"Chasing Sub 65" Cycle Week 5 - 131 miles

"Chasing Sub 65" Cycle Week 5 - 132 miles

Quality Session1: The Mile Repeats Heard Around The World - 
On Wednesday morning, I attempted another "mile repeats" session at MVP. This would be the 3rd time I have done this workout in the last 2 months. A quick summary of the last 2 sessions is below:

6/3 - 4:53, 4:53, 4:52, 4:52, 4:50. (Avg = 4:52.56 with 2:39 average rest)
7/22 - 4:50, 4:50, 4:52, 4:56, 4:48 (Avg = 4:51.42 with 2:31 average rest)

Today the goal was to shoot for doing 6, with an average rest of 2:15 and hopefully averaging 4:51 like last time. As I headed out with the intent of doing 6, I eased into the workout but started hammering a bit too early and once again I had to stop at 5. However, I made the decision to stop at 5 after my 4th repeat, and therefore unconsciously tapped into my "high school last repeat" mentality. Splits below:

4:55.31
4:51.65
4:48.69
4:47.83
4:43.84

(Average = 4:49.47, with average rest 2:13)

Needless to say I was psyched. I have brought down my averages for the mile repeats by a little over 3s/"mile" since before the Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon while reducing my recovery by around 26s. This is definitely a huge breakthrough workout and tells me that I am at least in 65:15-65:20 shape, maybe even faster if I get perfect weather. Either way, things are looking good with over 6 weeks to go until Rock n Roll San Jose!

Quality Sesson 2: Failed 3x2mi workout. 
What can I say, it seems like training has been going well lately and I was due for a subpar workout. Although I am not even too upset at this. I attempted a 3x2 "mile" workout at MVP 3 days after my breakthrough mile repeats performance and the combination of being slightly under-recovered as well as the warm weather (mid 60s at the start and possibly into the 70s by the end of the workout) caused me to bail early. Even then, it wasn't so bad. I ran 9:59.8 (4:59.9, 4:58.9) and 9:55.6 (4:56, 4:58) with a little under 2 minutes rest. I think I might have had another 10:05-10:10 in me, but if you are one of the handful of people reading this blog you already know that I just don't believe in going into the well like that at the end of a workout. Plus I knew I had a potentially tough long run the next day.


Quality Session 3: Moderate/Quick Long Run
Name drop time. I agreed to do a long run with Kenny Foster this weekend and invited Jason along for at least the first 10-15 miles. (Kenny's plan was to progress the last 4-5 miles and get down to the 5:30s-5:40s, I was going to try to keep him company for at least 15 miles until he started doing that). On Saturday night I sent a message out to some of the local runners that Kenny thought we should invite, and by Sunday morning when we got to the meeting spot we found Pat Rizzo, Carlos Trujillo, and Tommy Neal waiting for us. We ran our first mile in a little over 7 minutes and never saw another mile above 6:30 after that. There was a moment of confusion at 10 miles when the group turned around early and I didn't have enough time to explain I didn't want to do a 3rd out-and-back by the time we hit our meeting spot (we had done the first 5 miles as an out-and-back and then headed out for 5 miles in the other direction). I dropped a 5:46 11th mile and then saw Jason who was cruising along (he wisely dropped off the pace around 6-7 miles). The short story is I basically ran 62 minutes for 10 miles after the 7:0x opening mile and then cruised in until I hit 16 and averaged about 45-60s/mi faster than I usually for a long run. Felt solid but definitely pooped. Later that day I did a 4-mile shakeout run (instead of 6) for the first time in months.