Hello! It’s been awhile since I sat down to reflect on my training here, so I decided to pause and do just that. Overall, I’m still feeling good and plugging along, though I’ve been a little more tired than usual this week. I’ve had a few nights of tossing and turning and some extra non-running tasks on my to-do list, but hopefully things will be calmer in the upcoming week, or at least include some extra time with my pillow.
I decided to add two tune-up races to my calendar before May’s half, the first of which is this weekend. I can’t say I’m feeling especially prepared to race 6 miles, per se, but given how nervous I am about it I know that deciding to try was the right decision. I need to force myself to deal with those race day jitters before my goal race. I honestly can’t remember the last time I raced a 10K. They’ve been oddly hard to come by locally. 5Ks seem to happen almost every weekend, and are also usually appended to the larger events, but 10Ks never seem to make it onto race calendars, or really any other distance between a 5K and half marathon either. This race is actually a race series building up to a local half marathon, so hats off to the race organizers who heard my plea to the universe.
In light of racing this weekend, my mileage and speed work have been reduced this week, which wasn’t really something I thought about in planning tune-up races. It’s nice to have a little breather, and throwing in some shorter races forces a break in my training. I know some people do their tune-up races untapered, but I’ve never done that, and I trust the wisdom of the amazing person behind my training plan. Even though this little break ends with a bigger effort, i.e. it’s not completely just a break, having it has also left me hungrier to return to full on training next week. Win/win.
My weekly mileage has been hanging out in the low 50’s (53 seems to be the magic number), though this week I’ll pull in 43, including the race. The goal for race day is to squeeze in 12 miles total, probably 3 before and after. Last week I did one midweek tempo session (3 x 2 mile repeats), averaging 7:05 for all 6 miles. My goal was to run the two mile blocks between a 7:05 and 7:15 pace, and I wanted to try to be toward the low end of this range, so I’d say I succeeded. During Saturday’s long run, I ran 6 progression miles from 7:50 cutting down to 6:50 (13 miles total). This was a hair shorter than my long runs for previous weeks, but the effort was more intense.
The next few days are all about relaxing and trying to envision running 6 fast miles. Per usual, I’m mostly trying to envision not going out too fast, but also not too relaxed either. Have I ever gone out too relaxed? Probably not.
Happy training,
Sarah
