Thursday, August 16, 2012

Triple Double

Just call me crazy.  Seriously.

But let me give you a little background first.  So this summer for me is jam packed.  From July through October, I am home for a total of about 5 weekends.  That's like one weekend a month.


Add on top of that the fact that I am knee deep in half marathon training (for a September half) and things get complicated.  And so I have been really packing the miles into my week days in order to keep my weekends free and flexible.

Which brings me to the Triple Double.  Originally this phrase meant something different to me - when I played basketball in high school and college it meant that I possibly had played a really great game and scored above 10 points, grabbed over 10 rebounds and had over 10 assists.  Three categories each with double digit stats. 

Sad to say I never got that in basketball.

Anyway.  This week happened to be quite challenging for miles since I was going for over 55.  A friend at my running club suggested I do a double run on speed work days because it helps you to become faster.  So Tuesday, I laced up my shoes at 5am for 4.5 miles and then again at 5pm for mile repeats.  The mile repeats went well - not sure running in the morning helped or not.

Wednesday morning came around too quickly and although I had 7 miles on my plan which was sort of doable before work, I decided to give myself a little break and run 3.5mi in the AM and 3.5mi in the PM.  Then Thursday came and I had to fit in 9 miles total which was really pushing it for pre-work miles and I had already been late once this week so I decided to only try for 7 in the AM with some interval paces and then come home to finish with 2mi in the PM.


Phew.  I am tired just typing that out.  But surprisingly it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.  My legs responded to the running and I actually felt better for my morning runs.  The morning runs were of course slow like usual but the afternoon runs I felt good and even speedy at times.  Doing the interval workout this morning was not easy and although I wanted to hit my true interval pace, I just kind of went with it and let myself go slower and hit the paces my body let me. 

So three days of double runs is done and I am tired.  Not sure I will be pulling off this kind of workout schedule again for a while, but to make this weekend possible it was worth it!

What's the most intense thing you have done to make your schedule work??

The Triple Double Schedule:
Tuesday
AM 4.5 miles @ 8:53 pace, PM 9.25 miles w/ 5x1600 @ 7:43 pace
Wednesday
AM 3.5 miles @ 8:55 pace, PM 3.5 miles @ 8:32 pace
Thursday
AM 7 miles w/ 2x(1000,1200,1000) @7:42 pace, PM 2 miles @ 8:37 pace

13 comments:

Nicole Orriëns said...

I'm the kind of girl who does everything to avoid such a busy schedule. I always feel it gets in the way of living my life…

I was cheered by reading your morning runs are slower than your afternoon runs. That happens to me too. Glad it's not just me!

Momshomerun

Johann said...

You are doing great with your busy schedule and training, well done! I have done many intense training stunts but all were about distance. I'm a bit of a distance freak because I am so slow.

KellytheCulinarian said...

You are so hardcore! Way to go.

Anonymous said...

Wow, you are amazing! You are so motivated to incorporate running to your busy life, it amazes me! You rock!!

Kim said...

Awesome! I am happy you fit the runs in and your body responded well! Did you feel like you had to shower after every run? That is the only thing that would hold me back, lol.

Allison said...

Wow, I'm impressed! I'm planning to add one double a week to my schedule to get in the miles I want, but I don't know if I could do three!

Suz and Allan said...

That is really impressive! Nice job this week!

Lisa from Lisa's Yarns said...

Oh wow! Way to go, you are a machine! I have never done a double!

Anonymous said...

That's what my schedule is like during the week, since I work a full time job, but I have to find time to run and get home, cook, clean, wash dishes, blah blah blah housewife crap.

I feel your pain!

Jamie said...

We've done things like that before, not three days in a row though! We just try to fit everything in that we can, sometimes we do sometimes we don't.

Anonymous said...

You are an animal! LoL! I would be tired too after running 6 times in three days. Keep up the great work J! It's super motivating to see all that you manage to squeeze in. It really gives me no excuse to get out there and run!

Molly said...

Wow, you go girl! I haven't split runs like that, but I have split my runs to half outside, then finish inside on the treadmill due to heat or rain. BTW, that lasagna looks so good!

Lauren @ Sassy Molassy said...

Nice work! I've done a few daily doubles the last few weeks and usually my body is okay with them. Sometimes a bit sore/slow in the first mile or two. Yesterday I did 6 in the am and 3 after work. I always feel like the easy runs can only help not hurt.

The most intense thing I've probably done is get up at 445 to go running at 5 am and do 12 miles before work OR run 16 miles AFTER a full day of work (horrendous) to get in my miles.