Mile Markers: Speeding Up

Mile Markers: Speeding Up

Happy Easter and congrats to all of the Boston Marathon finishers! 

I took yesterday off from blogging because of Easter. I have the tendency to always be working or training, so on holidays, I just need to embrace the opportunity to rest completely for a day.  Instead of worrying about a blog post being up, Ryan and I celebrated Easter and enjoyed the beautiful spring weather that came with it. It was warm enough to wear shorts yesterday, so needless to say, we spent most of the day outside. 

This week I ramped up my hard workouts to specifically target the 10K, which is now just under 3 weeks away. Since I’ve been in my “on season” of race training since August (with a brief recovery period after each big race), I am doing a short sharpening period to fine tune my race specific fitness. For the 10K, that means a combination of some threshold work, some speedwork, and plenty of goal pace training. 

I did less strength training and overall mileage this week, due to the increased speedwork and the holiday weekend. Easter weekend is a big celebration in our household. This next week will be picking back up both the miles and the strength training – while getting in some challenging speed workouts as well.  

Mile Markers: Speeding Up

Monday: 8 x 1K repeats & 40 minutes strength training

When I did this same workout during half marathon training, I ran the splits slightly faster. Initially, I wished this workout had been at the same paces or faster, but overall I’m really pleased with how it went. I averaged a 7:08/mile pace for most of the repeats, so I was really pleased with this workout. I didn’t complete my 8th repeat (I stopped at about 700m) because an elderly man had fallen on the trail and needed help getting up. 

My foot finally feels good enough to add some plyometrics back into training. I think plyos before were causing my calves to tighten up, which would trigger my PF when doing them. Now that I’ve been taking extra care to roll and stretch my calves, they don’t tighten up as suddenly or easily. This workout was really fun:

2 x 15 kettlebell swing
2 x 12 single leg deadlift with med ball
2 x 25 toe taps
2 x 10 Bulgarian split squat with med ball
2 x 12 elevated plank rows with kettlebell
1 x 10 squat jumps
2 x 20 med ball squat and throws
2 x 20 bridges with med ball 
2 x 15 side plank with leg lifts
2 x 10 bird dog with oblique crunch
2 x 10 burpees 

Tuesday: 5 mile easy run 

I originally intended to run Ollie this morning, but out of habit, we fed the dogs at their normal breakfast time. I get so fixed into a routine so easily that I am used to Wednesday, not Tuesday, being Ollie’s run day with me. Dogs can’t safely run within 2 hours of a meal (otherwise they risk torsion of their stomach and intestines) and I didn’t want to delay my morning, so poor Ollie had to stay at home and cried as I put him in his crate.

There was nothing notable about the run itself – 5 easy miles at a 9:19/mile average pace – but the weather was glorious. While it was chilly outside, no a single cloud dotted the brilliantly blue sky. Sunshine always feels amazing in Seattle, especially after this terribly rainy winter. 

Mile Markers: Speeding Up

Wednesday: 8 mile speed workout

10K training means speedwork! To be honest, this workout intimidated me just a little bit, especially since it was (surprise) windy and rainy. The workout required close attention to pacing and running at a hard effort by the end, to mimic the feeling of having to push at the end of a 10K race. 

Mile Markers: Speeding Up

The workout:
20 minute warm up (~2.3 miles)
1 mile at 10K pace (7:05), 3 minute recovery jog
3/4 mile at 8K pace (6:53), 3 minute recovery jog
1/2 mile at 5K pace (6:50), 2:30 minute recovery jog
1/4 mile at 3K pace (6:35)
20 minute cool down (~2.3 miles)

I was anticipating the 1/2 mile and 1/4 mile intervals to be particularly uncomfortable, but they really weren’t too bad – each interval went surprisingly fast. I was thrilled to hit my paces, especially since the wind can whip around at what feels like every direction on my route. 

