This Week on the Journey (9/28 – 10/4)

This week started out with my third race of the year, Big House Big Heart in Ann Arbor. A 14 minute PR!

Monday was a ‘dark and rainy night…’ so instead of doing my run outside, I moved it to the treadmill, planning on a nice easy 4 miles. The ‘problem’ that has come up on the treadmill is that I’ve had to slow myself down compared to my outdoor runs to prevent myself from crashing before I finish. Now that I know that, though, it’s become less of an issue as I’ve slowed down and made my treadmill runs truly slow and easy. This one was 4 miles in 40:45.

Tuesday was the first of two training sessions for the week. I keep waiting for my body to get used to the evening training, but it doesn’t seem to be working out so well yet. Ryan doesn’t seem to be too concerned about it, as each time I feel the lightheadedness, it tends to be a workout with a lot of engagement of a lot of muscles. This workout was done while wearing approximately 25 extra lbs in the weighted vest. Exercises included Squats, pushups, kettle ball squats, hockey lunges, alternating leg lateral jumps onto aerobic step, TRX 2 arm angle rows, TRX band biceps, oversize medicine ball throw with pushups, leg extension from weight bench, as well as some hip engagement exercises, lateral and forward walking with a resistance band attached to my feet and strung over my shoulders.

Wednesday was an after class run day. M didn’t feel up to running with me this night, so it was off to the gym treadmill on my own for 800m interval work. Four intervals, with 1/4 mile walking recoveries. The first interval I started at a 7.0 mph pace, but when that felt too easy, increased it to a 7.2 mph for the second and third intervals, and finally a 7.4 mph final interval.

Thursday was initially scheduled to be the second strength session for the week, but Ryan moved that to Friday due to some scheduling conflicts on his end (read: he wanted the day off on Thursday). So instead I returned to the gym for a treadmill run. This time I wanted to try for 6, which would be my longest treadmill run to date. I started off slow again (10:20 pace), and settled into a zone, watching a football game on the gym tv. As my usual stopping point of 4 miles ticked by, I felt strong enough to keep going, and ended up finishing my 6 mile goal in just a bit over an hour.

Friday brought the second training session of the week. Apparently my body isn’t used to the morning workout sessions anymore either, as I felt weak and a little shaky from the beginning, despite having eaten an hour beforehand. I had stopped at REI on my way to the gym to pick up some gel fuels for my runs, and because I was feeling weak from the beginning, headed out to the truck for one about 10 minutes into the workout. It helped, but only moderately. Overall it wasn’t a particularly good session, but those happen sometimes. Friday’s exercises included Highstep through ‘ladder’ followed by front/back in and out (holding 15 lb medicine ball), TRX band rows, alternating steps onto aerobic step w/ dumbbells, biceps using weight machine, reverse lunges, walking lunges (Ryan noted good form on these). Finished with 1,000 m row.

Saturday was the day of rest, in preparation for an attempt at 12 miles for next week’s Sunday Long Run.

~ by fatboyrunning on October 6, 2008.