Those six weeks passed much more quickly than I imagined. Since I am writing this post on Monday, the first day of San Francisco training with my old coach, self-coaching works less than well for me. I will save further ruminations on that front for an upcoming post about returning to work with a coach and the factors that led me to that decision.
For now, I press on with my recap of the last week of base building.
Monday 50 minutes regular
When I started this run, I did not feel as rested as I had hoped but I pushed through the desire to cut the run short or to abandon it all together. If nothing else, this base building cycle helped me learn that I need to improve my mental stamina. A mile or so into the run, I warmed up aka the fatigue worked its way out. I felt a little off in the left glute but only a very little. After I felt this I focused on form and pushed the pace in the second half. I loved that.
Tuesday 1.5 mile warm up, 5 x 3 minutes fast 2 minutes easy, 1 mile cool down
This was the most structured workout of the entire training cycle. It gave me a taste for what’s to come with San Francisco training. The fast intervals felt really hard but got a little easier on the last couple. I should have run the fast intervals slightly slower so that I did not need as much resting recovery on the easy minutes. Overall though, I enjoyed the workout.
Wednesday strength training
I definitely felt sluggish getting started and I know exactly why. I had my Hulu subscription on hiatus for a while and had a few free months as well so I neglected to pay attention to when the subscription would restart. When I found the charge on my credit card statement, I immediately put the subscription back on hiatus but still have the month that I got charged for. I have been indulging in TV before bed and that simply has not helped. I focused on taking each exercise one at a time and pushing hard with good form. We worked on legs for the first time in a while and I definitely felt it afterwards.
Thursday stationary bike
I felt completely unmotivated to run Thursday morning. I started bargaining with myself to talk myself out of the run. I ended up deciding to switch the run and the stationary bike on these two days so that I would not skip either workout. This ended up being an excellent decision. While at the gym, I lacked motivation to ride hard but at the very least I got myself out of bed and moving.
Friday 50 minutes regular
I felt much more in the mood to run on Friday which confirmed Thursday’s decision. I felt good and decided to take it relatively easy since my legs still harbored some residual soreness from Wednesday’s strength training and I would be running again on Saturday. I focused on form throughout the run and enjoyed it.
Saturday 100 minutes regular
My original plan called for 100 minutes. In a fit of optimism last week I changed that from 100 to 120 after last week’s successful 110 minute long run. I debated the distance all through the majority of the run but ended up deciding on quality over quantity. Next Saturday I will be running the Altamont Challenge Half Marathon, up and down Paris Mountain, twice. I think that’s enough challenge for one week. On the long run itself it took about a mile or so to warm up but after that I felt awesome. I did feel a knee swipe which I know indicates hip collapse, a big form issue I have been working on, so I focused intensely on my form for the remainder of the run which I, no surprise, enjoyed immensely.