This week was all about preparing myself for the six week stretch that I have coming up which includes three 20 milers and my peak weeks. The total mileage on tap was 35 miles, but with a long run of only 12 miles scheduled I knew that I would have to run 5 days instead of my usual 4 and not be able to get in a cross training day. This worried me a bit since I did not do any strength training or spinning for the past 2 or 3 weeks and I wanted to make sure that the cross training was still an integral part of my training. I let it slide for this week but I was going to promise myself to get a strength day in next week. After 5 days of running in a single week, I knew my body was going to need it.
The first of the month was the downtown run as well as AG's and CK's birthday and these were reasons enough for me to get out for a run on Monday night. It was our usual 6 mile(ish) run up and down the Westside Highway, ending up at a bar eating and drinking afterwards. I adhered to my usual downtown run strategy of taking it easier on the Southbound run and then picking it up for more of a tempo run as we run back North on West Street. It allows me to increase my stride and pick up speed for the last 2 or 3 miles. It felt good. Tuesday and Wednesday runs were out of the question due to the fact that I lost my keys and had get to the situation resolved. I was exhausted and couldn't think about my running. Therefore, although I didn't want to do it, I had to run on four consecutive days if I was going to hit my mileage for the week, or come close to it. I ran 6 miles on Thursday (half on my own and half with CK after running into her on the West side) and 6 miles on Friday which was a combination of two loops of the reservoir and 3 miles on the roads in Central Park (if I was going to run 5 days this week, I wanted to get at least one run on a soft surface to allow my legs to recover a bit). As for the weekend, I had already signed up for the Coogan's 5K a while ago and was looking forward to running it. The question was whether I should create a long run around the 5K on Sunday or just do the long run of 12 miles on Saturday and have fun with the 5K knowing that my long run was already over. I chose the latter.
The weather on Saturday was great - in the 50s and sunny. For the first time in a very long time, all I wore was a long sleeve shirt and shorts. It was nice to be in the sun rather than slogging in the cold, snow and darkness. This run was on my own. I did my usual WSH route and added an extra mile each way in order to get up to 12 miles. With my trusted Garmin with me, I was on my way. I was able to keep up a good pace once I navigated the streets of the UWS and got on the Westside Highway. Overall I felt good and was able to run an overall pace of 8:10 for the run.
| Split | Time |
| 1 | 0:08:13 |
| 2 | 0:08:30 |
| 3 | 0:07:52 |
| 4 | 0:07:56 |
| 5 | 0:07:55 |
| 6 | 0:07:49 |
| 7 | 0:08:03 |
| 8 | 0:08:19 |
| 9 | 0:08:28 |
| 10 | 0:08:28 |
| 11 | 0:08:27 |
| 12 | 0:07:56 |
| Summary | 1:38:02 |
I was looking forward to Coogan's for a while since everyone says that it is a fun race and also because I have not run a 5K since high school and it would be cool to see what I am capable of doing. Friends of mine warned me before the race about the hills and they weren't kidding. For a race that is only 3.1 miles and is an out and back course, there are a total of 4 significant hills. Therefore, you are never too far away from one. Even though I was in the second corral, it was very hard to get going in the beginning of the race. It was very crowded, especially since the race was run on a city street that was pretty narrow, so I knew right away that I would probably not be able to get a PR (not for the 5K distance but I was hoping to come close or beat the 6:44 overall pace that I ran in the Run as One 4 mile last year) but I still wanted to go out and get a fast time. I was hoping to achieve a pace of under 7:00 but the combination of the hills and the crowded start prevented that from happening. My overall pace for the race was 7:08. I definitely picked it up over the last mile and feel that I could definitely go under 7:00. I am hoping to find a 4 mile race soon that I can attempt but I don't want to mess up my training in the process. After the race was over, I was able to enjoy Guiness and breakfast at the famous Coogan's restaurant. It was cool to hang with a bunch of Flyers afterwards and enjoy the morning.
The total for the week was 33 miles, which was close enough in my book to the scheduled 35 miles. For the first time, my legs did feel a bit sluggish this past week. I'm not sure if it is because of the lapse in strength training/spinning or just the increase in mileage do to training (this is the most amount of running I have done in almost a year in a half) but it is not too bad. Now starts the hard part - I have my first of three 20 milers scheduled for this weekend. I was able to get in three 20 milers when training for Philly in 2008 and I am hoping to do that again this year since I feel that it really helped me out during the marathon (my pacing was another story).
Onward and upward...
2 comments:
The big 20 miler this weekend!! You are going to do just fine with it. Looks like you are still running strong. I only ran 4 days a week this time around. We'll see if it pays off! Have fun on the long run.
Hey buddy...wow, what a recap. So many runs, so many plans, a few mishaps too but generally, you're on track.
Don't psych yourself out on the 20s. And don't do all of it in CP because NJM is so flat..try the west side greenway for most of it instead.
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