11 weeks left until Baystate. 2014 has thus far been an uninspiring year of racing for me so this cycle will need to rival the buildup for Maine Coast in 2013.
This was the plan for W01:
Monday: Rest. Recover from the achilles issue that ended my overly ambitious attempt to win the Around the Lake Marathon last week. (Dropped out while in second place due to the achilles issue. Winning time was slower than both Maine Coast 2013 and Manchester City 2013 but faster than my Boston 2014).
Tuesday: Track. 2 Mile Time-Trial fitness test. I wanted 10:40 which would have matched the fastest I’ve ever run 2 miles.
Wednesday: Easy Recovery. 6 miles.
Thursday: Easy run, keep from tightening up before the flight to Korea.
Friday: Rest. No way around taking the day off. Taxi shows up at 3:30am and I’ll be in taxis, in airports or flying until ~5pm on Saturday.
Saturday: 3 Mile Shake Out. Sitting for as long as it takes to fly to Korea isn’t easy on the legs. I need a nice easy shake-out before trying to log any real miles. Planning to run this on the treadmill at the Shilla Stay. I don’t know the neighborhood well enough to adventure out yet.
Sunday: 9 Mile Long Run. It’s embarrassing to call 9 miles a long run but that’s where my training is today. Better to swallow my pride and work my way back up slowly. My best shot at <2:50 at Baystate is not the get (or stay) injured.
Here’s how the week actually shook out:
Monday: Rest. When you’re not running well it is easy to keep your rest days. Got the stick and worked on my right calf and down into the achilles to try to break apart whatever’s causing the pain.
Tuesday: Warm-Up: 2 miles in 14:47. TimeTrial: 2 miles in 11:04. Cool-Down: 2 miles in 14:56. Set off at 80 sec/400m pace which is what I typically use for 800s and mile repeats. Came through the first lap a few seconds hot which probably took a toll later. Splits were 5:26 and 5:38 so not a strong way to get to 11:04. Running 17:10 for the 5k trying to stay on Scott’s heels was easier than this essentially solo time trial. I started lapping others at the clinic before I finished the first mile and I had to work hard not to adapt to the pace of the packs of other runners as I tried to pass. I’m not as confident on the track as I once was; hopefully this clinic will help with that.
Wednesday: 6.29 miles at 7:52 pace. Took my normal 5.96 mile loop of Pine Banks Park but started up-hill from my house rather than down-hill because my ankle hurts a lot more on the down-hills than it does on up-hill or flat. Starting with the up-hill let me take a more gentle route down to Washington Street and kept the ankle feeling OK throughout the run.
Thursday: Skipped this run to go out to dinner with Sarah and then come home to play with Freddie. I can run in Korea (I hope), I can’t have dinner with Sarah or play with the puppy from the other side of the world.
Friday: I made my flight. That’s about all I can say. I would be lying if I said that every flight to Korea is exactly the same but none of them are interesting enough to say anything about.
Saturday: 5 miles on the treadmill in 33:38 as soon as I got to the hotel.
Sunday: Missed my long run. I had the traditional second-day-in-Korea hangover.
Total Mileage: 17.29
Total Time: 2:03:52
Mean Pace: 7:10
Injury Status: The right heel seems to be recovering fairly well. I've got some sharp pain along the outside of the left knee whenever I put lateral pressure on it but it isn't a bother while running.
Estimated Fitness (what marathon I think I could run right now): 3:10-3:15
Next Week’s Plan:
Monday: 6 Easy in Dongtan Park
Tuesday: Intervals (Probably doing my track work on the treadmill)
Wednesday: 6 Easy in Dongtan Park
Thursday: 3 at MP (plus 1 up, 1 down)
Friday: Rest (Hopefully fly back to Boston)
Saturday: 8.5 Easy (2.5 mile lap on Pine Banks at MP if I’m back home)
Sunday: 11 LR
Plan subject to change pending feedback from Coach Toomey. Actual may look quite different pending how things go with the customer this week.
Cheers!
Here's a picture of a dog wearing a raptor costume just because this post has been all text...and our neighborhood apparently has a pets-in-costumes parade coming up in September.
By the way, there's a "Super Typhoon" scheduled to hit Korea tonight so we'll tonight's run might move inside to the treadmill.
