A Mini-Break Training Week

Training….I was so on track with my training schedule; however, last week I was rewarded with only 15 miles of cycling and 4.3 miles of running – the result of a stomach bug, rain (no excuse since the one 4.3 mile run was in a torrential downpour) and visiting family.  Other than the stomach bug there are no excuses here.

However, overall it was a good week to take off.  I hadn’t built in any rest weeks in the training schedule, which I normally do, so as long as this doesn’t become a habit I will be fine.

The one run I did do was with my workmates on our regularly scheduled lunch run.  I am finding that this has been a great addition since it has really helped with my pace.  We have a couple of really fast runners here (one just ran the Berkeley Half Marathon in 1:20 and the other in 1:27!) and they don’t mind bringing there pace down for the rest of us mere mortals.  Our last run came in at 9:07 with several of the splits in the 8:20 to 8:40 range which has been great since I was having trouble getting out of my 9:47 rut for a while now. 

It was pretty rainy that day, even more than Tuesday which I had managed to talk myself out of pretty easily.  However, the company made the run go pretty quickly and we were done in no time.

I had a plan of getting up early on the weekend with company here; however, with a delayed late night flight on Friday/Saturday which meant we got home in bed around 2:00 A.M and back up 5 hours later, and then not having the required will power for Sunday my long run was out, oh well.

This week my cycling will be low also since it is a short work /commute week; however, I am planning on taking the extra days off to catch up with my miles.  In fact I did do an 8 mile run today with some pretty solid splits in the 8:30 range so I think finally my pace is coming back down.  The challenge was more getting my motivation up.  I had planned a longish run; however, almost turned around at the 0.25 mile mark.  I pushed through and was rewarded with a wonderful view of the Golden Gate Bridge with very light winds so I am very happy I persevered. I will see tomorrow when I run with the group again.

Short training update this week….