Base building and testing Week 1

Okay, not sure what to call this week, but it isn't recovery anymore, so let's just start calling it the Base building because that is what my coach has named it.  My coaching program started Monday, but I don't think this is the official start of my training per se.  I think this week was all about testing to see where I am at with recovery and getting some base ideas about my heart rate and pace.

Naughty Peanut the Elf.  

Monday:  Girls on the run miles.  We had 25 minutes of running on the plan, so me and gals that stuck with me on and off got 2 miles in. I can't believe we are already at the end of this semester:(  This season has flown by too fast and I will miss the girls terribly.

pretty boom boom

Tuesday:  Threshold Lactate test.  Okay, so I kind of thought I knew what this was and when I looked it up, I was assured it totally was what I was thinking.  Basically, you run your "hard" for a prescribed amount of time, and your coach can get all sorts of useful data from it.  While I was sort of worried my hard wouldn't be my normal hard since I am still in recovery, honestly it didn't go as horribly as I thought it would.  I just did the marathon relay a few weeks ago before my 50 miler, and was around a 9:30-9:45 pace for 6.5 miles, and i think I maintained a 9:45-9:50 during this exercise.  My coach had me run easy for 10, hard for 30, and then easy for 10.  I am excited to hear what interesting data she gleans!

our very naughty cat Elvis

Wednesday:  Easy 30 minutes followed by core work out.  I decided since I am HORRIBLE about keeping up with strength training that i would make Rockin Robin do the work out with me and hold me accountable.  Unfortunately, I had to do my running on the mill thanks to hubby having to work late.  Post running we got the work out done and who would have thought something SO simple would kick our asses (literally) so hard!  We did lots of very simple core exercises that I have done for years but for some reason our cores must be really out of shape because we really struggled!

silly string party!

Thursday:  5 miles with NO walk breaks.  Coach really wants me to eliminate my walk breaks.  She thinks they are a mental crutch, and i am sure she is right.  I started them to try and get through the horrible humidity and heat of KS summer and to let my injury riddled body heal, and I have to say this summer was very tolerable doing my runs this way (and I had an injury free year).  I am sure I don't need them per se, but I am going to miss them.  This was our last day for GOTR practice and we planned on a nice long running time since we had no lesson, and then some fun time post run with ice cream and awards.  We got in four miles together and when time was up, we went in and celebrated and i didn't get that final mile in.  Oh well.

Friday:  Rest day.  Ahhhhhhh.

Uh WTH?

Saturday:  Longer long run day and Girls on the RUN is SO much fun 5K time!  Coach said I could use my run/walk intervals, but to try and keep my heart rate down for this one.  I had planned on getting up early and getting on the road so I would be done in plenty of time to get cleaned up and head to the 5K, but I slept till 7 am and then didn't get on the road till 8:40 am.  Rockin Robin joined me for 10 of the 14 miles and I did a change out of dogs at 10 miles, so that Boom boom got his 4 for the day as well.    I felt like everything went really well but my heart rate was pretty high (see picture above).  I was suppose to be mainly in zone 4 and I lived in Zone 5????  Will be interested to see what my coach says.  I am wondering if I am still not totally recovered from my first 50.  Here is a snap shot of a long run pre 50 miler where I nailed the heart rate without even knowing:

This is more like it!

Post running we headed out for our girls big celebration, the final 5K with their running buddies.  All of us coaches were absolutely BLOWN away by how amazing they all did.  All of the girls met and exceeded our expectations.  We had some speedy girls who even broke the 30 minute mark.  We danced, we laughed, we took pictures, and we had FUN!  I have NEVER been more proud of a group of girls.  We will loose most of them to middle school next year and that breaks my heart BUT we have a great group of younger girls who are going to recruit friends because they had SO much fun!

Sunday:  Easy long run. The goal for this race was time and fun.  Well, don't I always have fun on a run????  I had one hour of easy with no walk breaks.  Not going to lie, was pretty sore from the day before and the work out from Wednesday still. Robin and I got on the road in the afternoon and enjoyed the gray, cool overcast run.  Post a little break I got my mat out and got to work doing strength training sess number 2 of the week, a repeat of session one.

Ah, my first week of being coached again.  I will admit seeing some prescribed paces and heart rates kind of gave me some PTSD from hard core PR training and 2 x week speed work for years.  After being very honest with my coach about my feelings, we agreed to not think about specifics just yet and just chill and see where I was at.  I appreciate her listening to me and my concerns and voicing her opinions back in a way that I didn't get defensive and say screw this.  I have had a whole year of not being told what to do when and while i miss it, I really, really like my comfort zone too :) 

Have a great week!!!!