Week 7- 30.5M running, 270' x-training

Woohoo! We did it!! Last week was my highest mileage week since 2013 and I couldn't be more happy about that! Each week I want to add something to my training to move it forward a bit - This week I want to add core work. :) I plan to do some structured core, rehab/ injury prevention, and general strength work throughout the week.

Sunday, July 20th
Rest day!

Monday, July 21st
15' warm up, Mono Fartlek (2 x 90"/90", 4 x 60"/60", 4 x 30"/30", 4 x 15"/15"), 10' cool down. I woke up exhausted (sleepy exhausted) and considered going back to sleep and using the treadmill during lunch; then when I actually started running, my arch and shins hurt enough that I considered just doing 30 minutes easy and trying the workout tomorrow. Luckily my first mile was 8:15 pace and didn't feel hard, and that was enough to convince me that I should run the workout today. :) I did butt kicks and high knees for 30 steps each and then started the workout (no strides). Needless to say I was shocked to look down at 60" and see sub 6:10 pace! I allowed myself to slow down the last 30" of that rep knowing it would be a long workout and I didn't want to jog the easy portions. I decided staying in my warm up pace range was good enough for the easy portions, but then looked down and saw 7:07 pace midway thru the first recovery. Wow! It didn't stay that comfortable for the whole workout (not even close), but those first 10 minutes today were enough to keep the flame burning in the back of my mind. I ended up averaging 6:52 pace; hard segments were generally between 6:00 and 6:20 pace with two outliers. Recoveries were in the mid to low 7's for the longer reps, then slowed down to low 8's for the shorter reps.
40' pool running.

Tuesday, July 22nd
30' easy run + hill sprints. I woke up at 5:30 with the intention of running, but while doing the toe walk and lunges in my warm up circuit, I knew that wasn't smart. Last night I taped up my arch and ankle/lower shin and it provided immediate relief so I thought I would be okay to run today. I think I need to play it safe and just aqua jog though. This pain is strong enough that I'm pretty sure it will eventually force a day off, and I would rather that day be a 30 minute easy run considering the rest of this week is 60' runs and hills.
Life happened and it got the better of me today. Car problems left me stranded all day, arch is still aching, and my I'm on day 4 of an upset stomach. Tomorrow is a new day...

Wednesday, July 23rd
60' long run. Made it just a little bit farther today than I did on Saturday - 7.72 miles averaging 7:47 pace. Definitely a harder way to do it though. On Saturday my first 3.5 miles were between 8:05 and 8:40, then I dropped it on my way back. Today my first mile was 8:15 and the rest were mid 7:30's to high 7:40's. My arch is really the main problem this week. TFL/ IT band is manageable, but the arch is pretty painful. Also, I had to stop at 48 minutes today for a breather. I was really panicking too because I felt like I needed water (80 degrees when we left our car to run), but there were no fountains nearby! I'm bummed it wasn't a continuous run, but I felt like I was getting overheated and new I was about to fall apart if I didn't do something to salvage the rest of the run.
50' pool running. My arch even hurts doing this?!?!

Thursday, July 24th
30' easy run. Made up Tuesday's easy run today. Got in 3.78 miles which was a pleasant surprise. I wanted to keep it easy because I had a lot of aches and was running in the heat (89 degrees according to the garmin), so I choose not to look at pace on the entire run. The first time I checked the watch was after the 3rd mile beep to see how many minutes I had left (I was expecting only 2 or 3), and the time was around 24 minutes! Averaged 7:56 pace for the run and didn't feel too bad energy wise. Big time aches today though. Both shins (left is worse), right arch and heel, and left quad.
60' aqua jog.

Friday, July 25th
15' warm up, 8 x 60" uphill, 15' 10' cool down. This was definitely one of my more miserable runs- at least for the warm up and cool down. On the warm up, my shin was the biggest pain, but I actually stopped the cool down early for my quad, not my shin. It was getting progressively more painful on the cool down and by 9 minutes I knew I wasn't being smart. The hill reps were about the only good thing about the day. Going up the hill I really didn't have any pain, just fatigue! ;) Going down all the pains came back, haha. I averaged 6:12 pace for the uphill portions, which is over 20 seconds faster than what I averaged on the 90" hills last week!
60' aqua jog.

Saturday, July 26th
60' aqua jog.
60' long run with 1', 1', 2', 1', 1', 2' surges on a 5' cycle. Ran on the treadmill so that Jake and I could sleep in after a long day yesterday. I started the run at 8:35 pace, then knocked the speed down by 0.1 every five minutes. I started the surges at 7:30 pace and then knocked the surges down by 0.1 every time as well. My last 10 minutes of the run were 7:30 pace for the first 5 minutes and 7:21 pace for the last five minutes. My last surge was 7:03 pace. Next time I will want to start the surges at 7:00 pace and go down from there. The treadmill ended up being a great option for this run, too. I'd like to do this workout on the treadmill again. My left quad and hip flexor are the worst they have been thus far. They hurt when aqua jogging as well, though they didn't hurt the first week that I was aqua jogging.