I had another solid training week. Coming off of my wedding I had a planned day off so entering the Wednesday workout my legs felt well rested. The original plan was to do a segmented tempo run at Moses Cone but the High Country has been absolutely pounded with rain so the lake was too sloppy for a workout.
In fact, local weatherman and ZAP board member Ray Russell reported that as of last Wednesday it had rained for 106 of the past 109 hours (Friday-Wednesday). That stat astounded me but when I thought about it, I couldn’t remember the last time I had completed a run without being soaked. Esther and I’s front porch had quickly turned into a sea of soggy Sketchers and Reebok running shoes!
Because of the recent deluge, Pete decided to move the 3×3 mile workout to the treadmill at ZAP. Often Pete likes to do tempo/climbing workouts on the treadmill because he can more accurately control the pace and incline of the run. Early in my ZAP career I hated seeing a treadmill session on the daily email but I have grown to really like them.
The plan was to run 3×3 miles with 4 minutes easy jog between each interval. Each 3 mile segment consisted of 1 mile faster than the other 2 at 1% incline while the 2 ‘slower’ miles at varying inclines of 0% to 3%. Pete allowed me to control the incline on the more moderate 2 miles within each 3 mile and I moved the incline around every 30-45 seconds to really vary my run. Here’s how it went:
#1 3 mile piece: 5:00 (1%), 5:09 pace (.5%-3% incline), 5:09 (.5%-3%)
#2 3 mile piece: 5:05 (.5%-2%), 4:55 (1%), 5:05 (.5%-2%)
#3 3 mile piece: 5:02 (-.5%-2%), 5:02 (-.5%-2%), 4:47 (1%)
Overall, I was very pleased with the session. The workout was a lot of volume (14 miles total) and I felt very controlled throughout the session even with the changes in incline.
After a few easy days of running I headed to Erwin, TN to run my first race since late May. The Applefest 4 Miler is a tiny race about 90 minutes away from ZAP that I have run on 3 other occasions. With such a long layoff from racing because of my hamstring issues, Pete wanted to me to do a super low key race to dip my feet back into faster running but to also see how my body held up to it. I did not expect to feel that great during the race because of both the long layoff and the workout I did on Wednesday. I ended up getting 2nd place in around 19:40ish to former NC State runner Matt Sonnenfeldt. I was disappointed not to win but in all honesty I was happy I came out of the race with a (mostly) healthy hamstring. I felt flat, heavy, and slow for much of the race but I had fun battling back and forth with Matt until the end when he pulled away from me. Bottom line: it was nice to be back in the ZAP singlet and I look forward to future races.
Lastly, Reebok has outdone themselves! The ZAP Special Edition 3.0 Cushions have arrived and they are sweet. The tongue has the ZAP logo on it, the coordinates of ZAP are on the sole, and a topographical map of Blowing Rock is emblazoned on the removable insole. If anyone reading is interested in learning more about this shoe and/or getting a pair click HERE.
ZAP Reebok 3.0 Special Editions hot of the press!
Thanks for reading!
Here is my last week of training (9/27-10/3):
Sunday: OFF, REST
Monday: AM: 17 miles PM: shakeout
Tuesday: AM: 9 miles (8×20 seconds end of run)
Wednesday: AM: 14 miles (3×3 miles treadmill session)
Thursday: AM: 10 miles PM: 5 miles
Friday: AM: 8 miles (8×20 seconds) PM: 5 miles (4×25 seconds)
Saturday: AM: 13 miles (Applefest 4 miler+4×2:30 down cycles post race)
Total: 81 miles, 9 runs, 1 day off