FCHM Training: Week 4

Four weeks in. And I'm pretty happy with the week.

Here's what the plan had:

Monday: 4 miles
Tuesday: Speed work. Total of 6 miles with 4x800s.
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: 4 miles
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 7-8 miles
Sunday: Rest

Here's what I ended up doing.

Monday: Rest. I can't remember why I skipped the run. It might have been a late night at work, or a nasty headache. I don't remember.

Tuesday: I was supposed to work a night shift at work, meaning I wouldn't be able to make it up to the group speed work session. So the original plan was to get up early and hit the track before work to get those 800s in. The actual plan? I ended up not getting up early enough, my night meeting got cancelled, I was still at work late and I hit the YMCA late to sneak in a quick 4 miles. I kept it easy, two miles at 10:30 pace, two miles at a 10 min/mile pace.

Wednesday: Well, I had skipped speed work Tuesday and I knew I had to get it done. I headed to the track after work. I started with a two mile warm up, just from the school to the cemetery and back. It wasn't awful, but not wonderful. Then it was time for the 800s, with three minutes rest between 800s. The first three felt decent, but that final one? BRUTAL. I just wanted to quit midway through, but I gutted it out. The splits were OK: 4:30, 4:34, 4:37 and 4:44. I was supposed to finish with a two mile cool down, but my legs were trashed. After a 1.5 mile run/walk I threw in the towel and headed home. Well, first a pit stop to watch a bike race in downtown Oshkosh.

Thursday: I skipped this run. I had a date with a dude. We went to the Wisconsin TimberRattlers game to watch Brewers catcher Jonathan Lucroy make a rehab start. The game was good. The date? Well, let's just say he seemed more interested in his Blackberry.

Friday: I rested.

Saturday: My first long run in a REALLY long time that felt good. Granted, it didn't start good. The first three miles were rough. There was a train viaduct that I had to run up right around Mile 3, and since my cranky IT band still doesn't like hills, I was planning on walking it. At that moment, the coach I'm working with was riding his bike next to me and talking, but I got to the viaduct, told him my plan and he rode ahead. After getting off the viaduct, I started running again until I got to Mile 4 where the group had a water station set up. I paused, got some cold water and I was off again. At this point the IT band was just starting to get a little achy, but not bad. But I told myself I'd start doing the short walk every mile. Well, when I got to Mile 5 I was feeling good. So I kept running. Got to the bridge right before Mile 6, was feeling good so I tested myself and ran the bridge. Felt good. I kept running, finally taking a short short break around Mile 6.5. I told myself I'd give myself one more brief, brief break if needed, but I kept running. I felt stronger in the second half of the run than in the beginning. It was a good run. And I felt good at the end, like I could have gone further. No major IT band pain. No tape on my knee. I guess the PT is working!

Week 5 could be interesting. It's EAA AirVenture week and with five long days of work out there, including a TON of walking (hello cross training!), it'll be interesting to see how the legs (and IT band) handle the miles I've got to run this week.