Upcoming Spring Season

The past 7 weeks I have averaged 85 miles/week, with some solid races during these weeks.  My focus has been on the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler, and using the races leading up to that as workouts.

2/03-2/09: 80
2/10-2/16: 89
2/17-2/23: 82
2/24-3/02: 97
3/03-3/09: 75
3/10-3/16: 92
3/17-3/23: 85

On March 15 I raced the Shamrock Townebank 8K.  I didn't feel great, but I wasn't surprised as I was in the middle of a 92 mile training week.  I wasn't sure how I was going to feel during this race, and whether I was going to actually be able to run it fast or just run it hard.  I hit a tick over 25:00 in 4th place, and pretty much ran alone the last 3 miles.  The wind was pretty bad too, which made things rough, but it was a good "B" effort.  The next day, I paced Christina in the half marathon.  I should have signed up as a pacer for the race, however I would have had to sign up as either 1:30:00 or another round number, and I knew Christina was going to run faster than that(based on her fitness somewhere between 1:27-1:29).  We started our first mile in 6:58 and worked the pace down from there.  Splits below:

6:58,
6:47,
6:47,
6:45,
6:44,
6:41,
6:41,
6:47,
6:49,
6:39,
6:38,
6:46,
6:43

She finished in 1:28, and her husband Tommy finished in 1:30, both new PRs for them.  I was very happy but not surprised by their results.  I then ran some more miles to get in 21 miles for the day, watching a bit of the marathon in the process.


Last week was a hard training week.  I did 2 hard track workouts, one on Wednesday and one on Saturday, and got in another 85 mile week.  It's good because I went into Saturday's workout not feeling fresh, and my rests were very short between intervals(90 seconds).

Monday: 8 miles easy

Tuesday: 12.5 miles, + strength training

Wednesday: AM: pool running 35 minutes
PM: 10 x 800 meters w/ 200 meter jogs between each, up to 2:00 rests:
2:34, 2:28, 2:26, 2:25, 2:23, 2:26, 2:23, 2:24, 2:24, 2:25, 9.5 miles total

Thursday: AM: 25:00 easy/PM: 45:00 easy

Friday: AM: 13 miles easy

Saturday: AM: 5 x 1600m w/ 90 second rests: 4:56, 4:53, 4:51, 4:54, 4:56, 10 miles total;
PM: 45:00 easy

Sunday: AM: 15 miles easy


I begin tapering this week and into next week for Cherry Blossom.  I really want to run well in this race.  My B goal is to run 50:XX, and my A goal is to crack 50:00, which is pretty ambitious, yet I feel like somehow it is possible, especially with the fact that Cherry Blossom is hosting the USA 10 Mile Championship this year, which brings fast racers from all over the country.  In addition, I may not do this race again next year, because I plan to devote an entire spring outdoor track season in 2015(Raleigh Relays is one on my list, which is around the same time as Cherry Blossom typically), focusing on the 10K and 5K.  So I'd like to completely crush it this time around.

-Sloane