Week 23 and Running on Effort and Feel

Going into this week, all I had planned was my two workouts and a fourteen mile long run. I had no mileage totals or effort levels in mind. The result was one of my most successful weeks in terms of intensity and my highest mileage since 2008.

My goal for the next few weeks before I begin racing again is to do everything by feel. I believe this will allow me to run appropriately hard when my body is able to and recover when my body needs it. I think I've accomplished that this week--and look to keep that going in the next few weeks.

I will be running all of my workouts based on a rough percentage of total effort. In general, 20% is an "easy" pace, 40% is a tempo-ish, or completely aerobic but hard pace, 60% is fast, but not all out (maybe similar to 5k, V02, or mile pace based on the length of the interval), and 80% is very fast, all-out in a workout. 100% would be race pace for a shorter distance, such as a 400 or 800. Obviously the speed will change based on how long I will need to hold the pace--for example 40% might be 35-37 seconds for a 200 but 5:45-6:15 pace for a long run.

I hope to do all of my workouts without a watch (with the exception of small sections to check progress) before I next race to see how my body responds to running on effort.

Totals:
Week 23: 75
May: 136