Awakening the Aerobic Monsters (Training 2/10-2/16)

Monday
am - 8 miles at 7:45 pace, Secret Speed
Did my full Easy 8 for the first time in a LOOONG time. Ran 4 x pickups (40 seconds) after the turn around. Did 4 x hill sprints just south of Foster as well for more Secret Speed.

Tuesday
am - 10 miles at 7:07 pace, "Easy" 10
My first am "Easy" 10 in a long time! Felt good despite pretty cold conditions (my sweat was freezing at the seams of my HZ). Did 8 short (20 second) pick ups after the turn around.

I always put "Easy" in scare quotes as I haven't found 10 miles prior to work to ever be very easy. Not particularly hard, but not particularly easy either.

Wednesday
pm - 8 miles, 8 x 800 in the LP Zoo Parking Lot
1.8 w/u + 8 x 800 (90 sec rest) + 2.4 c/d. 2:39, 36, 35, 34, 37, 34, 36, 3?. Average ~2:36 running primarily on effort! This was pretty much what I thought I could run for this workout. Conditions were ideal, relatively speaking. The lot was dry and the temp was around 20 degrees without much wind.

Thursday
am - 8 miles at 7:45 pace, Easy 8
Started very slow. Wanted to double, but it wasn't in the cards.

Friday
pm - 8 miles at 8:07 pace, Easy 8
Unwinding after a LOOOOONG, eventful day.

Saturday
am - 19 miles at 6:37 pace, Barrington, IL
Last 7 in 43:03 (6:07 average pace). .75 mile C/D around the school to shake out the legs. Braulio kicked my butt over the last mile.

A pretty tough effort.

Sunday
am - 17 miles at 7:07, Um. Yeah.
Chalk this one up to youthful exuberance. Everything feels good though a bit sore still from yesterday's workout.

Met up with Dan Stanton for this one. Didn't mean to run this far. Ended up running south, turning around Chicago Ave after stopping for some water at the Lakefront Park field house.

Sunday was my mom and brother's birthday. I made my mom a card and drew some mitochondria on it:

Thanks for the Mighty Mitochondria, Mom!

Mitochondria are only contributed from the egg so you inherited all of yours from your mom. They are also the location of aerobic ATP production. Without a lot of natural leg speed (relatively speaking), I consider these little aerobic monsters to be one of my biggest assets.

78 miles in about 9.5 hours. Much more volume than I was expecting for this week. Some really good indicators that my fitness is coming around. Got to make sure that I'm building at a sustainable rate.