Monday: 6x400m speed work
Tuesday: Total Body Cardio from 21 Day Fix
Wednesday: Rest day
Thursday: 4 miles with 2 at goal 10k pace (11:21 average pace)
Friday: 3 miles low heart rate (14:22 average pace)
Saturday: Rest day
Sunday: 6 miles easy (2 miles at 12:48 average outdoors, then 4 miles at 11:02 average on treadmill)

It was a pretty good week! My speed work was strong on Monday; though I did it on the treadmill to avoid the 90 degree temps. The Total Body Cardio workout on Tuesday kicked my butt, so I felt I was too sore to run on Wednesday. (I may have also not wanted to stop playing my Sims game, but we’ll just say it was the soreness.) So I did Wednesday’s run on Thursday instead. It was the same tempo run I had done on Saturday, and, while overall I was slightly slower on each mile, I was still within my goal paces AND I felt much better at the end of it.

Friday I did a lowish heart rate run (although I let my HR get up to 170, instead of keeping it below 150 like I’m supposed to). I found the key to doing this without constantly staring at my watch is just to make sure I solely breathe through my nose. Once I get above 170 bpm, I find myself really really wanting to open my mouth. My average HR for the run was 158, about 10 bpm above where I need it to be for my easy runs.

I got up early on Sunday for my long run, but the heat index was already over 90 at 8am. And then it rose 10 degrees from the time I started until I was 2 miles in. The humidity was so freaking thick. So I stopped. I also wasn’t feeling good. (I may have had a dinner consisting of cake and wine the night before.) So I went home, rested for a bit, then finished the mileage on the treadmill (much easier).

Next week is going to look a lot different since I decided to start LHR training early!

Monday: Cardio Fix workout from 21 Day Fix
Tuesday: 35 minutes crosstraining, 4 mile easy run (11:17 average pace)
Wednesday: Upper Fix workout from 21 Day Fix
Thursday: Tempo hill intervals
Friday: Pilates Fix workout from 21 Day Fix
Saturday: 4 mile run with 2 miles at 10k goal pace (10:56 average pace)
Sunday: Yoga Fix workout from 21 Day Fix

This week was much stronger than last week! I’d like to thank the not-really-a-polar-vortex that came through and cooled us down to the low 80s.

You’ll notice I have a few workouts from the 21 Day Fix program on here. I’m not “officially” doing the program until towards the end of August (which is why they are out of order and not every day). But I’m using the time beforehand to test out the workouts, see how they fit into my running schedule, and find recipes I like to work into the meal plan.

Also, that cardio workout I did on Monday kicked my butt! I was sore until Friday because of it. Burpees, mountain climbers…it had all the rough moves.

Monday: 5x400m speed work
Tuesday: rest day
Wednesday: 15 mins of crosstraining; 3 miles (10:26 average pace)
Thursday: rest day
Friday: 3 miles easy (12:28 average pace)
Saturday: rest day
Sunday: 3.86 miles out of 6 miles (12:00 average pace) with another mile or so of mostly walking and some strides that I didn’t record

Not my greatest week.

I cut short a few intervals of my speed work on Monday. My run on Wednesday was supposed to be 10k goal pace steady, but I took several walk breaks. Even Friday’s easy run was a struggle because of the heat (and going sockless), and it took hours afterwards for my heart rate to go back to normal. Sunday’s run I ended up cutting 2 miles short.

Most of this was because nearly all of my runs this week were done in above-90 degree temps. Uggh. It makes it so hard to hit paces and to not take walk breaks, and I end up so dehydrated. But even Wednesday’s run, which was indoors on a treadmill, was rough to get through. I had sweat literally flinging off of me in every direction; I was so happy no one was on the machines next to me!

Monday: 5/6/7/5 treadmill workout (10:16 min/mi average pace)
Tuesday: rest day
Wednesday: 5 mile run (12:05 min/mi average pace)
Thursday: rest day
Friday: Music City July 4th 5k
Saturday: rest day
Sunday: 5 mile run (11:38 min/mi average pace)

Four runs last week and over 16 miles! Woohoo! That means I’m all clear to start actually training again.

My favorite part of my runs last week was on my Sunday run. I had two awesome songs play (on shuffle) back to back, which kicked me into high gear on my last mile (which was a minute faster than all of my other miles). Then when I got done running, it randomly played “No More Runnin'”. Haha, it made me laugh.

I think I might toy with doing a two week training block instead of the typical one week block. This way I can still keep my runs spaced out by doing four runs the first week and three the second (Mon/Wed/Fri/Sun on week one and Tue/Thu/Sat on week two). So maybe something like:
Week A, Monday: speed work (intervals)
Week A, Wednesday: goal pace run
Week A, Friday: easy run
Week A, Sunday: long run
Week B, Tuesday: cross train and easy run
Week B, Thursday: speed work (hills)
Week B, Saturday: mid-length run

Anyone ever done a non-7 day training block?

Monday: rest day
Tuesday: 3 miles (11:23 min/mi average)
Wednesday: rest day
Thursday: 2.25 miles of hills and speed on treadmill (11:06 min/mi average) and 2.25 easy outdoors (12:04 min/mi average)
Friday: rest day
Saturday: 6.35 miles (11:48 min/mi average)
Sunday: rest day

A pretty average week, with two higher mileage (than I’ve been doing) days. I’m continuing to up my weekly mileage ever so slightly. Almost to my 15 mile a week goal where I can resume normal training!

My 6 miler on Saturday went fairly well. I did 3:1 intervals and walked about 2-3 extra times in the second half because I felt some twinges in my knee, but overall it never really hurt. For the most part, I was maintaining around 10:30-11:00 pace on my running intervals. (I had a few slower ones due to the extra walking, but a few faster ones as well. I did my last one around 9:30 pace!)