set up for the week

Good afternoon and happy Monday!  How was everyone's weekend? Mine of course went by way to fast.  I did have a pretty stellar long run (12miles) on Saturday.  Felt great, pace was about 20 sec. faster than my previous one and it was a beautiful morning.  The only thing was that I tried the Gatorade brand energy chews = not good. They were way too sugary, and made my stomach feel gross towards the end.  I picked up some Jelly Belly Sport Beans over the weekend so I will give those a go next.  I'll just keep checking things off until I find something that works!  I also ate a plain toasted bagel and banana about 1.5 hours before my run, and it didnt upset my stomach at all - yahoo! 

Ok, enough chit-chat lets get to it.  Nichole emailed me last night with the rest of my training cycle to Fargo.  I have to say, just looking at the coming weeks I am SO excited!  Is that wierd?  To be excited to work super hard and know that I will probably struggle, but that I know it will make me better?  I just cant wait to put in the hard work that these next 11 weeks have in store and see it (hopefully) pay off.  But, as excited as I am, I'm a nervous too, I just hope I can hang with my increasing paces and workouts. 

Paces for the week: Tempo (7:00-7:18), M (7:50), I (1000m, 4:03-4:16)

Monday - 2 mi. WU
                5x1 mile @ T, 1 min. recovery
                2 mi. CD
                9.25 miles total
Tuesday - REST
Wednesday - 6 mi. easy
                     5 striders at the end
                     Strength
                     6.25 miles total
Thursday - 2 mi. WU
                 5x1000m @ 5k pace, 80% of time recovery (jogging)
                 2 mi. CD
                 8 miles total
Friday - 5 mi. easy
              Strength & plyos
Saturday - 11 mi. easy
                 at mile 5, take first 1/10 of mile HARD, then resume reg. pace
Sunday - 5.5 mi. easy
               Strength

One thing you will notice is that a few days a week I have some strength work written in.  Techincally I was supposed to have been doing this already, but with it not written on the schedule, I would have a hard time getting it done, especially after a hard workout.  Nichole thought having it already written on certian days it would be easier to follow.  She's totally right.  I tend to be a rule-follower (aka. totally boring and lame) and so if its scheduled I will do it :)

I've also never done 1000m repeats before so I have absolutely no clue how they will go.  If anyone wants to join me at the track on Thursday to help me clomp along please do!......I'm serious, help....I'll bring you chocolate milk


So that's whats in store for my week.  Hope the week looks good for all of you too!