WEEKLY SUMMARY (November 11-17): 53 miles (89.5% E, 5.5% T, 3% I, and 2% R paces)

  Sunday: 6 miles at 7:20/mi.

  Monday: 2.5 E, 4 x (400m R at 84=5:41/mi. + 400m E), 2.5 E (7 miles total)

  Tuesday: 7 miles at 7:25/mi.

  Wednesday: 2.5 E, 3 x 1 mile T at 6:18/mi. (1 min.), 1.5 E (7 miles total)

  Thursday: 7 miles at 7:24/mi.

  Friday: 2.5 E, 3 x (800m I at 2:51=5:47/mi. + 400m E), 2.5 E (7 miles total)

  Saturday: 12 miles at 7:23/mi.

Let me finally explain these abbreviations, which I take from Daniels' Running Formula. "E" means easy/long pace (which I sometimes write as "E/L"). Descending to faster paces in order: I also sometimes use "M" for marathon race pace, though not this week. "T" means lactate threshold or tempo pace. "I" means VO2 max interval pace, which is around 5k race pace and is used in intervals from 800-1600m, 1200m being my preferred distance for workouts at this pace. "R" means repetition pace, which is supposed to be faster still (Daniels says about 6 seconds per 400m faster than I pace), and which I use mainly in 400m intervals. This week I use "R" loosely for the best pace I could muster at this stage for 400m intervals, even though it's barely faster than my I pace for some 800's a few days later. Finally, when I write something like (1 min.) at the end of my description of some sort of intervals, as I do for Wednesday this week, that means I rest (i.e., stand around) for 1 min. between those intervals. When I don't write that, then I run the intervals continuously without stopping. So on Monday and Friday this week, I didn't stop running between intervals but used the 400m easy jog to recover between the hard intervals. "E" is thus used loosely too. I tend to jog those "easy" recovery laps around 8:15-8:45/mi. pace. My cool down after a workout, which I also mark "E," is not that much slower than my standard easy pace but is still a little bit slower: in the range of 7:30-8:00 these days, depending on how worn out I am. I usually do the warm up miles before a workout in the same pace range that I run the first 2-3 miles of a standard easy run, though before a race my warm up tends to be a bit slower.

This week I did the right sorts of workouts but didn't take enough easy days between them, and as a result I'm a bit tight and worn down now. Monday's workout felt good. I didn't look at my watch during the hard intervals but concentrated on getting the right form and feeling. I also didn't decide in advance how many 400's to do but stopped after my pace lagged on the fourth one. Even though I wasn't running all that fast and didn't do many intervals, I was tired afterwards and should have begun taking two easy days between workouts at that point. Instead, I was back out doing tempo intervals on Wednesday, which was a windy day. I prefer not to do tempo runs on the track and often (including on Wednesday) do these tempo intervals on the same asphalt trail that I do most of my easy runs on, because I can run a full mile (with a couple turns) in one direction, then turn around and run back. When it's windy, running one direction is typically much harder than running the opposite direction, since the wind usually comes from the north (or, sometimes at warmer times of year, the south) and this trail runs north-south. It's also slightly uphill running north, so a strong wind from the north makes running that direction particularly tough. Anyway, I felt good enough but stopped after 3 intervals in order to avoid running uphill into the wind again. I'm glad I did, because on Thursday I woke up feeling tight. Even though I still felt tight on Friday, I went ahead and did another workout that day, thinking again that these workouts aren't hard enough to warrant two days of rest. The tightness in my muscles wasn't a problem during Friday's workout. I was able to do a few 800's at a respectable 5k race pace, but my huffing and puffing showed that my oxygen transport system hasn't been taxed at that level for some time. Saturday's run was nothing special: just a slightly longer easy run. But afterwards my muscles felt alarmingly tired. I'm prepared to take a day off tomorrow (Sunday) if necessary, something I've been hoping to avoid except in emergencies. In any case, it's now clear that I need two easy days between workouts and that I should have been doing that this week. If I haven't dug myself into too deep a hole, then my plan for this coming week is to do tempo intervals (4 x 1 mile) on Monday, and then a 5k race on Thursday (Thanksgiving), with easy runs every other day, including a medium-long run of 13 miles on Saturday. I hadn't originally been planning to do this 5k race but decided last week that I'm far enough along to benefit from doing it in place of an interval workout. I did the race last year and want to support the cause anyway, so I may as well show up and run instead of running around a track by myself. I don't expect to run a fast time but figure that I could benefit from absorbing the shock of a 5k race (for the first time in nearly 5 months) and from using the thrill of the race environment to help me try to hold whatever pace I'm dumb enough to start out with. If nothing else, it'll be a useful demonstration of how much more work I need to do to get into 5k shape, as well as a good initial workout attempting to hold some sort of fast pace for longer than I have been trying to do.