Training January 23 – January 29

Monday, January 23: Ivy Creek Greenway – 5 miles – I could not get out of bed this morning. More wet weather and cold temperatures made me bag running in the morning, but after work the rain had stopped and I hit the greenway trail for five miles. My legs were a little tight from running 10 yesterday, especially my right hamstring (no more running in my year old Cascadia 5s!). I was a little nervous because that’s the hamstring that bothered me all fall, but it loosened up once I got going. I ran the flatter greenway trail because it’s paved and crushed gravel, which meant a lot less mud than the other trails near my apartment. I ran the out and back version and added one homesite loop to make sure I got in five miles.

Tuesday, January 24: Ivy Creek Greenway – 5 miles – Couldn’t get up again this morning. I don’t know what my deal is, maybe it’s the weather, I don’t know but I’ve had no luck dragging myself out of bed to run before work. Today this worked out pretty well for me as it was one of the nicer days we’ve had in the last week or so, sunny and 60 when I hit the trail. Easy run, I tried to keep the pace honest since this is a 100 percent flat run. I added one homesite loop to make sure to get the full five.

After getting back to the apartment I officially signed up for the Dirty Spokes Heritage Park 8 mile trail race. This is the only Dirty Spokes race I missed last year and one of my goals this year is to run in all seven races. Now, this one is going to be ugly. I’m not in shape to race eight miles right now. I’d like to be able to hit six minute pace but even that might be a stretch at this point since I’ve only been running consistently since January 1 and I haven’t really done much mileage. My plan for the next week and a half is to keep getting in 35 minute/five mile runs in each day and get an 8 mile tempo run in early in the week. Right now I’m shooting for an hour long run on Saturday and Sunday and then a 30-60-90 workout on next Tuesday. I need to get in a longer run at a higher effort to prepare for the race, so that is my plan for Tuesday, well see what happens.

Wednesday, January 25: Sweet Gum out & back – 5 miles – Finally dragged myself out of bed in the morning for an early run. I left the house a little bit late but it was still dark, so I ran with the headlamp for the first 20 minutes or so before it was light enough to go without. The run started off sluggish but my legs felt better as I went along. My hamstring is still a little bit tender at times. I need to get better with stretching it out and get back to using the stick to massage it before and after I run. I should also probably invest in a foam roller. The times I’ve used them when running from work have really helped as I think loosening my IT band relieves my hamstring issues. It was good to get 10 in on Sunday without any major issues though.

Thursday, January 26: Ivy Creek Greenway – 5 miles – Slow going this morning. It was nice and warm but really dark and the fog was very dense. Because of the weather I avoided the Sweet Gum trail and just ran the flat out and back five on the greenway. It took me nearly two minutes longer to get this run in then when I did it the other night. Most of that I attribute to how dark it was, the fog combined with the darkness made it difficult to see so I ran a little more carefully than I would have with better visibility. With that said, the fact that this run was so much slower than others has me a little worried about the upcoming race, but hopefully getting a workout in before then will give me a better idea of what to expect next Saturday.

Friday, January 27: Sweet Gum out & back – 5 miles – This was another sluggish run. Nothing really hurt and it’s not a difficult run but I’ve just been feeling really slow for the last few days.

Saturday, January 28: Sweet Gum loop + Greenway trail – 8 miles – I was a little bit sore after playing 18 holes yesterday so it was another slow day but I was happy to get in a little bit of a longer run than what I’d been doing the last couple of weeks. I want to get a few more runs of 45-60 minutes in before next weekend’s 8 mile race so it doesn’t seem like such a shock to the system to be running for that long.

Sunday, January 29: Homesite Loops + Greenway trail – 7 miles – This was my bread and butter morning run last year, especially when it started to get really hot in the late spring and summer. It is an easier, flat run that starts and finishes with two loops (each loop is .5 miles) on the homesite trail. I actually felt like I was running a more normal pace today, which was positive after having a couple of slower days to end the work week.

Weekly Total: 40 miles on seven workouts – Overall this was a good week. I got a couple more miles in this week and brought my total up to 40, which is right where I wanted to be at this point. Next week I am shooting for 40-45 miles, which will include one tempo run and one race. I’m trying to build up to the 50-60 mpw range where I will probably stay for a couple weeks before bumping up to 70+ mpw.