Last week was pretty intense and I broke through some barriers that I didn't expect. I completely surprised myself on Thursday during a 55 minute negative-split run. The way back I went at my upper-tempo or lower threshold pace. I chose the latter and ended up running my fastest ever 5K in the process. Granted, I've only run two stand-alone 5Ks so I didn't have much to base it on. But this was a major indicator that all of the effort I've put in on the run has paid off.
Saturday was my longest brick of the year. It was a 2.5 hour, mixed-intensity, bike session followed up with a 1:15 run. The first six miles of the run were supposed to be at my goal HIM pace and I ended up about 20-30 seconds faster per mile. Whoops. I was consciously telling myself to slow down but my legs had other plans so I just went with it.
So Smith Mountain Lake is this Saturday and it's a race that I've experienced both success and frustration. I've done it twice and each time the swim has not gone as planned. I don't know if it's the cooler water temperature or the beach start, but I've always struggled to get comfortable in the water. This year should be even colder since we can't quite seem to break into spring-time weather. My plan is to do a much longer swim warm-up than I have in the past.
My main goals are to have fun, be safe, and leave it all out on the course. If I do that then I think I'll have a good result since my training has gone so well this year. Coach Jim has certainly cranked it up to 11. There's a reason I've seen the term "threshold" so often in my training.
1 comment:
Looks like we're pretty close on training plans/workout themes... except I'm not cranked up to 11 yet! I have that movie on VHS somewhere. Also have a Les Paul Custom from that era which has knobs that go to 11 :) See you at SML
- Justin
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