Thursday: 3 mile easy run 

It’s finally light at 6 AM! Ryan and I spent months doing our Thursday morning runs in the dark and the earlier sunrise is so welcome. We took Charlie with us since our Saturday runs are now too long to do with him. Our run includes many stops to accommodate Charlie’s bathroom needs and we probably could have run 4 miles in the amount of same time without him, but he enjoys running so much that it was worth bringing him. 

Strength training didn’t happen as usual, and I’m okay with that. Since Thursday marked the start of Triduum (a celebration leading up to Easter), we had Mass at 7 pm and grabbed drinks with friends. While strength training 2-3 times per week is one of my training goals, those rare weeks occur that are just busier and life always comes first. 

Friday: Rest Day

I moved my running schedule around for the holidays this week and I was well ready for a rest day. I forget how tiring on the body speedwork can be! I took it easy and skipped strength training again – I simply wanted some rest. 

Saturday: 6 mile run 

Originally, Ryan and I had plans to run 10 miles, but we both decided that a cutback week would serve him well since he’s been building mileage for a few weeks now. This is why I like to set goal ranges for weekly mileage, especially when I’m not in marathon training – some weeks, you just feel like doing a little less. 6 miles got me to 30 miles for the week, which is within my goal of 30-35 miles per week. I’m so grateful to have these runs with Ryan – he definitely makes the miles go by more quickly. We ran with Ollie and mixed up our terrain to include some gentler terrain on gravel. 

Mile Markers: Speeding Up

Sunday: Rest Day

Easter has become one of my favorite holidays over the past few years, and this year was no exception. The weather was gorgeous – 60 degrees and sunny! After attending an early Mass, we went out for breakfast at one of our favorite nearby cafes (Rusty Pelican for local readers). We split a giant cinnamon roll, had eggs, potato, and veggie skillets with bacon (which were so large that we each took half home for lunch), and drank plenty of coffee. 

Mile Markers: Speeding Up

We spent the rest of the day celebrating in a simple, relaxing fashion: we Facetimed my parents, enjoyed some drinks by the firepit, and ate more delicious food including homemade blueberry pie, glazed pork chops, and roasted potatoes and vegetables. Ryan and I briefly considered a run, but once we had that rich breakfast we decided just to rest physically as well as mentally. 

[Tweet “10K training means speedwork, weekly workouts, and Easter celebration via @thisrunrecipes “]

How was your week in running?
Do you prefer sweet or savory brunches?
Did you watch the Boston Marathon?

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14 Responses

  1. Great job this week! It looks like you got a lot in even with 2 rest days. We went to brunch on Easter and I think I ate breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert all in one meal. I ended up taking a nice long nap after that! I watched most of the Boston marathon on my iPad yesterday while I was doing stuff around the house. What an inspiriting race!

  2. I had no idea dogs can’t run within 2 hours of a meal! There is so much I need to learn before running with Star! Glad you had gorgeous weather for Easter (we did too!) and that you enjoyed it and delayed your blog post. Good for you!!! Great week of running too and those views – gorgeous!

    1. I honestly didn’t realize it was that long until recently – usually, I just wait until after the run to feed them, and then I learned to wait about an hour after a run to eat. Food too soon before or after a run can cause their intestines to contort. There’s so much more it seems than running as a human! And thank you!

  3. I love brunch! I usually do savory like omelets, hash browns, eggs, etc. I’m not really a fan of sweets and pancakes too much after a run either. Our usual brunch place was closed for Easter so a friend cooked at his house and it was great.

    You had a great week of training and love that you got a run in with Ollie and some strength training too, to balance out those hard workouts. You’re going to do great in your 10K!

  4. Wasn’t the weather on Sunday absolutely magical?!?! Your Easter brunch sounds wonderful. I hope we get more and more sunny days for that 10K training speedwork!

  5. That sounds like a solid training week… I’ve added some speedwork and it’s fun to switch things up.

    I prefer savory brunch… although, sometimes I have to go for the waffles and pancakes 😉 Depends on the day, I guess.

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