It was cold as balls in New England this week. Actually, the
temperature of “balls” is typically about 96°F so it was much colder than
balls. Maybe the expression “cold as balls” refers to the temperature of
snowballs. If that is the case, then this week it was exactly as cold outside
as were any snowballs that were left outside. Anyway, you get my point. It was
cold.
In general, I like to run in the cold. If it’s 20-32°F I like to use it
as an opportunity to build toughness just in case it is cold on race day. If
it’s <20°F on race day, I’ll find another race. If it’s <20°F on any
other day, I’ll find a way to move my workout inside.
It feels like I took the week off (from running, I did plenty of time
in the office) because I missed my long and I don’t know how to convert
treadmill miles into real miles…
Here are the details from this week:
1/21/13 – 1/27/13: 4 Runs, 0 Injury, 1 Missed Workout, 2 Scheduled Rest
Days, 35.28 Miles, 4:00:41.
- Monday: Rest day scheduled. Rest day taken.
- Tuesday: Reggie Lewis Track with Coach Toomey. 4x400m, 3x Mile. Scheduled pace of 1:24 per 400m and 5:40 per Mile with 1:30 rest after the 4s and 4:00 rest after the miles. I started with ~2.15 miles of warm-up, 400m strides in 1:15 and then went into the 400s. 400m times were: 1:21, 1:22, 1:21, 1:23. My miles were 5:33, 5:38 and 5:39. I ended with a 2.6 mile cool down.
- Wednesday: I did an MP workout on the treadmill. 15 minute warm up. 5 miles at ~6:39. Cool down until the treadmill clock ran out at 1:00:00. Total distance: 8.56.
- Thursday: I got off work late and didn'tWe want to run in the cold so I did an easy hour on the treadmill for 8.21 miles.
- Friday: Rest day scheduled. Date night with Sarah!
- Saturday: 9.52 miles in 1:00:00 on the treadmill. When I got in my car to drive home from work, the temperature was 21°F according to my dash and I thought I was going to finally get to do this workout outside. My car was parked in the sun all day so as the sun set on the drive home the temperature fell to 16°F so I went for the treadmill.
- Sunday: I was really looking forward to Sunday. I expected to do 17.5 for my first long run in far too many weeks. I just could not get out of work today. I was just so drained after work that all I could do was go home and watch Top Gear. I hope I can turn tomorrow into a long run…
I’m off to Malta, NY in the morning tomorrow until Wednesday which will
throw off my training a bit more for next week, but I’ll try to manage. Maybe
I’ll switch my week around a bit and do hills on Tuesday in NY and do my track
workout on Thursday with GLRR in Lexington.
They’re not all good weeks, and this one wasn't a good one. Here’s to
hoping that week 3 will be better than week 2.
2 week down and 15 weeks left
until Providence!
May your training miles be ever
hilly and may all your races have free beer!
Hmm, the phrase "cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey" refers to cannonballs. The brass monkey held then in place on the gun deck, but the brass contracts at a different rate than the iron balls. So if it was REALLY cold, the brass would contract enough for some of the balls to ride up over the edge of the monkey and enjoy a bit of freedom rolling around the deck.
ReplyDeleteNo single workout or single week will make or break a marathon training cycle, it's the entire body of work (and some luck) that you bring to race day that matters.