Week four required a little more effort than the first three, but that does not mean I get to take it easy now. Rather, the training plan for week five continues to increase the workload as the second of my incremental increase weeks before a smaller workload for a week. As always, Monday and Thursday focus on strength and cross training. Depending on how I feel, I will do two circuits of the strength program or 30 minutes on the bike and one circuit.

Tuesday’s run is again 4.5 miles, while Wednesday’s speed work alternates quarter mile jogs and sprints. Given that my typical run pace is 6.7 MPH, I take the quarter mile jogs at 6.3 MPH and the sprints at 7.5 MPH. Saturday is a 4 mile run, followed by a lengthy 8 miler on Sunday morning to round out the week.

I have some personal engagements this week, so will have to work to move things around so that my training does suffer. I try to take my runs at least 24 hours apart, but have some flexibility when it comes to the strength programs.