Penny

Elliptical: 60 mins of intervals with 10 mins warmup and cooldown (2 mins hard, 1 min easy) + arms/upper body

Plyometrics: 3 sets of:

Squat/power jumps (30-45-60 seconds)

Box jumps (x 20)

Switch kicks (for 1 minute)

Side-to-side ski jumps (x20)

Bunny hops from plank position (x20)

10 miles, 8:10 average pace. This is my first mid-week medium-long run of this training cycle leading up to the Las Vegas RnR Half Marathon. I am trying to include the medium-long on the advice of Jake and Andrea. My last half marathon was on track for about a 1:32, until I bonked in miles 12-13... they thought that including a medium-long run and lengthening my long run to 16-17 miles would help with that endurance. With the addition of some progressions onto these two runs (pushing my lactate threshold in the last 2-3 miles) I am really seeing some improvement. 

 I had a day of XT yesterday, with plyometrics. My legs felt "running fresh" as I did my long run on Saturday, so that I could run today and take my rest day tomorrow because I knew I would be unable to run due to the storm tomorrow.

I generally try to keep my easy runs at 8:20 or slower (my conversational pace), though 8:10 felt comfortable today so I went with it.  No progression today, though several miles slipped into the 7:45 arena, due to the wind and some downhills. 

Groin/hip flexor area felt a tad iffy, but generally strong. I think it is responding to the exercise band hip flexor exercises I am doing.  

10x800s (3:12 each @6:27) with 0.25 miles recoveries on treadmill. Ran the 2 miles easy to and from the gym as the subway was still down. 11 miles in total, but I'm only counting 9 because I walked my recoveries :)

This was the hardest speed work I've done. I did a fairly extensive plyo session on Sunday and then followed by 10 miles on Monday, I think my legs were tired even with a rest day in between. It was the first time I really felt lactic acid build up in the later intervals.  Great to be done though.

 Oh and if you do speed work on a treadmill then run outside, it feels like you're flying.

40 mins easy elliptical; just enough to get the heart rate in aerobic zone and get legs warm. A nice looong stretch sesh afterwards. 

8 mile tempo run on treadmill with 1% incline. 1 mile easy, 2x3 miles @ 6:48 (8.8mph), 1 mile easy.  Had 90 calories of gu shot block things about an hour beforehand; I feel very carb depleted in morning workouts, versus evenings.

Oh my holy aunt, this was a tough workout. 

I prefer to run tempos outside so I can get a true feel for what the pace is like, but I don't know how runnable my usual routes are (some were underwater after Sandy). In some ways I can get a better run on the treadmill because the pace is consistent (I can more easily slow down outside) and the psychological challenge is greater, so I feel like I am building mental strength. But in all, I think treadmills are still easier. So while I would usually run my tempo at slower than goal pace, I decided to up the pace a tad to counteract the "treadmill effect".

 Breathing was pretty easy (I get less out-of-breath as my body warms up) but I could definitely feel the legs getting tired, and the last mile of both intervals were really tough.

Really happy to have completed this workout. It has been looming on my plan for weeks, and I was actually kind of terrified of doing it. But as usual, it wasnt nearly that bad, and I am excited to see how far I can go outdoors on next weeks tempo.

XT: 70 mins elliptical intervals (10 mins warmup, then intervals of 2 mins hard, 1 min easy, 10 mins warmdown

Arms: 3 sets of (20 x pushups, 20x bent over rows, 30 tricep dips, 20 bicep curls + shoulder raise (not sure what to call that one)

Plyo: 3 sets of (40 squat jumps, 20 ski hops (jump side-to-side like you're skiing), 20 box jumps, 30 seconds of switch kicks, 20 single leg hops (each side) and 20 plank jumps (in plank position, jump in with legs, and out to plank position again)

I actually love my Saturday workouts because I have the time to hit a bunch of bases.