Hansons Marathon Method: Week Five

Holy. Cow.

Running six days in a row was hard.

Doing my first true track workout ever was hard.

But I did it.

And I. Feel. Awesome!

And I also feel tired enough to draw rainbows with my hands too.

Maybe it's my melodramatic runner's high from this evening talking, but this week of training was great. I spent most of it worrying about the final workout of the week, but it went so much better than expected. 4:20 started off as my goal because a piece of paper said I could do. Now 4:20 is my goal because I say I can do it.

I've had some nagging doubts that my 4:56 PR is that best I could ever do, that I'm just too slow of a runner to hope for better. But so far the Hansons Marathon Method has been radically different from Hal Higdon and SmartCoach. What's that saying about having to do things differently to get different results? I think I finally get it now.

Wednesday, June 25
rest


I tried to enjoy it while it lasted, since I knew my next rest day was a week away.

Thursday, June 26
4 mi easy, 10:57 min/mile
core work

My legs felt tight and heavy at first (they always seem to feel the tightest after a rest day because my body is dumb), but they loosened up after about a mile.

If by leg day, you mean lay on the couch day, then yes, that's me.

Friday, June 27
5 mi easy, 11:01 min/mile
core work

This was the first run of the training plan where I nailed my easy pace right away. I waited until pretty late in the evening to run, and that really reduced my perceived effort level.

Saturday, June 28
4 mi easy, 10:56 min/mile
core work

10 AM isn't that late they said, running in the sun is always nice after a long winter they said. Nope. I spent the entire time counting down the seconds until I was done.

Sunday, June 29
6 mi easy, 11:01 min/mile
core work

I actually might have finally learned my lesson from yesterday and waited until the evening to run. The timing gave me quite a bit of extra rest, and I felt awesome! This was a huge confidence booster and proved my fitness is finally coming back.

Monday, June 30
4 mi easy, 11:01 min/mile
core work

This run was a bit of a struggle, but I tried to remind myself that running a few hours after a chiro appointment is always hard. Speaking of the chiro, he flushed my Achilles and calves, and they felt so so so much better afterwards. Seriously, that man is a magician. He (recent transplant from Florida) also thought it was hilarious that I was complaining about the weather.

But I like having four real seasons, dammit.

Tuesday, July 1
1 mi WU (11:23)
12x400 (2:06, 2:19, 2:16, 2:12, 2:12, 2:13, 2:11, 2:12, 2:12, 2:11, 2:12, 2:13) w/ 400 jogs
1 mi CD (11:38)
8 mi total

I was so scared for this workout. I've done 400 repeats before, but never with a strict time goal (2:13/400) and never that many. I felt a bit off all day, and I was incredibly antsy right before I left to run to the track. (Side note - having a track exactly one mile from my apartment is amazing!)

Other than the first three when I was still learning what the pace would feel like and adjusting to running on a real track for the first time in eight years (God, that math is scary), I was right on target. I felt strong throughout despite my obvious leg fatigue. I never felt truly exhausted until the last repeat.

I wore my fuel belt to the track and left it in the infield, stopping after every other repeat to have a Sport Bean and some water. This made a huge difference in my performance. My blood sugar felt stable (read: I never got hangry), and I never got thirsty. The track is also adjacent to some forest, so I was in shade and/or cloud cover almost the whole time, plus the humidity finally went down, which was a nice treat.

Total Miles: 31 mi
Total Time: 5:38:11

Week Six is going to be a bit tricky. Thursday is going to be a killer day at work, and I have a two hour drive to my parents' that night, as well as a seven mile tempo run on the schedule. I'm contemplating doing something crazy and getting up early to get the run done. (I know, who am I?) I was really nervous for this run, since I haven't done tempo work in months, but today's track workout really boosted my confidence. I'm ready for the challenge.

Normally I would look forward to tomorrow's rest day too, but it's going to be crazy at work, plus I'm trying to clear my plate a bitfor Thursday, so I won't exactly be doing anything fun. Though I don't want to sound whiny - it will be really nice to just camp out at work until I'm ready to go without stressing about timing my dinner right or losing the light.

Now it's time to go bust out my Waddles name tag for tomorrow...because I think that nickname is going to be very apt. I'm sorry, quads, I swear I don't hate you.