In the spirit of this morning’s slow recovery run after yesterday’s effort, I thought I’d take a few minutes to pause and reflect on my training last week. I keep forgetting that I raced only a week ago, which does not bode well for my perceived length of the past week, so hopefully this one will be a little less hectic. Here’s a brief run down of my runs:
Monday: 8 mile recovery run
Tuesday: 80 min. easy run
Wednesday: 7 mile easy run
Thursday: 8 miles total, 5 x 1K at race pace in the middle
Friday: day off
Saturday: 6 mile easy run
Sunday: 12 mile long run with some 10K effort surges
TOTAL MILES: 50
Huzzah! I hit 50 miles and I didn’t realize it until I sat down to write this post. All in all it was a good week of training for me, and I don’t find that there’s really any recovery after the 5K’s, or at least not so far. Perhaps once I get better at pushing them harder I’ll be singing a different tune, but my energy levels were normal during Monday’s 8 miler. I also liked running by time on Tuesday. It was a nice mental switch that emphasized time on feet versus mile pace. Even if I’m not really that concerned with my pace on the easy runs I still pay attention to them, but I tend to do this less when I run for time because I know it doesn’t matter how many miles I cover as long as I keep running. It’s not completely logical, but I think it also creates a fixed run space, if that makes sense. Even if I know what my easy pace is, and my runs only vary by a few minutes, there is still a small novelty in knowing that if I leave the house at X time I will be back at Y time. I don’t know, maybe I’m just a weird mental planner like that, and as I was sitting here pondering this I started laughing at myself because, well…stoplights. I don’t know, it’s a slightly different focus.
As I mentioned earlier last week, the 1K repeats last Thursday didn’t come off exactly as they were supposed to, but the effort was there and I’m excited to try this workout again. Hopefully this was that awkward first attempt and next time it’ll click in my head and legs a little more cohesively. I’m racing another 5k on 4/15, so I’ve got a couple more weeks to continue to practice. I’m determined NOT to tank my last mile this time. I’m considering doing something I’ve never, ever done in a race before, which is to listen to music. Part of my issue, I think, is that the local 5K’s tend to be small and the courses have been out and back. These past two races have sent me running against the rest of the pack for the second half of the race, and I think I lose my mental focus. As long as the course permits, I’m thinking about putting together a kick ass playlist to help me really push hard through that final mile. (I think I just talked myself into it.)
I also love this guide Tina shared today about using visualization to tackle the mental side of racing, and am going to try to incorporate some of this into my regular routine. I was pondering this after last week’s race, or pondering the fact that it could just be a mental switch I have to learn to flip to deal with the physical demands. I think I am physically capable, and have walked away feeling like I could have pushed harder if only. Maybe my brain is this “if only.”
How was your last week of training? Do you use music in races to help yourself keep pushing?
Cheers to the start of a new week,
Sarah
P.S. This is day 15 of my writing challenge. So far I’ve missed 2 days, but I’m determined to see this thing through anyway.
*Photo credit: Fit Approach
