Good but Tiring Week

My preference is to do a very hard day followed by 2 very easy days like last week, but work commitments dictated my training week. Due to a couple of early morning meetings, I had to juggle my running and ended up doing 3 quality sessions in 5 days.

Did a short VO2 Max session on Tuesday, a moderate pace tempo run on Thursday, and then 4 x 1600m at 10k pace on Saturday. The latter session was especially tough (for my standard) and I was relieved to finish it. Unlike previous speed sessions where I could do the intervals progressively with the last ones being the fastest, my last interval on Saturday ended up the slowest and I had to work hard to keep it within the timing range.

Looks like my endurance has suffered a bit from the recent venture into speed training. My last long run (20k) was 2 weeks ago and since then, my easy runs were only around 30-50 mins. This Monday is a public holiday in Singapore so I guess it’s a good time to do a long run.

Next races are a 10k in three weeks time and a 5k a couple of weeks after that.


My training this week:

Monday (treadmill):
32 mins Easy (av pace 5:18)
50 abs crunch

Tuesday (bike path):

AM:
10 mins warm up incl 2 strides
8 x 400m at 3k-5k pace with equal time recovery
Splits: 1:26, 1:25, 1:26, 1:26, 1:21, 1:24, 1:26, 1:15 (av pace 3:30, last one 3:08)
10mins cool down

The plan was to do a VO2Max workout, e.g. 12 x 400m at 5k pace in 88 secs per 400m (or 3:40 min/km). But it turned out that I ran the intervals much faster than I wanted to, especially for the 5th and 6th intervals. Was tired after the 7th, so decided to close shop by running the 8th interval very hard.

PM:
15 mins upper body weights
20 mins easy jogging on treadmill (5:43)
15 mins stretching/core

Wednesday (treadmill):
50 mins Recovery run (5:28)
50 abs crunch

Thursday (track):
10 mins warm up
8k Medium Tempo Run in 34:23 (av pace 4:18)
10 mins cool down
5 mins stretching
Total 12k in 55 mins

Felt too lazy to run on the road due to traffic and heat (5.30 pm), so went to the track instead and ran clockwise. Felt really good. Splits per 1600m: 6:51, 6:56, 6:55, 6:55, 6:46.

Friday (treadmill):
27 mins Recovery run (5:37) - busy day

Saturday (track):
15 mins warm up incl 3 strides
4 x 1600m at 10k pace with 400m jog (av pace 3:55 for intervals)
10min rest (too tired to run or do strides)
30 mins cool down inc drink stop
Total 16k in 77 mins

Splits:
1:33, 1:33, 1:33, 1:35 = 6:14 (av 169 bpm),
1:33. 1:34, 1:36, 1:33 = 6:16 (av 173 bpm),
1:34, 1:35, 1:34, 1:33 = 6:16 (av 179 bpm),
1:34, 1:37, 1:35, 1:33 = 6:19 (av 181 bpm)

Around 5 hours sleep but decided to run anyway since the sky was partly cloudy. Last week, I was churning out 1000m intervals at 3:50 pace comfortably but today I found the session was much tougher. 4 x 1600m at 3:55 pace turned out to be twice as hard and I was relieved to finish the session in one piece. Had to really work hard in the last interval to keep within the target timing. Was totally spent afterwards and even too tired to do any strides.

Sunday (concrete/grass):
40 mins Recovery run (av 5:35, av HR 141 bpm)

Total 67.3k, 1326k for the year