Week 7: BQ Training with Run Less Run Faster

Sep 8, 2013 by Greg Fowler

Here is my report for week seven of sixteen of my Outer Banks 2013 marathon training. I am following the 3:25:00 Boston Qualifier plan outlined in the book Run Less Run Faster.

To review past weeks, click here.

Short version: One of the best weeks yet.  Especially satisfying after last week’s tough time.

For the long version, keep reading.

Cross Training. Tuesday, Friday, Sunday

Successfully completed the two prescribed swim workouts. This week’s swims were the longest yet, but complicated.  Had to do three sets of free style like this: 1 fast, 1 easy, 2 fast, 2 easy, 3 fast, 3 easy, 2 fast, 2 easy, 1 fast and 1 easy. There was a one minute rest between sets.  Also managed to get in an hour easy bike ride on Sunday.

Grade: Pass

Run workout #1. Monday

Track time.  6 x 800m in 3:08.  Being the Labor Day holiday, I was able to go in the morning to beat the heat instead of after work.  I did a leisurely bike ride the 4+ miles to the high school as a warm up, and used the return trip as my cool down.

Results:

• 800 #1: 3:07
• 800 #2: 3:03
• 800 #3: 3:07
• 800 #4: 3:05
• 800 #5: 3:08
• 800 #6: 3:06

Grade: A.  Speed work is tough at 8am, but I did it.  I was just about out of gas on #6 and had to dig deep.

Run workout #2. Thursday

The dreaded run of the week. Wanted to redeem myself from earlier misses on five mile tempo runs. This run called for eight miles total: one easy warm up mile, then six miles at a 7:34 pace, then one mile easy cool down. This target pace for the five middle miles was 15 seconds slower than last week’s five miler target Here are the results:

• Mile 1: 9:26
• Mile 2: 7:41
• Mile 3: 7:24
• Mile 4: 7:22
• Mile 5: 7:22
• Mile 6: 7:46
• Mile 7: 7:30
• Mile 8: 9:32

Grade: A. Finally a solid tempo run and one of the best of the seven weeks, averaging  7:30 per mile.  The temperature at 7:00pm when I started was close to 90, but the humidity was no where as oppressive as last week.  Did a new route for this run as my son swam at the gym.  This allowed me to treat myself to a Chick-fil-a chocolate milkshake afterward.  That was good.

Run Workout #3. Saturday

A short long run.  Yea! First 13 miler since week one and a welcome break from the 18’s and 20’s.  Goal pace was ramped up a bit, though, at 8:04.  A crazy schedule for the week pushed the run out to Saturday.  This turned out to be a good thing as  I headed out early to temperatures in the mid 60’s.

A nice solid negative split run.  Broke the 8:00 mark for each of the last four miles, including saving my fastest mile for last at 7:46.  Ended up 1:44:26, an 8:01 pace.

Grade: A.

Week Seven Summary

A  good bounce back from a disappointing previous week.

Here’s a graphic showing hit or miss on the workouts over the past seven weeks.  For the tempo and long runs, I included mileage and pace targets (not including the easy warm up and cool down miles for the tempo runs).  The actual pace result is in parentheses:

Up Next

Here’s what is in store for week seven:

Run #1: Track work. Bunch of 400’s for the first time.  Two sets of 6×400 in 1:32, taking a  90 second rest interval been each 400.  Take a 2:30 break between sets and do it again.
Run #2: 2 miles easy, 3 miles @ 7:04/mile, 1 mile easy.
Run #3: 18 miles @ 8:19/mile.

Cross Training: Swim 25 minutes any stoke and kick board.  Much easier to keep track.

The long run looks to be the toughest for me this week.

 

Stay tuned and POFIFOTO!