FIRSTish week 5
A recap of week 5 using a training plan inspired by FIRST.
Monday: 45 minutes on the bike @ LA Fitness (hills program, level 12, ~ 95 RPM)
Tuesday: Ran 5.4 miles @ Cattus Park in NJ while visiting my parents at about an 8:00 pace. (Wasn’t part of a plan but thought it would be fun to run in a new location).
Wednesday: Speed workout. I arrived at LA Fitness a bit later than I wanted, so had to jump into my workout quickly. I did a .5 mile warm-up, then (6) * 1/2 mile @ 6:00 pace with 90-110 seconds rest. My pulse was consistently about 5 BPM lower than in the beginning of the month, so I was happy about that. Cool-down was a few minutes walking on the treadmill. I played cut-throat racquetball with Mark and Ryan for 60 minutes.
Thursday: 45 minutes on the bike @ LA Fitness (hills program, level 12, ~ 95 RPM)
Friday: Tempo workout @ LA Fitness on the treadmill. 1 mile warm-up, 3 miles @ 6:44, 1 mile cool-down. Pulse was about 10 BPM lower for the tempo part than when I had ran an equivalent workout in the beginning of the month. Played 60 minutes of one-on-one racquetball with Mark.
Saturday: Rested
Sunday: My 9 mile long run last weekend went really well, so instead of running the suggested 9 miler again, I skipped ahead to the week 6 long run as suggested by FIRST: 11 miles @ planned half-marathon pace + 30 seconds (which means 7:35 with my current goal). I waited until 10:00 am to head out so it would warm up a little bit, and then hit Conewago. I didn’t feel quite as good as last weekend, but I hammered the last mile and was really happy with the splits: 7:29, 7:19, 7:11, 7:16, 7:18, 7:23, 7:27, 7:10, 7:21, 7:06, 6:25.
Average pace: 7:13
Average BPM: 163
Overall: It is nice seeing measurable improvements in my pace and/or heart rate data across all three running workouts. I think I’m going to enter either a 5k next weekend (Spring Valley), or a 10k the weekend after (Dallas Wildcat) to see where I am at with a full race effort.