
- 1600m fresh (6:54) / 400m recovery
- 1200m fresh (4:58) / 400m recovery
- 800m fresh (3:17) / 400m recovery
- 400m fresh (1:32) / 400m recovery
Cool Down
- 1.19-miles easy
So, all told I got in 9-miles of work. As you can see, my splits on the journey back down the ladder were slightly quicker than on the way up. This was quite encouraging during a touch workout. I could feel so much heat in my face that I was splashing water on my face after every interval.
Saturday’s Run
After an off-day on Friday, Saturday was my fifth “tempo” run of the Hansons Advanced Plan. The objective was to complete 7-miles at goal marathon pace (7:26). My friend Nathan joined me for this workout in Percy Warner Park at the picnic area between mile marker 7 & 8 on the main drive.
The humidity felt thick, but with a slightly lower dew point than normal, and temps in the low 70s, the weather actually felt fairly pleasant for July. We also mostly stayed in the shade, which made it even better. I selected this location to begin getting some elevation change into the tempo work, since I know this will be a big need for St. George. I also needed a change of location since our previous 5 tempo workouts had all been in the same place.
We did a 2.2-mile out of the park onto Chickering road and back, including 4 stride outs. We decided to break the “tempo” portion into 3 sections to allow us to grab some fluid. For the first and third section we did a 2-mile loop on the main drive between the 7 & 8 mile markers. With these loops, the first mile is a net uphill, while the second is a net downhill. This makes for quite a bit of variance in split times. for the middle section we did a 1.5-mile out-and-back onto Chickerning. Here’s a breakdown…
- Mile 1 – 7:55 (uphill)
- Mile 2 – 7:23 (downhill)
- Mile 3 – 7:20 (downhill)
- Mile 4 – 7:38 (uphill)
- Mile 5 – 7:38 (uphill)
- Mile 6 – 8:14 (uphill)
- Mile 7 – 7:12 (downhill)
Overall our average for the tempo section was 7:37, which is a bit high, but I’ll take it considering all of the elevation change in the route:
After a .91-mile cool down we finished with just over 10-miles for the morning, and I felt WAAAAY better than expected after the tough speed workout on Thursday. This was also the smoothest I’ve felt with my stride since starting the Hansons Plan.
Sunday’s Run
Unfortunately I slept right through my alarm on Sunday morning, so ended up having to do my 7-mile run at 7:30pm when it was still almost 90º. I expected this run to be a train wreck, but it ended up being fantastic. I did a big loop starting from my house and going through the surrounding neighborhoods and the Harpeth River Greenway. Understandably, after a tough running week, my legs were really, really tight and grinding during the first two miles, but during mile three things really loosened up, and I fell into a great rhythm. My stride felt great again just like on Saturday. Here’s a breakdown of my splits:
With this run I finished out week 6 with 50.4 total miles, which is my first 50+ mile week since at least January 2013. This also marks 7 straight weeks with 40+ miles completed, and if I can stay on track with the schedule I should be in the 50+ range until the final 2 weeks before St. George.
Even though I had a good week of running, my cross-training was a different story. I only got in a leg workout on Monday and a chest workout on Saturday:
Chest (Saturday)
- Standard Pushups (30 reps)
- Military Pushups (17 reps)
- Wide Pushups (40 reps)
- Decline Pushups (35 reps)
- Diamond Pushups (15 reps)
Total = 137 reps
“I dare you to train for a marathon, and not have it change your life.”
-Susan Sidoriak