69 Days to Go (Being a Unicorn isn't about being real. It's about being Awesome!)
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Date - Day - Scheduled Workouts (Intervals within desired pace)
7/23/18 - M - OFF
7/24/18 - T - 5 miles @ EA (8:14)
7/25/18 - W - 1 mile WU + 8 miles M Tempo + 1 mile RI + 5 miles M Tempo (10/13)
7/26/18 - R - 5 miles @ EA (8:14)
7/27/18 - F - 5 miles @ EA (8:14)
7/28/18 - Sat - 5 miles @ EB (7:42)
7/29/18 - Sun - BLIND RUN - 8 Hard + 5 Easy
Running duration = 6:15 hours
Running mileage = 48.0 miles
Indoor Virtual Biking duration = n/a hours
Indoor Virtual Biking mileage = n/a miles
Total (training) duration = 6:15 hours
Total (training) mileage = 48.0 miles
Number of running SOS intervals within pace = 10/13 (77%)
Monday
G and I hung out and then we checked out our hole!
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That's the beginning of a dug foundation!
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And there's that sunset view we've been hoping for to our west.
Tuesday
This week was to serve as a step back. The intensity stayed high (65% easy), but the duration dropped dramatically (down to 80% of peak mileage).
5 miles at easy pace (8:43) with HR of 131. T+D was 150. Hamstring almost felt 100%.
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Poured the footings.
Wednesday
Coming off 13 miles of M Tempo on Sunday, this was another 13 miles of M Tempo but split between 8 miles, 1 mile RI, and 5 miles. The last time I had a run like this I did 6+6 and after the RI break I just wasn't able to maintain pace anymore. So after a ton of M Tempo miles just a few days earlier, I was interested to see whether I could handle a similar workload again. T+D ranged from 126 to 141.
M Tempo = 6:48 + 10 sec (first half of plan) + 2%-3.5% T+D adjustment = 7:06 goal pace for first 8 miles and 7:13 goal pace for second 5 miles.
First 8 miles = 7:06, 7:08, 6:47, 6:57, 7:03, 7:09, 7:04, 7:12 (7/8 hit)
Second 5 miles = 7:03, 7:17, 7:27, 7:09, 7:25 (3/5 hit)
It was certainly a tough workout. A bit of a fade at the end there. Although to be fair, the elevation gains played a role in the backend.
GAP = 6:57, 6:51, 6:52, 6:49, 6:54, 7:06, 7:06, 7:03 + 7:09, 7:08, 7:10, 7:12, 7:12
So that range of 7:03 to 7:27 (being 24 seconds different in the backhalf) is pretty much all explained by elevation since the difference in GAP is 3 seconds (7:09 vs 7:12). So maybe in the moment it seemed like a fade, but when taking everything into consideration it's actually fairly spot on. And the "goal pace" for the back half was a 7:13 min/mile with adjustment and was pretty much right there. The key consideration is that my current training route is about 30 feet per mile gain, whereas Chicago appears to be about 5 feet per mile gain. So a GAP adjustment in pace may be warranted. It might be a consideration to do one of the upcoming M Tempo runs on my "speed loop" which is as flat as I can get it nearby. Looks like 8/29 is the next on schedule with a 20 miler (3 + 9 + 1 + 6 + 1). That'll also be the first run at M Tempo under the second half pacing structure (so no + 10 second adjustment). Game on!
The hamstring did bother me during this run unfortunately. It's now been about a week since that super run which led to this tightness. I questioned whether I would go through with Sunday's planned 9 miles of T pace (4x2 mile + 1 mile).
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We've got walls going up!
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So since I had the day off, Steph decided to take a half day so we could drive down to Milwaukee and look at actual slabs of granite for the kitchen. We've narrowed our choices to the following three:
Everest White - Has black, grey, and some red geode looking streaks. Some small sections of sparkle.
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Splendor White - More white, than grey. Bigger batches of black. Hard to tell but it has a lot of sparkle in it.
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Viscon White (rare) - Mostly black and grey and a bit more chaotic. It does have some crystals in it, but hard to see in a picture.
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So we'll see what we end up with!
Thursday
5 miles at easy pace (8:29) with HR of 132. T+D was 127. Hamstring very tight.
They've put the insulation on and now it's time to cure for a week.
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Friday
5 miles at easy pace (8:24) with HR of 130. T+D was unk. Hamstring felt better, but not great.
Saturday
5 miles at easy pace (7:48) with HR of 137. T+D was 125. Hamstring improving, maybe 80%.
Sunday
I decided based on Saturday's run that it wasn't worth the risk of attempting 9 miles at T pace. So I didn't even give myself a chance to assess at the WU. Instead I decided to do a "Just Run Blind Run". No pace goal. No real duration goal. Just start running and keep running until I felt done with the workout. The T+D was 140-145 and actually felt a bit toasty.
So in the moment, I just started running. I felt good early on, so I just maintained a "hard pace". Wasn't aiming for LR, M Tempo or HM Tempo. But rather just a nice consistent run, surge when I wanted to, back off when I wanted to. After about 7-8 miles, I made the decision to pull back and take the remainder of the run easy. Because towards the end of the 8 miles, I was getting fatigued and I didn't want to push this run too far. So I finished it out with another 5 miles, and wrapped up a total of 13 miles.
Blind Run (Hard 8) = 7:38, 7:29, 7:25, 6:56, 7:13, 7:06, 7:24, 7:04
Blind Run (Easy 5) = 7:48, 7:59, 7:43, 7:55, 8:06
Taking GAP into consideration = 7:46, 7:19, 7:07, 7:03, 7:04, 6:57, 7:21, 6:59 + 7:39, 7:49, 7:33, 7:56, 7:43
With the T+D around 140-145, that would be about a 3.75% adjustment. So those paces adjusted for a flat course and an ideal day were more like an average of a 6:57 pace for the first 8 and a 7:28 pace for the second 5.
It doesn't actually surprise me that much since that is currently goal M Tempo pace (6:58) and is the second half goal LR pace (7:25). So I settled into the adjusted like crazy (elevation and temp) goal paces when doing the blind to pace run. For the most part, HR confirms this with a HR avg of 148 for the first 8 and 140 for the second 5. Again agreeing with historical data of M Tempo being 148-152 and LR being 138-142.
So that's all to say, this run makes sense to me. The key for me being able to hit a stretch goal come October 7th is likely going to come down to the weather. Anything beyond ideal is going to make it really tough for me. But I'll take what I get and roll with the punches. Still 9 weeks to get better and try to make that dream a reality. As for the hamstring, it bothered me only minimally. So I'm hoping the conservative route will prove to have been the right choice going forward.
ETA - I've been having a lot of my "hard" runs in the T+D range of 140+. I've also been a bit bummed because last year's summer training my M Tempos were more in the 6:59-7:02 average paces (not terribly far off, but a little bit). So I decided to check out the temps from those runs as well to get a comparison. I did 14 runs of M Tempo last summer with the average pace around 6:59-7:02. Of those 14 runs, only one had a T+D higher than 140 (144). And the average was around 126 with about half of those coming on a cloudy day. So I think the slight decrease in speed this year has less to do with the injury and loss of fitness (getting back in the groove) and more to do with this being a tougher T+D summer than the last. I can do this!
I hope ur hamstring gets back to 100 % soon.
