Workouts - June 29, 2015

This week has been two things: busy and HOT.  Despite a Saturday with a sunrise temperature of 80 degrees and the dewpoint at 78 (spoiler: that is 99% humidity), I made it out for a club run.

Track Club ladies.  You can see me here living out a life principal I like to call "no shirts over 80 degrees."  Not to get all sappy, but I love how running brings people together.  This group ranges in age from 25 to 60 and I learn more about their lives each week.    

Workouts for June 22-28, 2015 
Monday: 5.5 miles on Lakeshore Trail, 9:15 pace in hideously hot weather, hour-long lower body workout at PT
Tuesday: 5.2 hilly miles on my favorite downtown loop, run as a progression (9:18 pace, first mile 10:03, last mile 8:37)
Wednesday: full body resistance circuit at home (45 minutes)
Thursday: 5.6 miles on Lakeshore Trail, 9:01 pace 
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 8.2 miles with the Track Club, 9:13 pace
Sunday: 20 minutes of weights before my hour-long group cycling class
 

Strava Log

Last Sunday was the summer solstice, so I'm hoping we won't see temperatures like this past week's again until next year (I'm not selling the bike shop, though).  During the middle of the week, the heat index was around 105, with extremely high humidity and poor air quality.  It has definitely been a good motivation to get out of bed before sunrise.  My insane husband goes out and runs on his lunch break.  Seriously, I will never be as tough as him.

I'm settling into a good routine with my training that goes like this:

Monday: pre-dawn run of 5-7 miles
Tuesday: early run downtown
Wednesday: lower body weights (plus maybe a short run or other cardio)
Thursday: another early run of 5-7 miles
Friday: rest
Saturday: long run
Sunday: upper body weights and group cycling class

This week's Saturday run group.  Again with the no shirt thing.

In case you're curious, my "warmup" involves sitting around waiting for the 6 am start time.

This week's Saturday run with the Track Club was a "step back" run of only eight miles.  Our club training plans have periodicity, meaning we do a very hard week, followed by two moderate weeks with increasing mileage, then an easier week.  Each four-week cycle has a little more volume and intensity than the cycle before.  That gives your body an opportunity to recover and absorb the training.  If you pay attention to my training logs, you can see that I try to build this periodicity into my own training as best I can.

Also, most of the runners in town (including me) are getting ready to race on Saturday.  The Peavine Falls Run is an 8.2-mile trail combo race on Oak Mountain.  It is a regional classic, always on the Fouth of July, and it's been held since 1980.  The distance is weird because the race goes to the top of Peavine Falls (duh).  It's a tough course...the first 3.7 miles are like climbing a staircase, then you have to pump the brakes for a steep downhill on singletrack trail.

I am absolutely thrilled to be recovered from my injury and I can't wait to run Peavine.  I don't have any time goals because the course is so odd and I'm not really back in racing shape yet.  I want to run in control the whole time and enjoy myself.  That's it.

After Peavine, I'm going to evaluate my performance and decide where to go for the rest of the summer.  I'm toying with the idea of a formal heart rate training plan, or customizing something for myself.  I'm looking at some published plans, including this one that was sent to me by a friend:

Obviously, this is a fairly advanced plan with a high volume of running (for me).  But I like the philosophy.  

At any rate, I have several weeks to decide.  We have a good bit of vacation coming up, because I impulsively made plans to go camping, then bought cheap tickets for a week in the mountains.  Hardcore training for fall can wait until after then ;)

Have a great week!