A Weekend of Mixed Emotions....

This was a weekend of mixed emotions that go along with the recovery from the brief illness that killed last weekends running efforts. On one hand, I was able to get out for my 6 straight days after taking off those 3 days, which is good. On the other hand, I'm a bit disappointed that I didn't get in the number of miles that I wanted too. Well.....And my Cardinals suffered their first loss at home this season with a 8 point loss to the reigning world champions....Oh well...It happens.

Saturday I had an absolutely GREAT run. It was a 50 minute mixture of alternating 5 mins at 10K pace and 5 mins at your Half Marathon Pace. We had a LARGE group out too, I think there was over 20 of us out there Saturday morning. Very impressive!!! The first set seemed to start off somewhat slow....but when I went back and looked at the garmin data, it was much faster then I had anticipated, somewhere near a 7:20 pace. After the brefi 5 min pace where you get to somewhat get your breath back, we HAMMERED set number 2. That was somewhat surprising. We actually crossed the 2 mile marker with about 15 seconds lef in the set. That's a 14:45 2 miler. An AVERAGE of 7:22ish. AVERAGE. Remember, there was a 5minute 'off' set in there. When I went back and looked, we ran that second 5 minute on set at a 7:08 pace. Crazy!!! And even worse was I had one of the marathoners hangning with me, and she had a 20 miler the next day. During the 5 min 'off' period, I convinced her that we needed to throttle it back a bit. I didn't want to kill her run the next day. And she was insistent on letting me dictate the pace. So, the next on set we dropped back to a 7:30 pace. At the end of the 30 mins, we were right around the 4 mile mark. Both of us were feelign great, and not laboring at all. Set number four took us pretty close to closing the 5 mile loop. We closed it at 38:30. We just kept going around the loop and finished the on set of 5 mins or the 5th set and flipped it around and headed back to the start. At the end, we had complete 6.5 miles in 50 mins. I really LOVE this workout. The 5 on set get you at near your max threshold, but you don't cross over it....We never had a pace below 7:30....In fact, the last two sets (after we discussed slowing down and running one slower) went right back and settled in at 7:20. S'all goood! But that's not the end of the workout by any stretch....We still had to do our 5x1mins. Those.....WHAOH.....Let me just day, 6:20 pace, and at the end (when you include the 45 second rest intervals), we were MORE THEN A MILE! I'm very happy with that, especially wne you consider that's AFTER doing a tough workout. Afterwards, I went home and hooked up to my Compex to 'extend' my workout a bit. Ran the strength workout on my legs and calves with an Active recovery after each. It's nice to do after a Saturday workout....I think that's one of the reasons I'm getting so much faster. Strength, strength, strength.....

Sundays run got off to a late start. I was pressed for time since I had to leave for our all day Phoenix trip to see the Cardinals by 7:45. That meant, get home, get the truck loaded with the tailgate stuff, get the kids ready, etc, etc, etc....So, I figured i needed to be home by about 7am to get everythign done. Well, I didn't get out of the house until 5:45, so that left me an hour fifteen. Not what I had wanted, but when you've got commitments to meet someone, I don't like to leave them hangin' around. The run itself was great. It was a nice brisk 50 degrees when I set out, and that's the temperature where my legs just plain and simple respond. I started off easy at a 9:20 pace, but eventually ramped it up down to a 8:20 consistent mile after mile. And that last half mile.....I just GUNNED it and put the hammer down. I don't ususally run with my iPod, but since i was solo this am, and not running with the group, I was all over it. And one of those Kid Rock songs came up, and I couldn't resist. And I felt great.....Ran that at a 6:45 pace.. :)

This week will be a big heavy hitting milage week. I'm going to get some extra z's with the 2 days off from work and the holidays...So I'm also going to ramp up the miles, cuz i know there will be some extra food. NO WEIGHT GAIN THIS YEAR! I'm going to LOSE weight this Thanksgiving week!

Mon - Rest
Tues - 5.5
Wed - 7.5
Thurs - 7.5
Friday 7.5
Sat - 7.5
Sun - 16

That sets me up for a 51 mile week, and only 2 speed sessions. I'm feeling good, and I'm going BUST this OUT! So, until tommorrow, LIVESTRONG and Train Hard!