December 10-16: Get it Done

Last week was one of those weeks that, training-wise, should have been a disaster. I had two cross-country flights in the space of 48 hours, several workdays running 14+ hours, and, oh, a meet to coach on Sunday. Marathon training fits in all of that just perfectly, right?

I had to be prepared for it to go badly, because you just can't expect to fly 2000+ miles, get home at 1 am, and go for a long run at 8 am, expecting good results. But what you can do is make things happen as best you can given the circumstances. My gear for the long run was set out Tuesday night, so it would await me Saturday morning, I crammed midweek workouts in when I could, and even though my normal track workout was a no-go because of my business travel schedule, I made my own "track" by running up and down a straight, flat section of Nebraska Avenue.

Sixteen times.

This was...not exciting. But it did get the job done, which is what I focused on day-to-day last week, rather than fretting about lack of sleep and long workdays. In the end, though I was prepared for my pace on Saturday's long run to suffer, I ran strong and finished fast. 

And if I can do that with almost no sleep after being crammed in the back of a USAir plane, sub-4 hours in Myrtle Beach will be nothing.

Monday: Rest day.

Tuesday: 40 minutes of leg- and glute-focused strength training in the morning, 5300 yards of swimming with DCRP Masters in the evening.

Wednesday: A “track” workout of 7x400 on Nebraska Avenue early in the morning (1:57-1:54-1:53-1:53-1:49-1:49-1:46), then an hour spin on the trainer before running off to Arizona and getting in at what felt like 1 am to me.

Thursday: An early morning swim session of 4000 meters, then off to meetings until almost 10 pm (Mountain Time, of course).

Friday: A 20 minute easy treadmill jog and 40 minutes of strength training in the passable hotel fitness center before a fun-filled morning of meetings, and then a long trip home that had me finally walking in my door around 1 am.

Saturday: Sleep before a long run? Unnecessary. 15.12 miles at an average pace of 9:20. We did a better job of sticking to our pace zone for the first 12 miles, which were to be “easy,” but ran a little fast as we did a build to “marathon pace.”

No. No, I will not be doing an 8:31/mile pace marathon in February. It was fun to run that fast at the end of a long run, though.

The long run was, of course, immediately followed by a 3000 meter swim.

Sunday: All prepped for a long indoor ride, I optimistically checked out the weather forecast and realized I could head outside for a ride up MacArthur to Potomac. A little over 27 miles later, I was cold but happy to have been outside. Followed by 2500 meters of swimming before coaching an afternoon meet.