15k training: week 7 workouts (peak week!)+ seared scallop pasta primavera
Peak week! My highest mileage week of this cycle mostly satisfied: I performed two quality hard workouts, and the easy miles truly embodied the ideal recovery days. With one week until race day I think I’ve garnered an idea of what my body might accept as a pace – though you never truly know until the day arrives – and I believe an aim of 8:55 is a decent, reachable goal. I checked last year’s age group winners and saw that I may have a slim chance of placing! Who knows, though. The speed demons might leap out of hiding.
Several readers acknowledged a desire to see a recipe for the scallop pasta primavera I hinted at on Instagram, so a recipe there is! Keep reading beyond the workouts for a healthy, simple formula you might try for supper this week.
Related: Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 |
Monday, 9/16: 4.16 miles, 9:38 pace (AM) + 35 min strength (PM) + evening foam rolling
Easy early miles, nothing terribly remarkable, to begin peak week. I ran the strangest loops and wound up with an impressively compact run that didn’t leave the sight of my apartment.
Strength focused solely on glutes and core, including some newfangled stability work with the Swiss ball. I finished Jay Dicharry’s book Anatomy for Runners and some of the exercises in the final chapters appealed to me, so I gave one a go to start and intend on building from that foundation.
- 10 min elliptical w/u
- 3 x 15 stability ball bridge
- 3 x 10 Warrior 3 – high knee, weighted
- 3 x 15 lateral leg raises
Main set:
- 3 x 5 deadlifts, 40# on barbell
- 2 x 4 deadlifts, 50# on barbell
- :45 birddog, left leg
- 1 min plank
- :45 birddog, right leg
- 1 min plank
Tuesday, 9/17: 8.06 miles, 9:19 pace – 5 x 1 mile + 25 min recovery yoga
Race pace workout that felt enormously better than any I’ve performed so far! I set an intention of not worrying about watch stats and running solely on intuition, and my miles stayed largely consistent with what I’d clocked in workouts prior with much less perceived effort and NO SIDE CRAMPS! I breaked for :90 between reps to jog lightly and recoup. Work intervals came in at 9:01, 8:49, 9:16 (definitely wrong, I ran awhile in my GPS deadzone and it never caught me until the next interval), 8:53 and 8:42.
Wednesday, 9/18: 1,710 yard swim
I fought my whole being for a half hour prior to finally wrenching myself out of bed, into my swimsuit, and out to the pool. I immediately relaxed into the swim, and finished with an excellent, steady-state workout under my belt.
- 300y warmup, easy freestyle
- 1,200y uninterrupted, broken into 4 x 300y timed sets. Each 300 swam as 60y steady/60y fast
- 210y cooldown, easy freestyle
Thursday, 9/19: 3.2 miles, 9:25 pace (AM) + 35 min strength (PM) + Yoga Teacher Training 90 min practice
Glorious, super early run. The humidity fell overnight and our dew point FINALLY rested below 70! Knocked the 3-miler out at 3:30a, worked, then returned home for my lifting session. Someone occupied the gym with their kid and it kept running around grabbing weights and slobbering on the equipment (pretty sure it was ill, too), which was quite distracting and concerning, since we’re surrounded by hazardous material that could seriously hurt the child. Not much I can do, though. I tried out the Bosu ball for the first time and oof, what a challenge. I know it benefits hip stability, though, so I intend to incorporate it more frequently.
- 10 min elliptical w/u
- 3 rounds of: 12 reverse flies, 12 chest flies, 10 kettlebell swings with 360-degree turn, :90 boat hold, :30 right plank with leg lift, :30 left plank with leg lift. 1 min rest.
