First "Normal" Long Run in 4 Weeks!

I'm finally feeling (and training) like normal after a few big races a few weeks back. And I'm so happy about that!

My last "normal" long run was Monday September 22 (4+ weeks ago). It was a 10.6 mile run with 6x (3 mins HARD / 3 mins MODERATE) in the middle. (My TRULY normal long runs are just some hard miles in the middle, but this was a version of a Coach Jen workout leading up to the TC 10 Mile.)

That following weekend (3+ weeks ago) was the Fall Classic Duathlon that both Henry and I did. I really wanted to do this race, and it helped me NOT take the TC 10 Mile too seriously - as I was racing the week before it just because it sounded fun.

Then came the TC 10 Mile a week after that (2+ weeks ago). I ALWAYS get so beat up racing that 10 mile! I could do a 70 minute duathlon every other day and be fine (the mixing up of different muscle groups saves so much wear on the body), but running hard for 62 minutes straight just KILLS me.

My biggest mistake last year came the week after the 10 mile: I went for a normal hard run 8 days post-race, and my calves weren't ready. I nursed calf issues for the following 2 months, skipping 2 runs all together in November of 2024.

This year, I ran a shorter and easier long run the week after the 10 Mile (1+ week ago). I felt OK on that run, and then everything felt great by the following run. I had gotten over the 10 mile, and my body was recovered!

So I finally felt ready to do a normal long run this past week!! My truly normal long runs are around 11 miles with 6 miles hard in the middle. But I was a little short on time and also didn't want to totally kill myself (if something wasn't completely healed up), so I ran 10.6 miles with only the middle 5 harder (and I planned that from the start - it wasn't a cop out a few miles into the harder miles). Since it had been 4 weeks since my last long training run (and my last "standard" long run was 6 weeks prior), I really didn't know what my splits would be. I just ran easy for 2.5 miles, and then I hit it harder for 5 miles. Here are the half-mile splits of my hard miles:

5 miles at pace (half-mile splits):

3:14, 3:08, 3:11, 3:08, 3:12, 3:08, 3:07, 3:03, 3:04, 3:08

= 31:28 (6:17.60 / mile)

I'll take that! I wasn't too disappointed with an opening mile of 6:22, and then I dropped them a bit from there: 6:22, 6:19, 6:20, 6:10, and 6:12.

Oh, and after just a few hours of sleep after getting home super late early on Monday morning from a trip to Chicago, I got up less than 4 hours later to do that run. My "sleep score" and "body battery" from that morning a few days ago both look ROUGH:

Big dip in my "sleep score" a few days back!
Less than 4 hours of sleep will do that.


"Body battery" never recovered that day either.


And my HRV shows these last 3 big things... all low drops after those!

And then after that good run, I woke up the next morning with the lowest possible "training readiness" of 1... only a number I've seen a few times:

This week is looking like a NICE and NORMAL week - the first in a long time! More on that training shortly.