Tyler Klouda finished second at last year's highly competitive Billy Goat Challenge.
Monday - 7/30:
To start the week I decided to try running a new route that consisted of half of Headwaters Trail, which is a flat crushed limestone surface and half on the rolling hills of the back roads that intersect the trail. I was committed to stay pretty comfortable on the run since I had a workout scheduled for the next day. I did 9 miles at 6:35 pace and the legs were feeling really good for tomorrow.
Total Miles: 9
Tuesday - 7/31:
The past couple of weeks, some members of my team had been getting together for optional practices on Tuesday's. It's mainly interval work designed to focus on our pace and get our legs rolling. I warmed up for about a mile and then did form drills and stretching with my team. The workout was 6 reps of 800 with 1 minute of rest. Prior to this week, I had been doing various longer intervals to work on strength, but my coach and I decided to just do six 800's since I had another harder effort planned for Thursday. I felt great throughout, starting comfortably and working down a bit. My splits were 2:39, 2:37, 2:37, 2:34, 2:32 and 2:29. I recovered easily and then did some strides and cooled down afterward.
Total Miles: 6
Wednesday - 8/1:
Today was planned to just be a simple run the day following a workout. There's a lot of hilly roads around where I live so I try to take advantage of that on my runs. The hills just make things a little more challenging and help work my aerobic base as well as quicken my turnover. I ran 6 miles but got carried away attacking the hills and ended up running too fast for the day after a workout - 6:32 pace. My legs felt fine and I was pretty relaxed, so I wasn't too worried about being a little quick.
Total Miles: 6
Thursday - 8/2:
Crestwood High School alum and current University of Akron distance runner, Jeremiah Fitzgerald joined me for a fartlek at Maple Highlands trail in Middlefield. The workout started with 2 miles at 6:50 pace, then straight into 4 minutes at 6:00 pace, followed by 2 minutes of easy running, 6 minutes at 5:50 pace, then 4 minutes of easy running, 10 minutes at 5:35 pace, then 4 minutes of easy running and 4 minutes at 5:40 pace, finishing with approximately 1.5 miles down at about 7:00 pace. I do close to all of my training alone so it was great to have Jeremiah there to facilitate the workout and push me, especially the 10 minute tempo rep and for the overall longer run.
Total Miles: 9
Friday - 8/3:
This day I was definitely starting to feel the overall fatigue from a tough week. I decided to listen to my body and just take it light. I did 4 miles and didn't even look at my watch, just going by feel. That has been something I've tried to do more of this year in order to take care of myself for the long term.
Total Miles: 4
Saturday - 8/4:
Rest day - I usually take a day off of running each week more often than I'll run 7 days a week. I used this day though to do some leg lifts. Lifting has been a big part of my training because I believe that overall fitness is important for injury prevention. I lift various muscle groups along with core work throughout the week and spent this rest day on my legs. Just enough for it to be beneficial, but not get too sore.
Total Miles: 0
Sunday - 8/5:
Sunday long run of 11 miles. My coach joined me on his bike for the entirety of my run, which I appreciated. I used this run to get the mileage in and shakeout any soreness from lifting the day before. I felt better as the run progressed and I averaged 6:39 pace.
Total Miles: 11
Weekly Mileage: 45