Main set:
- 5 x 8 bridge, 30# on barbell (:15 rest between sets)
- 3 x 10 squats on Bosu ball with 15# weight
Friday, 9/20: 11.02 miles, 9:37 pace – long run + 20 min recovery yoga & 75 min YTT practice
My body clearly wasn’t feeling this long run. My average heart rate soared early, probably due to fatigue from lack of sleep and heaviness from my weight circuit yesterday. Of course, too, at mile 6 the old reliable side stitch popped up and shanked my right rib, forcing several prolonged stops and a wave of unrelenting frustration. I am quite nervous about these stitches: if they occur on race day, I’ll feel demoralized. I hope I have a miracle outing and they stay away during the 9.3 I want to complete.
On the bright side, though, the morning felt cool and breezy (despite still-high humidity), which also made my average heart rate quite surprising since I felt okay energy-wise.
Saturday, 9/21: 40 min elliptical + 4 hours yoga
This weekend we performed our test-out classes in YTT, so I did more sun salutes than most do in a year. Admittedly, though, I rested much of the session since my body went slack from fatigue. Before our session, I spun on the elliptical at a low intensity for a bit just to wheel some of the stickiness out of my legs.
Sunday, 9/22: 6.42 miles, 9:03 pace – pyramid intervals + 10 min recovery yoga
Gorgeous morning – calm, cool, and breezy – improved by much-needed deep sleep and recovery. The legs snapped into action easily: I ran a pyramid workout of 1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1 minutes at a hard effort (probably around 5K if I were to gander) with 1 minute recovery in between. I averaged around 8:10-8:12 paces for the intervals, with a stray at 8:28 (GPS deadzone to blame) and 7:44 (final LET’S GET THIS DONE sprint). I give all the credit to the pint of Ben & Jerry’s vegan Peanut Butter Half Baked I snarfed last night. Not the whole container, mind you. Had to practice some self-restraint.
Total Mileage: 32.86
J is now dubbed a scallop-searing master in the house (by me, anyway) and whenever we can grab ahold of some reasonably-priced batches of these shellfish, we pounce. Scallops contain about 80% protein and, when cooked correctly, lend a wonderful juicy and mildly salty bite to any dish. Generally, pair them with pasta, and we had a ton of veggies on hand, so thus birthed this colorful primavera. Tri-colored rotini amplifies the hue spectrum of the dish, but isn’t necessary – any short-cut pasta will do.
Ingredients
- 1/2 lb tri-colored rotini, or other short cut pasta
- 3 tbsp olive oil, divided
- 1 green bell pepper
- 1/2 cup grape tomatoes
- 1/2 yellow onion, sliced
- 1 small head broccoli
- 1/2 cup basil, finely chopped
- 1 lemon (juice and zest)
- 1/2 cup shredded parmesan
- kosher salt + pepper, to taste
- 1 lb sea scallops
- kosher salt + pepper
Instructions
Pasta Primavera
- First, prepare vegetables. Slice onion and pepper in fajita-style strips. Slice or break florets from the broccoli head (save the stems! They're wonderful for stir fry.)
- Bring a large pot of generously-salted water to boil. Add pasta, and cook according to package directions.
- In the meantime, heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a large skillet. Add vegetables except the tomatoes; cook for about 3 minutes. Then, add tomatoes, and cook until all vegetables are soft and tomatoes begin to burst. Turn heat to low and add lemon juice, zest, salt, and pepper. Toss to combine.
- Drain pasta and add to pan with vegetables. Toss to combine. Add basil and parmesan. Continue to stir and toss into everything is well-incorporated.
Scallops
- While pasta cooks, line a plate with paper towels and place scallops atop. Place another paper towel on top of the scallops.
- Heat cast iron skillet on high heat until water droplets spit and dance along the bottom surface. You want your pan SEARING hot for this, so be careful!
- Dust both sides of scallops with salt and pepper (wash hands). Preset timer to 90 seconds. Using tongs, place scallops one at a time in hot skillet. Sear for 90 seconds on one side, then flip and sear for 90 seconds more on the second side. Turn heat off and immediately transfer scallops to another plate.
- To serve, add generous heap of pasta to bowl or plate. Add scallops on top. Garnish with more cheese, lemon juice and basil, as desired.
