Training June 14th-20th

6/14- Easy 6 on Lakeshore just under 8:00 pace. Slowed down a tad in the 2nd half but still decent overall. Hard speed tomorrow.
Grade:B/1 credit/distance=6.0
6/15- 8x300 after a 2 mile warm up then a 1/2 mile cooldown. This workout shows precisely that my body chemistry is still quite unbalanced. It was clear early that I had taken too much manganese and doubted that I could even finish the workout based on how I felt warming up. I was shooting for about 57 seconds each and my first 4 were pitiful (70-69-69-68). Yes, I was doing my best and my body refused to cooperate. Then I bounced back in the next 4 probably because it was working its way out of my system and in the last one, I felt almost like myself. (66-64-59-53). An average of 65, which is still a very poor performance. If I had taken the manganese in the morning or had taken a half pill instead of a whole, I probably would have done pretty well. I better get some answers on the medical report due any day now.
Grade:D+/2 credits/distance=4.0
6/16- AM-3 mile tempo at Veterans Park in about 20:00 (6:40 pace), on pace for a sub-21 5K, which is about 30 seconds per mile short of my target. Nice improvement over yesterday but still short of my best stuff. Winded easily and a little stiff in the legs. About average.
PM- slow 4 miles at Vestavia after dinner over 32 and slowed down in the 2nd half.
Grade:B-/2 credits/distance=7.0
6/17- Trak Shak 8 miler. Gutsy performance. Set a new course PR of 63:06 in 92 degree heat. This course has many nasty hills so that time is pretty good. Ran solo and thought about going slow early and picking it up at the end but those hills will hurt you even if your pace is slow. Improved by more than a minute over last week.
Grade:B+/2 credits/distance=8.0
6/18- Veteran's Park 4 (6 times around the lake) in 31:13 (7:48 pace). On pace for a 39-flat 5 miler and that's about standard for an easy day. Temp was 93 with a heat index of 100. If it's over 95/105, I will either wait until after dinner or run indoors even if it is an easy day. If this was a tempo run, I would have waited. B'ham is about 2-3 degrees cooler than Monty in the summer (yes, that does make a difference) and 4-5 cooler in the winter. My northern friends will laugh at this but I'm not looking forward to sub-freezing temps in the evening, which are more common here.
Grade:B/1 credit/distance=4.0
6/19-Scheduled off day. Feel good enough to run. Want to push to long run tomorrow and want a good day to finish a sub-par week so far.
6/20- AM- easy 10.5 with Scott in 80+ degree weather. Anxious to test new formula but that will have to wait until after it cools down after dinner around 7 PM.
PM- 2 mile tempo effort in 12:52 (6:20-6:32). Felt great early but by the end of the first mile, it was clearly not my day. No trace of pain in my legs but I was winded very easily. Clearly, the imbalances are hurting me. In a 5K race today, I would have had to battle for a 20:40. In my defense, the morning run probably did take something out of me even if the pace was slow.
Grade: B-/3 credits/ distance=13.5
Weekly summary: Sub-par performances all around. Nothing too horrible or anything that prevented me from running altogether and I did run the mileage that I wanted but I should be doing better. This is my first week below 3.0 since I moved to B'ham. The new formula feels "different" and it is still too soon to say whether or not it will work. I had hoped for a drastic improvement immediately but that's not happening. Next week is a race week so I hope I got the sub-par week out of the way now.
Distance= 42.5/ GPA= 2.609