An Upcoming Easy Training Week (with Questions!)

Well, I've survived 3+ weeks of Coach Jen's workouts from 2010! This week is a planned easier week. But there's an issue with that.

In 2010, I planned to do a duathlon at the end of week 4 of training, and Jen worked that into the training plan. The last few runs leading up to the race looked like this:

A surprisingly easy week pre-race! Two runs only! And nothing too hard!

That easier pre-race week back in 2010 lines up with this week in 2024, and I'm thinking about doing a sprint triathlon on Sunday. So from that last same hard run at the end of last week, the space between that run at the race looks like this:

Hard run a day earlier (Fri instead of Sat), and the race a day later (Sun, not Sat).

That makes me less sure how to handle this week! Back in 2010, it's pretty clear that Coach Jen gave me a "moderate" day 2 days before the race to make the race more of a training day (and not have FULLY "fresh" legs), but I'd love to swap that "easy" day and that "moderate" day so I can actually focus on having a decent race. But then that leaves FOUR days between the last hard run and the moderate run mid-week. So sticking with my "normal" Mon/Wed/Fri runs, WHAT DO I DO TODAY?!?

I was initally inclined to do a normal long run of mine: something like 11+ miles with the middle 6 faster. (I've been doing Jen's workouts and last did my "normal" long run on Aug 5th.) But having a longer/harder run as my last run, then a long/hard run today, and then a moderate run as my next run (then with only one easy run before a race) seemed like a recipe for disaster. ESPECIALLY since I've had some calf/achilles pain sneak in about 2 weeks ago for a day, and again 5 days ago. That pain is what's making me think I shouldn't do anything TOO intense to start this week.

But doing just an easy run seems TOO easy: easy run today, then moderate run Wednesday, then another easy run on Friday before a short sprint triathlon? That's TOO easy of a week.

I'll see how I feel while running today, but I think I'll do a shorter version of my normal long run: like 8 miles with a few harder miles in the middle. It won't have the same "exercise load" as my normal long runs (as I talked about a PR exercise load in my last post!), but I can still get in a few faster miles. Maybe like 3-4 faster miles in the middle of that? I'll play it by ear.

Back with a "week in review" of last week's HARD training shortly!