Last week ended with the Rutgers Big Chill 5k. It wasn’t quite as good as I hoped, but it was a solid PR – and I’m happy with it.
This week is something of a transition week. I plan to keep it fairly easy and take a bit of a down week before transitioning back to training and focusing on the Fred Lebow Half Marathon.
This time last year, I was feeling pretty beat up, and I needed to take a couple of down weeks. But this year, I’m feeling better. I had been a little iffy through Thanksgiving, but things started to click in the two weeks after the Ashenfelter 8k.
Now, I just need to take it easy and monitor how things feel to see how hard I can lean into the next bit of training.
I’m also planning on shortening this recap considerably. I like to write these reflections, because it helps me think about how the week goes. But I’ve gotten into the (bad) habit of writing a lengthy recap of each day.
It’s unnecessary, and I’m going to cut down on the words – and save longer recaps for race reports.
The Plan for the Week
Here’s the plan for the week:
- Sunday: 14 miles easy
- Monday: 5 miles easy, treadmill
- Tuesday: 6 miles easy, trail
- Wednesday: 5 miles treadmill AM, 5 miles treadmill PM
- Thursday: 10 mile R workout
- Friday: 5 miles easy, trail
- Saturday: 5 miles treadmill, easy
That comes out to 55 miles on the week. I had initially planned on doing sixty, but I made a few adjustments throughout the week and just decide to stick it out.
Here’s how things went.
Sunday: A Solid, But Tired Long Run
I went out for the same long run route as the past few weeks – out and back to Millburn and finishing up with a few laps around the Reservoir. I limited the distance to 14 miles and planned to keep the pace reigned in because it was the day after a race.
Things felt good early on. I loosened up quick, and there was no significant fatigue. On the way back, when I hit the inclines, my legs did feel a bit tired. Hit the 10 mile mark in 1:27:39 – on the slower side but not terribly slow. Respectable for a recovery effort.
I finished up the last couple of miles around the reservoir. I averaged ~8:30/mi for this part. Here, my legs were starting to feel the fatigue from the race. I was happy to be done at 14 miles and not to have to go longer.
Monday: An Easy Five Miles on the Treadmill
I woke up Monday, and it was raining. Didn’t feel like getting wet, so I went downstairs for a quick five miles on the treadmill. Uneventful, but this kicked off some dominos that ended with me revising the weekly mileage down from 60 to 55.
Tuesday: Six Miles on the Trails
Woke up Tuesday and hit the trails for an easy six miles. After a couple months of drought, we’re clearly through to the other side. The trails are starting to get wet, and there are puddles and mud in the usual places.
Today was a little slow. Still some lingering race fatigue, I guess. Finished six miles in just over an hour, with the last few miles at ~9:45/mi.
Wednesday: Treadmill Doubles
Part of my restructuring of the week was to shift an eight mile morning on Wednesday and turn it into two, five mile doubles. In some ways, it’s easier for me to run 45 minutes before and after work than to try and get a full run in before I drive down to the office.
I woke up and ran the first session in the basement. Uneventful. Typical day at the office, followed by a ton of traffic on the way home. Eugh. Spent over an hour and a half in the car.
Got home, laid down for twenty minutes, and hopped back on the treadmill. Finished up feeling pretty good.
Thursday: An R Workout
I had thought about skipping the workouts altogether this week, but I thought one R workout later in the week was a good idea. I kept the volume low – 4 sets of 200-200-400 – although the total run was 10 miles with warm up and cool down.
When I warmed up, I felt ok. A little slow. The strides helped, and after I warmed up I felt better – but still not quite 100%. I planned to do a set and then re-evaluate.
The first set went pretty well. I could feel I was a little slow, but I didn’t look at my watch and I decided to go through with the workout. I also noticed it was quite windy around the reservoir, so I was running into a stiff headwind at times. I finished all four sets, jogged a final lap, and headed for home.
It was indeed a bit slow, with reps ranging from 5:50/mi to 6:05/mi. Overall pace: 5:59/mi.
Given the fact that it’s race week, it was windy, and I didn’t feel like I quite gave it 100% … I’ll allow it. But if things are off again next week, I don’t know how I’ll feel about that.
Friday: Back on the Trails
I hit the trails again Friday. I was supposed to do an easy seven miles, but I had woken up and gotten started a little late.
I did some mental math and revised Friday down to five miles. Felt fine throughout the run. My pace on the back half was in the 9:40’s, so a little slow. But overall, felt good.
Saturday: Waking Up to Snow
I originally had 8 miles on the schedule for today. When I revised down yesterday, I figured I could tack those on to this morning – bumping things up to an easy ten miles.
And then … it snowed. I was expecting some light flurrying last night, but I woke up and there was a good two inches or so. The temperatures dropped overnight, and it’s going to be below freezing the next few days. I’m guessing the roads are pretty icy, after yesterdays rain-turned-snow.
So I decided to go downstairs and run on the treadmill instead. My wife also got me an early Christmas present this week – the Peloton Tread – so this was my first opportunity to test things out.
More on the treadmill later – but it works great and the screen is nice. The only problem is that the deck is higher than my old XTerra treadmill, and it doesn’t fit as comfortably in the basement. I had to remove some of the drop ceiling tiles.
At first, I didn’t notice Disney+ as an option on the Peloton (I found it when I went back later). So I fired up Umbrella Academy on Netflix. I haven’t started season 4 yet, so I added that to my list of shows to watch while running.
I felt fine, but I really didn’t want to do a full ten miles on the treadmill. I finished up 45 minutes and called it a morning.
Reflections and Looking Ahead
For a recovery week after a race, I think this week went out. I finished up with 55 miles – slightly less than my original goal, but plenty – and I had a decent long run.
My workout on Thursday was a little sub-par. It could be lingering fatigue from the race, the product of sitting in the car for too long Wednesday, or maybe the impact of the wind coming off the Reservoir. Or some mix of the three.
I need to sketch out the details, but I’ve got five weeks until the Fred Lebow Half Marathon. My plan is to focus on two workouts a week – a tempo session over hills during my long run and an interval session at R pace later in the week.
I’ll keep the mileage at about 70 miles per week, and I’ll drop it down to 60 in the week leading up to the race. I may also hop on my wife’s Peloton bike once or twice a week to get in an easy ride – adding in a little cardio without the additional miles.
The Fred Lebow course is tough. But I underperformed at both the Brooklyn Half Marathon and the Jersey Shore Half Marathon this year. So hopefully, with some added hills as preparation, I can tackle this tough course and still walk away with a PR. If I can hit 1:25 – the qualifying time for the NYC Marathon – that’d be great. But I’m also in for the United Half in March, and I’m going to make a more serious effort to hit the qualifying time there.