5k Training: Week Three

This week has been a week of frustrating weather and humbling runs. We had high wind gusts for most of the week and even today when the wind had died down it was still eighteen miles per hour. My husband jokingly said it was good resistance training. Not a bad way to look at it. It was difficutl when the wind was blowing us backwards making even our easy runs hard. Oh well, the weather is going to be unpredictable and we just have to adapt with it.
It’s hard not to compare my current running fitness to where I was in October before my last race. I keep thinking that I was able to run six miles at an 8:13 per mile pace and wanting to be able to transport that fitness level to now. I know that that isn’t possible. I had two and half solid months of training prior to that race. This training cycle, I’ve had a month of easy paced runs where I slowly  began to start running again and two solid weeks of training. The bright side to the start of this training cycle is that although it is frustrating to feel like I’m starting back at square one, I know that isn’t the case.
Today’s run was a good example of the progress that I have made over the past year as a runner. I am still working hard to get back into shape but I was able to hit the paces I set for myself on my intervals. Today’s speedwork session was really tough but essential to gettting faster as my dad and I mentioned in last week’s post. I found myself glancing at my watch every few seconds wishing the minutes would tick by faster. To my dismay, they did not. However, I am very happy that I completed  three sets of five minutes fast and three minutes slow. My goal was to hit the five minute sets at an 8:00 minute mile pace or under. I wasn’t sure exactly what pace my husband and I were hitting because Strava (our running app of choice) doesn’t track intervals. I was able to look at the analysis of our run afterwards to see that we were indeed hitting our pace. I am debating on whether to continue to track our interval sessions in Strava or switch to another app that does track intervals such as Nike. Let me know what your favorite running app is to track your runs/intervals below.
Sunday will finish out week three of our short six week training plan. Six weeks is shorter than a lot of training plans but not too short for the 5k distance. I would have like to have an additional two weeks before our race in April. However, since I cross-trained during my month off and spent another month easing back into running, I feel that six weeks will be enough time to be in decent shape for my race. I say decent as it is hard to predict how the next few weeks and race day will go. And I have no control over the weather. Last year it was 26 degrees with a windchill making it feel like 16...

Paul’s Training Corner

By Paul Zwintscher, Cross-Country and Track Coach

Spring Races

The first races of spring can be challenging if you live where it is cold during the winter months.  It can be difficult to get in your training when some days are just too cold to be running outside and you don't have a sports club membership.  As much as you can, however, you need to be outside running.  Depending on your goals for your first spring race, you should aim for about two months of consistent running before your first race. This should begin with at least two weeks of easy long runs of about 20 to 30 minutes and building to 50 to 60 minutes over the next few months.  After you have built up your strength, you need to add in speed work and tempo runs.  Next time I will talk about tempo runs.