Buzzer Beater?

I had an "Oh hell!" moment this morning.  I thought I had tons of time.  Thought I could go through several different phases and cycles of training heading into spring.  Thought I had a lot of time to cut time. 

Not so much.

The clock is winding down, and the scoreboard says I'm behind.

I adjust my schedule frequently.  If I miss workouts, miss goals, I need to continually change my short-term plan to reflect this so I can continue to move forward.  So I pulled out my running log this morning (meaning I double clicked on the Excel file, which I use to keep track of everything), and aimed to take a minute or two to review my status, adjust the plan, and check the realism of my goals.  I've missed some workouts, had a slow start this year, but I figured I was generally on track and had 15 or 16 weeks left until my first 5k of the year.  I have 12 trainable weeks, and realistically only 10 of them are weeks that will move me forward significantly.  Then I looked at my times.  I'm about a minute short of where I want to be at that race - per mile.  Time to change the plan and be a bit more aggressive (had you seen the original though, you'd have thought I was nuts).

I had intended to do tempo work through most of February, then switch to intervals for March, lengthening them though April and sprinkling in the tempo work to keep me accustomed to race-level pacing.  Well that ain't happenin' anymore.  Week after next, my old enemy and recent friend, the interval workout, will emerge from his hibernation, signifying four more weeks of intense workouts.  Then a couple of weeks of tempo work to get back into the groove of sustained effort, while the intervals head to the back burner.  This is less than ideal, but if I can get a break in the weather it'll work out.

I'm still working towards a big year.  I knew it wouldn't be easy, but I didn't expect to fall behind schedule so early.  Luckily I'm dropping one early race from my schedule, opting instead for a trip to the Outer Banks on Memorial Day, which has a double positive effect - I can train through that week instead of doing race prep, and I get to run for 2 or 3 days on the beach.  Did I mention the beach part?

Tuesday's tempo run went great.  I think I should note the freak weather, 55 degrees, cloudy, and windless.  February 1st, and I was running in shorts and a t-shirt, feeling OVERDRESSED.  Right now, 2 days later, it is 26 degrees and snowing.  I've shied away from giving specific times until now out of some bizarre sense of embarrassment about them, but they're training times, and I've hit my targets on the workouts, so why should I hold back?  I like to do my tempo runs at around a 30-40s slower per mile than race pace for a continuous effort, or 20s per mile slower if they are long intervals.  Tuesday was a 4 mile tempo with a mile warm up and mile cool down, and I hit my goal of 7:45/mile right on the nose - 7:43/mile, with a slow 3rd mile and a faster 4th to make up for it.  I estimate this puts me around a 7:15 pace over 3 miles at a race effort on the ridge I live on, and past experience has taught me that I can run about 15 seconds/mile faster on flat courses than I can on the mountain.  I wanted to start February 15 or 20 seconds/mile faster than this, but that's just not where I'm at. 

Where I am at is a 2x2mile tempo run this evening, hoping to go just under a 7:30/mile pace for both reps.  After most of a week off I'm back in the weight room, and I hope to finally incorporate lower-body lifting tonight after my run - these are lifts that I hate, so it has been a struggle to get started with them.  Tomorrow will be a sore day...