Goals:

• Complete all scheduled runs
• Continue achilles recovery
• Take adequate time for rest

Schedule:

• Monday – Strong Lifts
• Tuesday – 7 miles GA
• Wednesday – Strong Lifts
• Thursday – 8 miles GA
• Friday – 6 miles GA
• Saturday – Rest
• Sunday – 9 miles endurance, Strong Lifts

Recap:

I’m still keeping the speedwork out for now. I’m comfortable leaving it out of the equation as long as it takes to get me fully healed. I’ve started transitioning into my regular shoes without heel cups in them for everyday use, but I think I’ll keep them in for a couple more weeks in my running shoes. I’ll certainly keep using them through the 5K next weekend.

This week was pretty rough. I was exhausted and pressed for time last Sunday, so I pushed that lifting workout off until Monday, which meant I was less recovered for everything else this week. Combine that with increasingly-hard lifts since I’m still making linear progression, and I have been incredibly sore and run down this week. I have found that regular foam rolling helps to keep the DOMS at bay, especially in the hamstrings, and I think it certainly helps with the tendinitis.

Finally, I’ve reached the end of my sentence on the treadmill, which is good because I am out of Downton Abbeys to watch an I’m not ready to put Gilmore Girls back on yet. That’s not to say that I’m not going to end up back on it if these outdoor runs irritate it too much, but I think right now, I should be in the clear. I ran around the dog park a little the other day and it made me yearn for running outside again. It felt so good to propel myself under my own power instead of with a little belt running under my feet.

Looking Forward:

I have my summer A race on Saturday. I’m hoping for a sub-23 time, which would be over two minutes better than my current official 5K PR time, but only about 35 seconds off a 5K split from a 5 mile race in May. It’s significantly hotter now than it was in May, but the race is shorter, and instead of holding back at the start, I’m going to race this one with a “go out as fast as possible an try not to die” race plan. I need to run about a 7:20 pace to pull this off, which is faster than I’ve run a mile yet, so I concede that this goal is optimistic, coming off of a month of treadmileage and summer heat to which I am not acclimated and achilles injury and bursitis. If I don’t meet my main goal, my next goal is just to PR.

Next week is also the start of the second phase of base building. I add a day of running, but thankfully it means that most of the midweek runs are a little shorter (for now). I won’t have another 8 mile run during the week until the end of July! (And then I’ll have a whole slew of them, essentially through the beginning of November.)

Longer term, the Pfitz plan I’ve picked out to train for the DRC Half in November is incredibly daunting. It’s a lot of running at an intensity I haven’t touched in a long time. Due to that, I’m still keeping my options open to building to a little less than 45 miles to give myself a true recovery week before starting up the half plan. While theoretically building up to 45 miles and then dropping back down to 33 and trading mileage for intensity is enough recovery, I’m going to have to play it by ear and see how I feel come August. The end goal is always to stay healthy, even if it means some short term sacrifices.