Recovery Week

There are two times that I actually LOVE running.....besides the whole excitement of racing......It's the pre-race and post race weeks. One is designed designed to get you ready for the target event, the other......get you to the next target event. A good recovery week is so important after a brutal race like Sunday. Running towards a mountain, with the word Pass in it......never fun, but as a group we were all ready and well trained for the hills. That's a major reason we all did so well. This weeks recovery runs included the star step workout of 400m, 800m, 1200m, 800m 400m. We were instructed to take them nice and easy, which wasn't hard to heed that warning. My legs by Tuesday morning were sore. My quads were burning something fierce. But I made it through, and managed to hit all of my relaxed target times.

Today's workout was all about getting back up to speed. My soreness was gone, well, at least in my legs, but I'll get to that later.....and we had on the schedule a 12x400, progressively faster. Basically 4x400 in 1:45, 4x400 in 1:41, and 4x400 in 1:38. This allows a little bit of recovery at the start, but allows your legs to get cranking right up to speed! Why do that....The next race is right around the corner, a week from Sunday. It's the 5K super fast, and super flat course. It's were I am going to attempt to break the 21 minute barrier. It's what I've been training for. This Saturday, I will get a good guess as to where I stand. We have a 2 mile Time Trial, and I'm hoping that I will be able to run it in around 13:00 or a 6:30 pace. A 6:30 pace will give me a 10 sec/mile factor to allow me to run 6:40s in the 5K next sunday, and meet my goal.

So....back tot he soreness thang going on. I've actually started my summer 2 a day routine. In the evening, 6 days a week, I've managed to work in strength training. Monday was day #1, and it was a brutal chest workout. My schedule is going to look something kinda like this:

Mon - Chest/Shoulders Heavy (pm)
Tues - Group Run (am), Back/Bis Heavy (pm)
Wed - Legs Heavy (pm)
Thurs - Group Run (am) Chest Light High Reps (pm)
Fri - Back/Bis Light High Reps (pm)
Saturday - Group Run (am) / Legs Light high Reps(pm)
Sunday - Long Run

Eventually, every other Friday I'm going to start going on some long bike rides. Since I get every other Friday off, it will be nice to wake up, and get on the bike. Hopefully all this will eventually work off that extra 15 or so pounds I need to lose, and when that happens.....Look out age group....there's going to be a new Kid in town.........