Out Season: Week 6 - Sunday Interval Long Run....BLAH!

Once again did not get a chance to run in the darkness(I prefer early runs in the dark). All my kids were up super early so I ran this afternoon in the rain. At first I thought I would hate it, but I enjoyed the weather and running today. Unfortunately, my legs were just not feeling it as they were tired from the brick workout yesterday.

Here is the plan for the run today

MS: 2 x 1/2 mile (3'), 2 x 1 mile (5') all @ TP/Z4/Hard. Remainder of run is how you feel, but try to accumulate more HMP/Z3/Mod-Hard time.

Creating a 75 to 90 minute run from this run, where personal and physical bandwidth allows, is recommended. Simply settle into a pace between LRP/Zone 1/Easy and MP/Zone 2/Steady.

I have been building up these runs the last few weeks getting up to about 80 minutes of running. I will be honest and state that I had missed a workout here or there leading up to these runs.

This week I was spot on with my training and I could feel it in the run today.

I ran a new course today and it felt like I was running a long slow uphill battle the whole time. I will have to run this course in the opposite direction next time to make it easier. I started off with a 2 mile warm up to get on the bike path where it was fairly flat for the first .5 interval. I hit that with a 7:09 pace. My pace for all intervals is 7:12 so I was good with that pace, but I knew it was not going to feel easy like the previous runs. Set 2 of the .5 interval I was stronger at 7:02. I must have felt good, but I don't remember.

From there I moved on to the two mile intervals. The first one I fell short at 7:13, but you can see my HR was pumping. I had some serious hills to tackle. About the halfway point I had a .25 hill climb that just wiped me clean. But it was a good mental challenge. I made it to the top of the hill and saw my mile pace past 7:20 and thought I could make an excuse for the hill or challenge myself. I challenged myself and got it down to 7:13. I felt really good about that. From there I took a longer break to get to a stretch of road that was not hilly so I had to run easy a bit longer which maybe was a good thing from the hills I just tackled. I finished up the last mile interval in 7:07. I finished strong which is good. I then was going to cut it at 60 minutes, but I knew I would be mad at myself for doing this so I ran a tad longer getting in three more miles to work on endurance a bit.

Overall, I was pleased to get the run done and accomplished. Rest day tomorrow is much needed.

I just signed up for a triathlon in January so I need to figure out how to get some swimming involved in my workouts. I was also looking at Crossfit and seeing if that is something I could add throughout the winter as well. I don't want to overdo it and risk injury, but I always like trying something new and have never done Crossfit. Maybe for now I won't do anything, but it is capturing my interest.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday! Another great week of training in the books.