Weekly Workout Recap (Feb 24 - March 3)

Well, we coasted through most of the winter here in New York with truly little to no snow. I am not surprised at all however that the storms are rolling in now. This is what happens in the month of March. You think you are almost at Spring, but winter makes its self known. We’ve had the dustings in the morning randomly during the past week, a few inches yesterday morning, and now a storm expected tonight into tomorrow morning.

I mention the weather because it obviously does affect my workout routine and ability to run outdoors but I’m not totally complaining because I had 3 awesome treadmill workouts this week! Plus, I did get outdoors one morning too.

Le’ts discuss…

Monday – 30 Min Workouts (total 4 miles)

All I can say is, don’t knock 30-minute workouts. Just 30 minutes may seem like a sick day for a distance runner BUT, when you challenge yourself for 30 minutes, trust me when I say, you can feel as satisfied as running double the amount of time.

Sometimes it’s not about time, but effort. Do you want a quality running workout in a short amount of time? Push it for 30 minutes.

Here’s what I did:

5 min warm up
5 min 30 seconds hard/30 seconds easy
10 min 7.5 – 8.0 (holding most at 8.0)
1 min 6.5
9 min 7.5- 8.1 (holding 8.0 the most)
cool down to 4 miles = right at 32 min

Tuesday – 30 Min Run (outside)/10 Min Pure Barre

It was much colder than my usual winter limit (24 degrees is cold!) but it was sunny and I really wanted to run easy outdoors for 30 minutes. So I did. It was still a little windy (there was a high wind warning yesterday) but really wasn’t bad at all!

Came home for a 10 minute Pure Barre workout that focused on arms. There was a little core thrown into this workout too.

Wednesday – 40 Min Pure Barre

Thursday – 5 Miles/Speed Workout (treadmill)

I’m slowly chipping away at my 5K pace so Laura suggested I run 2X2 as a great workout option for my purposes.

Here’s what I did:

5 min easy/5 min 30 sec harder/30 sec easy
2 min easy
7 X 2 min hard (8.0-8.3)/2 min easy (6.3-6.5)

Cool down to 5 miles

Thoughts: This was hard, but I was not dying. My easy paces were in a good range for helping me to recover to then go faster again and my hard paces were hard but within range for making me work without killing me. In fact, the more rounds I did, the stronger I felt and the more capable I was of holding at 8.3 (7:13 pace).

Friday – 35 Min Pure Barre

When I go with a shorter Pure Barre On Demand workout such as today’s 35-minute workout, it’s usually the stretching segments that are noticeably shortened or missing. They may shorten the arm, thigh, or core sections but overall, I find the shortened versions (30-minute workouts vs. 45 minute workouts) a little higher in intensity so you don’t even feel as though you did less than usual.

Worth mentioning this whole wheat thin crust pizza that I had for dinner at Borelli’s (before the Islanders game) with tomorrow’s run in the back of my mind. 🙂

Saturday – 60 Min Treadmill (7.06 miles)

First time all season that I needed to wear my snow boots to walk over to the gym in my community! Not bad considering we are already in March.

Okay, here was my plan for today!

60 min total with tempo in the mix

20 minute warm up with 2 rounds of 5 min easy / 5 min 30 sec hard/30 sec easy
10 min tempo (ranging 7.5 – 7.7 / holding 7.7 in last half)
5 min easy (6.1 – 6.5)
10 min tempo (ranging 7.6 – 8.0/ holding most at 8.0 in last half)
5 min easy (6.1 – 6.5)
5 min tempo effort (ranging 7.8 – 8.0 / holding 8.0 most)
5 min cooldown

I really enjoyed this workout. The distance runner side of my brain is always holding back a bit in fear of burning out too soon but I need to remember I’m not running 13 miles, I’m only here for an hour. Tempo runs are supposed to be run at a comfortable hard effort, slightly faster than half marathon pace. Well, my half marathon pace was 7:50 – 8:00 so technically I did this correctly, even if at first I did start in my half marathon zone. I definitely had energy left to continue so I know I probably could have pushed harder at holding 8.0 more often but that’s something I can do next time.