An Almost 30 mile week (SJ RNR week -9)

At this point in training (9 weeks before the first *actually* truly trained for race in over a year), I am very generous with myself.

Okay.  Let's be honest. I'm always very generous with my running self.  I like to cut her slack, encourage her, reward her, and do whatever I can to keep her going as long as possible.

For this segment, I looked up the 11 week, level 3,10K BAA training plan, and then modified it a bit to turn it into a 9 week program and put it in a spreadsheet to pretend for a day or two that I would do it all before I admitted that I wouldn't be able to hit anything close to what they recommended.

But it never hurts to have big goals.

So, here I am, coming off a year of lots of hiking and not so much running, with a couple slow 6ish mile pseudo-race efforts under my belt.  Finally starting to buckle down, and this week was humbling and great. 

My "big" goals resulted in this awesome basic return to running fitness week (note how I count the walking.)

Monday: 1.38 walk (lazy)

Tuesday: 4.01 easy run @ 12:07 min/mile (BAA recommended pace for my pie in the sky goal of a 1 hour 10k), followed by 0.73 walk cooldown; 1.57 walk to lunch.

Wed: Track Club (taking it easy and trying to hit the BAA recommended paces, which were slower than I'd usually go for):
   4X100 (25, 25, 27, 27);
   3X200 (56, 58, 62);
   2X400 (2:05; 2:09);
   1X800 (4:35)
3.27 miles total with drills, speedwork, jogging, walking recovery; Followed by an evening 1.5m walk to dinner

Thur: 1 @ 11:54;
      then walk/run intervals of 11X30s in the mid 8:00s/mile; with a few longer slower jaunts as well. 
      Total = 4.46m @ 17:37 AVG.

Fri:  1.7 walk in the afternoon;
      and 2.4 walk to dinner.

Sat:  5.03 "long" run & chat w/a friend on 5:00 run/1:00 walk intervals @ 13:10/mile average overall;
      0.19 walk c/d;
      1.27 walk afternoon.

Sun:  2.09 total in 24:31; AVG 11:43/mile;
      5 min jog @ 12:21;
      0.5 mile @ 9:42/mile pace;
      4:46 min jog @13:55;
      0.5 mile @ 9:47/mile pace;
      4:45 jog @ 14:38 and done! -- such a great workout!

You may wonder why I'm so enthusiastic about Sunday's efforts.  On paper, I might be too.  But in real life, I set an alarm, woke up early, and fit the workout in before 11+ hours of travel despite a crappy night's sleep.  Sometimes you just really need to pat yourself on the back for doing something you didn't feel like doing.

Also, this workout took just enough out of me that it felt super hard (no walking recovery, you have to keep moving in a semi-running motion on the jogging sections), and yet, when I was done, I was on a runner's high and happy and proud that I'd headed out instead of sleeping in an extra half hour before leaving for the airport.  It's kind of amazing how much joy you can get from such a simple thing as a solid basic super short race-pace interval workout.