Planned vs Actual (Training 3/3-3/9)

Now that I actually wrote out a training schedule, let's see how closely I stuck to it.

This is literally the first time (I remember) having a written training schedule since the last time I ran with Boston365 way back in 2010 (actually it was called Boston Bound(tm) at the time).

I'll start comparing planned versus actual workouts like my friend, Erin on her blog: Running Ruminations. I'm hoping that this exercise will help me catch over or under training.

Monday

Planned (P): am 5 miles, pm 10 miles

pm - 9.92 miles at 7:28 pace

Did the LS Fun Run with Angelica G. and Brian. I waited instead of running immediately after work and was rewarded with a nice 10 miler! Done, done, done with cold and snow. Lynton K. and Tim R. flew by doing their own workouts!

Decided to sleep in and skip the double immediately after the long run.

Tuesday

P: 9 miles

pm - 10 miles at ?? pace

Badger miles. Great running with Mark W. and seeing many Lakefront friends!

Again wanted sleep over miles, didn't make up the double. Back to back 10-ish miles days. Shin has been feeling good. Sometimes I feel a little tweak, but no pain.

Wednesday

P: 10 x 800

pm - 10 x 800 with 3 miles total w/u & c/d

Felt pretty good on these. Erased my splits, but the first few were: 2:52, 41, 41?, 3X... the remainder were 37-39 with the last one significantly faster at 2:34. Felt pretty controlled. 90 seconds active recovery.

Seeing Declan and Ben this past weekend reminded me of some of the qualities of good training partners. I did my best during the workout to try to eliminate the feeling of competition and create more of a collaborative environment. I did this by explicitly describing how I was going to run the workout (start slow, average a bit slower than our 8x800 workout, stay controlled) then I tried to get different guys in the group to take the lead on repeats during the workout. I was happy with the environment this created.

Thursday
P: 9 miles

pm - 10 miles at ?? (didn't bring a watch)
Tried to meet up with Mark and ended up sort of finding each other after a missed connection. Left shin a bit wonky.

Friday
P: 9 miles

am - 4 miles at ??
Did a short run as I was up late and wanted to sleep in. 6 x pick ups including a sprint up the hill at the Foster underpass. Ran in Lunaracers... Shin still weird.

pm - 1800 yards swimming in ~50 minutes
Had a headache for the rest of the night as I hadn't swam in nearly a month and tried to use kick turns. Oxygen debt. Felt good otherwise. Trying to kick out the weird feeling I had in my left leg.

Saturday
P:20 miles

am - 20 miles at 6:36 pace, in Barrington, IL
OUT: 1:09:23 IN: 1:02:27.

Felt much easier picking it up at the end of the run than the first time Braulio and I did it in Barrington. An extra 15+ degrees really helped. We had a big group for a while. Started very relaxed and eased into the run. It was great to have Scott and Jason there to push the pace.

Sunday
P: OFF

I forgot I had actually planned to take this day off. Turns out my left shin feels a bit weird so this complete rest day was needed either way. I just want to be careful!

After last week's time trial/race and long run, I was a bit disappointed about my current fitness. This past week's worth of solid training has done much to erase that disappointment. I'm still not where I think I could be, but that's okay. We're still 6 weeks out and I've only done 6 weeks (counting this one) at what I'd consider full training volume for this cycle.

I'm a little disappointed with the total volume of this week, but looking back to my more successful training cycles, apparently roller coaster volume helps keep me healthy.