Monday: 5:30 am speed workout.
4 x 30 second repeats
4 x 60 second repeats
recover 2 minutes
*p.s. this is a FAIL because i slept in this moring. Aboooo... what is wrng with me. But i'm going to make up for it by running after work. I'm just working through lunch and leaving early to workout.
Tuesday: Cross train: 30-45 minutes
My goal is to get up early and swim then do weights. we'll see what actually happens, but if I miss the morning, I'll have to do something at lunch.
Wednesday: Morning Intervals. Since I'm leading the group, there is no sleeping in. period.
8-10 60 second repeats with 1 minute recovery eary run
considering we usually do repeat, I'm not sure how we're going to do this with a 60 second recovery. we may have to adjust to a 90 second recovery.
thursday: cross train
I'm doing early morning spin class at 5:45. this will give me 48 hours recovery time before my long run saturday. This is super important to me because I can't have tired spin class legs for my long run. then my run isn't quality. Because I only run 3 times per week, I need those runs to be QUALITY. So I try to keep any super difficult workouts far away
friday: cross train - this will be a swim. Since my tri is in 3 weeks, i need to be in the pool, pool, pool. um, did I say pool? cause I need to be in the pool. which I also like because swimming seems to be the hardest workout cardiovascularly, but easiest on my body.
Saturday: long run - this week, it's 55-65 minutes with 2-4 sets of 60 strides in the last couple of miles.
sunday: rest
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Speaking of strides, I was reading an interview with Kara Goucher and I love how she talks about the secret word or mantra. The first article I ever read on her talked about her secret word. When she gets tired and feels like she can't do anymore, she uses a word that helps remind her body to go. I'm not saying with much finesse, but basically, when she trains, throughout her runs, she'll say a word, and then she'll run faster. Her body becomes conditioned to respond to that word so it helps when she's tired.
I don't use a word, but I use the same idea. The one thing that Holly always makes us practice are strides. Strides are when you focus on your form and you get a certain number of strides in a certain amount of time. For example, we'll do 45 strides. So we'll count our right foot 45 times and our goal is to get 45 strides in 30 seconds. If we don't get enough strides, then our "stride" is too long. If we get too many, the our "stride" isn't long enough. It helps us to focus on proper form BUT how I also use it is to help when a race gets tough. What I've learned is that my mind tells me that I can't do something when I actually can. My body just has to remind my mind that it's actually not tired. So, when I'm running and I feel tired and feel like I can't go on, I do 45 strides. My body feels strong and I remember that I've done this distance before and I can do anything. It's like getting a second wind. Sometimes, I have to do strides over and over, so I'll do 45 strides, then count to 30, do 45 strides, then count to 30. It gives me something to focus on when I'm having a hard run.
That may sound like a lot, so if you have questions, just ask. It's a little game I play with myself when I'm mentally struggling.
Do you have any games you play when having a difficult run?
Do you use a magic "word"?
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