May 20th – 26th
Mon: 50 min easy + 5 x 15 sec strides + 5 min.
Complete. Warsaw. 11.68km.
https://www.strava.com/activities/11456731518
Tue: 15 min WU, 1 mile @ 5:50 (90) 4 x (4 x 400 @ 78, 78, 75, 78 (30)) 400m jog between sets, 15 min CD.
Complete on Friday morning. Hot and hard. Couple extra breaks breaks between reps. Mile in 5:40.
400s: (77, 76, 75, 76), (76, 76, 75, 77), (78, 76, 76, 76), (79, 78, 75, 76). 15.94km total.
https://www.strava.com/activities/11484216696
Wed: 60 min.
Complete. 13.01km. https://www.strava.com/activities/11472349310
Thur: 15 min WU, 4 x 6 min @ 3:50 km pace (60) , 15 min CD.
Complete (Tuesday morning in Warsaw). Reps working down to 3:30. 13.47 km total. https://www.strava.com/activities/11460618009
Fri: Off
Sat: 15 min WU, 10 x 400 @ 90 (30) jog to hill 5 x 30 sec hills (easy jog back) , 15 min CD.
Complete on Sunday. 13.93km.
https://www.strava.com/activities/11499352196
Sun: 70 min easy.
Complete on Saturday. 15.07km. https://www.strava.com/activities/11492211274
This week had a lot of accepting and a lot of moving forward. I flew out late to Warsaw on Sunday evening for work and was there until Friday night. Due to the nature of the trip, work had to take precedence over running so there was a lot of moving the schedule around to try fit everything in. Considering the circumstances, and particularly the weather, I think I did a good job at getting everything done.
It wasn’t my first trip to Warsaw so I had a fair idea of where I wanted to go for my easy runs and my sessions. On Monday, I went to the Royal Lazienki park and did some loops there. The park is stunning and there are evening gigs during the summer months with guest pianists playing the best of Chopin’s piano concertos. On the way back, I took a detour to go past the US Embassy and take a look at the Ronald Reagan statue. I do this every time and I am not sure why. It was fun though.
Instead of 400’s on Tuesday, I got up early and did my steady Thursday session in the morning. I headed to a lovely park that is half way between my office and the hotel with wide paths and plenty of loops. The park was jammed at 6:30am with people exercising and there was a great buzz around the place. I ticked off the 6 minute reps pretty handy and worked the paces down as I progressed. My legs felt good but my HR was high and I am attributing that to an early session without eating and the heat. I am not accustomed to sessions on a weekday morning so I am happy that this was a success. I used to have very good habits of running before work (mainly easy runs) and this trip has me thinking I may resurrect this for the summer months.
A nun and a lamborghini – a beautiful juxtaposition.
Wednesday’s easy run was a marauding ramble without any planning and I somehow ended up back in the same park as I was in on Tuesday. The park was even busier than Tuesday (as it was after work) and I ticked off the run without anything to note. The 60 minute easy jaunt on a Wednesday has largely being used for recovery from the Tuesday track session in recent months to it was nice to be doing this run not on tired legs for a change. I am starting to notice that my shoes are at the beginning of not offering me the requisite support as I felt like I was pounding the ground a touch, even though I was striking on my forefoot. Marathon training will be kicking off in earnest in July so I will likely hold out until then to purchase any new daily trainers.
I had planned to do the mile and 400’s on Thursday evening after work but I left the office feeling jaded. I was up early, worked through lunch and was in meetings all day – not the ideal prep for the hardest session of the week. I was meeting my friend Brian later in the evening for dinner so I decided to push the session to Friday morning (two morning sessions in a week!) and take an impromptu day off. Once the decision was made, I felt instant relief as I knew the session was likely going to result in me being on the struggle bus and I had now given my self a stay of execution. Of course, once I sat down for dinner and was not running, I immediately felt the guilt of not just getting it done that evening like I had initially planned. The mind boggles.
Dinner on Thursday was pizza so I was adequately carbed up for an early session on Friday – or so I thought. I headed for the park with the intention of starting the session at 8am but I knew this was already a bad idea on the warm up. The sun was beating down and a quick check on the weather app, as I was stuck at traffic lights, told me that it was 26 degrees. I recalibrated my expectations for this session before it even begun and did my best to be ok with not hitting the paces and getting a good stimulus. The mile went off without a hitch and then it was into the 4 x 400’s. Each rep was off 30 seconds rest and 400m jog between each set. The splits were 77, 76, 75, 76 + 76, 76, 75, 77 + 78, 76, 76, 76 + 79, 78, 75, 76. This session was hell. The paces were not as spicy as the prior week but I really struggled to keep the legs turning over with the heat and the tiredness from the week of work and eating out. The ground somehow felt soft, like it was a suction cup for my feet and every step was taking 50% more energy than it usually does. I took as much rest as I could between the sets but the 30 seconds rest between the reps is a cruel and unusual punishment that should be outlawed as part of the Geneva Convention. This session fully put me in a hole… and made me resemble a sweaty Jimmy Neutron.
Home time on Friday evening and, with a session on Friday morning, I moved my usual Saturday session to Sunday and ran 70 minutes easy on Saturday morning. I was mainly in Catherine’s Park for this and it has been a while since I have ran there. There are a number of loops that are all conveniently separated by steep climbs so there is great stimulus in any run that you do there. The weather was beautiful, too, so I spent most of the run on grass (or trails?).
The final run of the week was 400’s (AGAIN!!?) and 5 x 30 second hills. Mercifully, the 400’s were at a much more sedate pace than previously and I was much the better for it. The 30 seconds rest returned but it is much more manageable when the reps themselves are manageable. I did the 400’s on the Acres and jogged to Khyber for the hills. Juan Pena was doing a similar session himself and we shared some reps together before finishing and jogging back to the Acres. For context, I was doing approx 180 metres in 30 seconds and he was doing approx 205 metres. The second time in a week I have been put in a hole. The ego is not in a good place.
This ends the hardest of the training ahead of two easier weeks leading into Bohermeen 5K on Saturday June 8th. The schedule is lighter than I have had in months to I am hoping the body reacts well to the taper and I do not start to get jittery or feel stale. There will still be a smidge of speed work with the volume much reduced. Two weeks to race day and chasing a PB but, most importantly, the elusive mention in a Donal Coakley blog post
Buckets of Rain 