Winter Training Recap
Now that we’re leaving the cold months and entering the final stretch of my training for the Bayshore half, I thought I’d take a look at my winter training.
\[caption id="attachment\_425" align="alignnone" width="698"\]<http://davidwilemski.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Open-Run-Log-Dashboard-1.png> My weekly mileage since late Fall. I’m very pleased with my ramp-up after some rest. That most recent week is still in progress and should be in the 55-60 mile range...\[/caption\]
Early in the winter through early March I got some very solid base miles in with a few encouraging early tempo runs. I’ve managed to keep my weekly milage above 50 for every week of this year with the average closer to 60 miles per week. So far I have only taken one day of for the year. I also managed to hit a new weekly high of 75 miles a few weeks ago.[
](http://davidwilemski.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Open-Run-Log-Dashboard-1.png)
I had been trying to avoid racing for a while but sometimes it’s just too hard to resist. I ran the [Ice Cube 10k](http://davidwilemski.com/blog/2013/02/ice-cube-10k-race-report/ "Ice Cube 10k Race Report") in February and then the Chili-Heart 5k later that month. It was early in the year still and I mostly used those races as tempo efforts. I ended up coming in 1st place for both of those races and won some cool trophies:\[gallery ids="426,415"\]
Finally, I have been putting in some good workouts with MRun through the cold weather on the indoor track. We recently moved back to the outdoor track and I could not be happier - as nice as it was to do speedwork all winter, it was rough on my hips and legs.
I also was fortunate enough to be able to participate in Race Across Michigan with MRun which was a 24 hour relay that we held that started in Detroit and ended in South Haven that we used as a fundraiser for the special olympics. It was an incredible experience and worth the lack of sleep and many miles run - I ran 18 miles across 3 runs that day including a 13 miler. Some others ran even more than that breaking 20 or
- miles for the day\!
The past two weekends I raced some track meets with MRun racing the 5k. Neither of those races went particularly well but they were my first two times racing a 5k on the track. I ran 17:56 at our meet with MSU and then 17:49 this past weekend in Indiana at NIRCA track nationals. I also ran a 4:52 1500m after my 5k at NIRCA but that was more for fun and I didn’t even bother wearing my flats for the race. I went out in a 70 second 400 and just decided to hang on and see what I could do after going out hard (on purpose).
What’s next? The next two weekends, I will race twice more. This coming weekend I’ll race the Martian 10k which was a race I also did last year when I was barely in shape - this year I hope to go about 36:30s or even sub 36 if things go well. I’ll use it as an evaluation for my half marathon fitness since that will be just under half marathon pace - if I can’t hold that pace now then there are some serious issues with my half marathon goal. The following weekend I’ll race another 5000m on the track at EMU with MRun. It’s a varsity track meet but I’ve been told that it’s still possible that we’re competitive. Either way, it should be a cool experience and I hope to finally break that 17 minute barrier in my 5k.
After those two races, I’ll refocus on training for my half. I’ll have 5 weeks until Bayshore and will be getting rid of much of the speedwork and transitioning back into tempo runs and workouts at half marathon goal pace. I’d like to do a few more 4-6 mile tempos at pace and one time do a 3x20 minute workout at goal pace (6 minute pace). If I do well in that workout then I’ll be very confident in my goal for Bayshore and if not then maybe I’ll start out the race with a pace 5-10 seconds slower than that and try to hold that and maybe work down to a faster pace if I feel good later in the race...
That was my winter in a nutshell\! I’ll be passing 1000 miles for the year in another week or two which puts me in a very good place to hit my goal of 3000 miles for the year\!