The last couple of days totally sucked.

On Friday, I had a fairly good quality workout, except I ran short on time and had to wrap up the workout early. I ran on the treadmill of the campus gym, 3 T + 2.75 T with some short jog between.

I did manage some halfway decent outdoor running on Saturday, but on Sunday, when I set out to run my 15 mile long run, I couldn't do more than 8. I felt awfully tired. I thought it was still the snow on the ground that made running harder, but a few hours later I came down badly with a stomach virus. Fever, diarrhoea. I was quite sick on Monday (I still taught my class, but it was the hardest for me in a long time), then I went home and slept from 4pm to 7:30am on Tuesday morning, only getting up to eat a bit of dinner. Tuesday was better, but I was still too weak to run.

I will try an easy run today. My training is messed up. I also have a time trial next Monday, so now workouts on the weekend. I'll decide what to after my easy today.

Yesterday even the campus gym was closed due to freezing and snow, so I had to find another place. The subfreezing temperatures are relentless (it was -8 F, or -22 C tonight), so the snow is still on the ground, which makes running outside almost impossible.

We have an LA fitness in my neighborhood, so I thought I would use a 3-day trial membership to try it out. It's actually not that expensive anyway, and in winter months I might need some place to work out. The problem with the campus gym, that it will be closed exactly on the days I need it the most. I have access to the treadmill at the fire station I volunteer at, but I thought I would still try this actual gym. Especially because they told me on the phone that they have a 200 meter indoor track.

Well, I got to the gym, and I had to talk to a sales rep (who also claimed to be the brand new general manager), and when he realized that I probably won't be a cash cow, he just arbitrarily pulled the plug on the trial membership, and said that he will have to charge $15 for the day use of the gym. That's the complimentary trial they advertise. Seriously? The "risk free" trial is only given to you, if you will sign up? What a dirty sales tactics?

When I said I'm not paying, he said he could let me work out for free if I give him the contact info of a bunch of my friends, so they can spam them. It's getting worse, right? Well, they showed how customer friendly they are at least, so I know what gym *not* to choose.

I went to the fire station and ran 8 easy miles on the treadmill (ugh). It's funny that the mill turned itself off after one hour. :) I thought about my second quality workout, but I was actually more sore than I expected after Wednesday, so I postponed it. Also, the campus gym treadmills are nicer than the fire station ones. So that workout will come today - in the gym, because tracks are roads are still useless.

Weather wrecked havoc on my training this week after the skipped run on Sunday. We got a foot of snow on Monday (life stopped in Louisville), and it was very cold, so I decided to slack out and skip the run. (Even the campus gym was closed.) Then Tuesday, honest to god, I did attempt to run, but it didn't work in the snow.

So come, Wednesday, the roads are still unusable, I went to the gym, and bit the bullet: ran 7 x 3 min intervals on the treadmill. It wasn't too hard. So tomorrow, in the very likely event that the roads are still bad, I'll do my other quality workout in the gym: threshold run this time. I'll probably skip the 4 x 200, because that sounds like a recipe for getting thrown off the back of the treadmill.

By the weather forecast freezing remains until Saturday, so I might need to do two more days on the mill. But it's not as bad as I remembered.

Let me just summarize Week 6 for myself in case I'm returning the ebook.

Sun: 1 E + 10 M + 2 E = 13 miles
Mon: 8 E
Tue: 4 E
Wed: 2 E + 2 x 4 min H w/3 min jg + 3 x 3 min H w/ 2 min jg +  4 x 2 min H w/ 1 min jg + 2 E = 10 miles
Thu: 2 E + 4 x 1 T w/1 min rest + 2 T + 1 E = 9 miles
Fri: 8 E
Sat: 8 E

The only feasible solution to running yesterday would have been the treadmill at the fire station I volunteer at - but I decided against it. So Sunday and Monday is out. If road conditions permit (and I think they will), I'll run my Monday workout today (9 miles easy), and pick it up from there without making up the Sunday long run. There may be more disruptions due to very low temperatures (Thursday is 10 F high, -10 low), and likely snow and ice on tracks. We'll play it by ear. I don't think I can do quality workouts on the treadmill.

I'll repeat the week in any case.

