Let the results start rolling in! Week of May 12 - May 18 in review

Last week was an excellent week. We had every intention of hitting 70 miles again last week but weren't able to get there thanks to the weather. With the storms on Monday night last week, we didn't manage to get a run completed. This isn't exactly the way I'd prefer to start off the week but what can you do. On Wednesday, we were seeking a track to run on so we traveled over to Kickapoo to see if we could get on the track there and unfortunately, they were having some sort of sporting event so that wasn't successful. We quickly jumped back in the cars and drove to Glendale. We could have actually used their track facility but just before we started our warm up, we decided that neither one of us were feeling up to it. We jumped in the car again and ventured over to the Sequiota Park to get a run in. It wasn't anything great. In fact, it was actually quite miserable which simply confirmed our decision not to attempt the track workout this evening.

Thursday morning, we decided to attempt to use the Drury track and do our workout. Thankfully, this track is open during the day so we were able to finally get on a track.  The planned workout consisted of 1600, 1200, 1000, 800, 600, 400, 300, 200, with a 400 jog between each one. Since it was our first time to get on a track, we decided to scale back our expectations a bit. The goal was to do the longer distances near 10k pace and then work it down towards 5k pace and under as the distances got shorter. That's precisely what we did. We started out with a 5:33 mile which isn't great but isn't too bad either. The 1200 went even better near 4:05.  The rest of the way we kept progressively speeding up our pace as the distances grew shorter. It sounds easy to do this because the distance is shorter, but keep in mind that fatigue also places a role in the workout the further into it you get. We finished up the workout with a total of 11 miles which meant we had a 3.5 mile cool down afterwards and that simply felt like forever. 

Saturday, we headed to Marionville for the Running of the Squirrels 5k. Kimi was going to race it while I was going to do my own 3 mile tempo. Then immediately following, we were headed to the track there to do 4x400 repeats.  We both managed to have a good 3 mi tempo/race and then quickly headed to the track. We honestly didn't expect to run the type of paces that we managed following the 3 mile tempos. We ran all four 400's at 75-76 seconds with an easy 400 jog between. 

The best part of all of last week was of course the way we finished up the week. Sunday morning, we headed to the Frisco trail to take on the somewhat daunting task of a 22 mile long run. The plan was to run out 6 miles and back followed by out 5 and back. This allows us to trade out water bottles at the car near just over half way through the run. Unfortunately for me, I started to develop a blister on my right heal and could feel the sharpness of it a mere 8 miles into the run. I was simply hoping that I would have a spare pair of thin socks in the car so that I could swap the socks I was wearing and then continue. We made it back to the car and I was in luck. I had stowed away in the center console a pair of thin socks. I quickly changed the socks and we headed back out for the final 10 miles. We were both shocked at how well our run was going after the Thursday workout and Saturday workout as we were expecting to feel some fatigue. Thankfully we didn't. We just kept rolling. Kimi was getting stronger and stronger as the run went on and as we approached the final mile, I looked at her and said, "all you need is sub 6:30 to get to the trials, let's do it."  We started the mile strong knowing that the first .2 would have the wind slightly blocked and the next .3 would be fighting the wind (which at this point was probably approaching 15 mph). We came through the first half mile near 6:33 pace and then had to pick up the pace some more. 6:32, 6:31, 6,30, 6:29, 6:28, went the pace on the garmin. We were doing exactly what we needed to do. We managed to hold strong through the finish. Both of us were pumped up about the results of this one. This is precisely the type of long run we had grown accustomed to during our 2013 marathon training cycles.  

Next up, more speed work and quality mileage. 

Total Mileage - 65

Long Run - 22 miles 

Workouts - 2 quality performances

April 28-May 4 and May 5-May 11 in Review

If you've been following Kimi and me in recent weeks, you've noticed that we've been finally hitting consistent quality mileage.  We finished up April strong and jumped right into May even stronger. Our mileage goal for last week was to hit 70 miles with only one double.  That would mean that we would have 50 miles prior to our weekend long run which just happened to fall on Sunday this week because we headed down to Bradleyville for a 5k on Saturday.

In past years, Kimi usually goes to Bradleyville on her own while I go to the Republic May Day 5k. This year we decided to both go to Bradleyville together.  It turned out to be a great decision this year because I was able to get 2nd place. Our scheduled long run for this week was a 20 miler. We decided to head up to Frisco like we usually do but instead of running out 10 and back 10, we decided to make it a double out and back because this would allow us to stay on the part of the trail with trees to help block the winds. I just get so tired of fighting wind everyday so once in a while, it's nice to avoid it as much as possible. Our run went great. We managed to clip off mile after mile under 7 min pace and even added a finishing mile around 6:30. It was a good solid long run making that 3 straight weekends with great long runs.

April 28-May 4
Goal - 70 miles
Actual - 70 miles

The goal last week was to cut our miles back slightly to 68 miles. I began the week by getting ready for a 7 mile run on Monday following the 20 miler the day before only to cut the run short due to pain in my right lower leg. Rather than push through and turn it into a full blown injury, I decided to stop at a mile, walk back home, grab a bike, and ride the rest with Kimi. The next day I could still feel some discomfort in the right leg but it was only slight. I decided to give the run a shot and fortunately the leg didn't flare up much and I was able to complete the 9 miles on the schedule. That evening, I made sure to get some treatment from Kimi so I could try and get my legs to fully heal up which would allow me to get right back on track for the remainder of the week. We did an easy double on Wednesday which totaled 12 miles. Our runs up to this point hadn't been anything special. In fact, they were less than mediocre really. The 20 on Sunday had really taken it out of both of us. Heading into our scheduled 6 mile tempo run on Thursday, we were both thinking there was no chance we'd have a good one.  Our warm-up started out about as slow as we've ever run for a warm up. We now stood there at the starting point for a 6 mile tempo and I was seriously debating whether to even give it a shot when Kimi turned to me and said, "let's at least try and see what happens."  So that's what we did. We clicked off our first mile and much to my surprise, we were on a decent pace, near 6min mile. So we just kept rolling down the trail clicking off mile after mile (not stellar, but under marathon goal pace for Kimi), until mile 5.  Kimi and I were both starting to tire out a bit but I told her that we were going to keep going for as long as we could maintain under her goal marathon pace or until 6 miles; which ever came first. We were both pretty excited when we finished because the workout went much better than we thought it was going to though it wasn't as good as we would have liked when planning out the training cycle.

We now had one day to recover prior to our next long workout during a 17 mile long run. The goal was to run 3x3mile with the first around 6:10 pace, second near 6:00, and the third sub 6:00 pace. This workout started out awesome. We nailed the first press 15 seconds under pace. The second was just under pace as well. The third one didn't go exactly as planned but it wasn't too bad either. All in all, this workout was a great test of our strength and ability to turn around in only 48 hours to push hard again.

Week Goal - 68 miles
Actual Miles - 62 (good enough for me)

Bring on next week!