Weekly Summary: 9/1/08 - 9/7/08 (525 minutes, steady state, long run)

This was a decent second week of the cross season. Both of my best runs were with Ian - a long run including Brown Mountain on Monday, then a steady state on Friday. My steady state run was excellent - controlled, steady work at just about the right pace. 5 arroyo tempo loops averaging 8:51. I felt stronger on my long run than I previously had.

I would have liked to get some faster running in this week. That's essentially what I'm missing - VO2 max type fitness. So I want to at least sprinkle in some faster fartleks here and there, rather than just running tempo all the time.

I tweaked my hamstring slightly on the steady state, so I'll have to be careful about this. I've also been running with the team less and less because I can feel what the roads and sidewalks are doing to my legs and I don't like it. I wish I could run with them more, because I like all the new prefrosh, (and the older guys as well), but I'd also like to have a season where I have no injury problems.

Plan for next week is contingent on how my hamstring feels, but will probably be like this:
Mon: AM long; PM easy, core
Tues: AM medium-long; PM easy, lift
Wed: AM easy; PM easy, core
Thu: AM fartlek or tempo (with team if they stay off the roads); PM easy, lift
Fri: AM easy, strides; PM easy or off
Sat: AM steady state 6xarroyo in 54:00; PM off

The goal is to keep working on the endurance and threshold stuff like I have been, but if the hamstring allows to get a little bit of work in at paces below 5:20.