I had some discomfort in my left big toe yesterday, and it was low 20s temperature yesterday, so I decided to take a rest day yesterday instead of a long run. My toe is much better today, but now it's 15 F, and we are snowed in. I can't even get to a treadmill without dangering myself. Contemplating what to do...

I tried to do my workout in 30 mph winds today (gusting to 35 mph). After the LT intervals, I just called it quits. Paces were of course quite a bit slower that they would have been on a windless day. I hope the training effects are the same.

I have a sharp pain in my left big toe. It only hurts occasionally. I hope it's not broken.

I managed to mess up my mileage so bad this week that I only need 6.5 miles tomorrow for 60 miles, but the workout itself is 11 miles. Even if I give up some warmup and cooldown (which I will, by feel), I'll still be quite a bit over 60 miles.

Week 5, Phase III:

Sun: 15 L (this will be after LT run on Saturday)
Mon: 9 E
Tue: Rest
Wed: 2 E + 7 x 3 min H/w 2 min jg + 2 E = 9 miles
Thu: 2 E + 3 T + 4 x 200 R w/200 jg + 3T + 2 E = 11 miles
Fri: 8 E
Sat: 8 E

If too tired on Monday, shift some small mileage to Tuesday. Thursday run may be shifted to Friday. Paces as before.

This week doesn't seem all that hard. Thursday is probably the hardest single workout, but I seem to be OK with T runs. Sunday will be hard, because of tired legs, but it is allowed to be slow.

The biggest difficulty will be the frigid temperatures. Current forecast predicts almost constant freeze.

Somewhat weird workout today: 5 x 1200. Average paces were fine at 4:20 (1 second too fast, but I'm not worried about that at all). But paces were very mixed, and I don't seem to have a good feel for the correct pace. The workout felt relatively easy, it was just the damn cold wind, still...

An addition to this marathon paced workout today is that I broke my 10-mile PR again. The last 10 miles of this workout was in 1:06:28.

I ran a marathon paced longish run today: it was supposed to be 1 mile easy, followed mile 8 miles at marathon pace, then 1 mile at threshold pace, and then back for 2 more miles at marathon pace. I ran the whole workout a bit too fast at 6:41.4 average pace for the marathon workouts (6:43 was the goal), and an incredible 6:08.8 for the threshold mile. My whole workout was about trying to slow myself down. By the end, my legs were tired, but my cardio system was not working hard at all. The threshold mile was run by effort, because I had no pace information during the mile. It was slightly net downhill, but I've still probably overdone it.

I'm guessing my VDOT is now at least 56, might be close to 57. Weak point is still my VO2 max. But by the end of Phase III it seems like I'll have a realistic chance of a sub-18 5K.

I felt some heavy legs today on my final 7 miler of the week... that workout yesterday did tire me out after all.

Week 4 of Phase III

Sun: 1 E + 8 M + 1 T + 2 M = 12 miles
Mon: 8 E
Tue: 7 E
Wed: 2 E + 5 x 1200 w/3 min jog + 2 E = 9 miles
Thu: 8 E
Fri: 8 E
Sat: 2 E + 3 x 2 T w/2 min rests + 4 x 200 R w/200 jg + 2 E = 8 miles (Edit: yes, this was badly miscalculated; it should be 11 miles.)

Paces: M: 6:43/mile, T: 6:20/mile or 6:18/1600 m, 1200 m: 4:21 or 87 sec/lap, 200 m: 40 sec

Notes:

1. Sunday's workout sounds brutal. After 8 miles at marathon pace, 9 miles total, I have to accelerate to LT pace for a mile, and then drop back to marathon pace for the last 2 miles.

2. I can't afford any rest days. If I rest a day, the average easy day will be over 10 miles, because the workouts are relatively low mileage (but high intensity) this week.

3. Saturday's workout will be followed by a 15 mile long run on Sunday in Week 5. More fun!

6 x 1 mile at LT pace and then 4 x 200 fast. Absolutely nailed the paces. Needless to say I guess.

At least is seems like Daniels has reasonable enough workouts that I can always complete them. We'll see if they have any good training effect.

I'm not sure about this timed "hard running" workout. My VO2 max pace is 5:49/mile, according to the Daniels tables, but on the road I can rarely do that pace. It may be the Garmin, the accelerations, the terrain, or whatever. I'm usually happy to just have my intervals under 6 minute pace.