Intervals in the heat

The darn thunderstorms this morning meant I couldn't run before class, and instead I had to do it at 12:00 in the middle of the heat.  It wasn't not terribly hot like it had been 3-4 weeks ago, but it wasn't all that pleasant at that time of day either.  I decided I wasn't going to risk being too tired later tonight, and decided to just deal with it and make sure I got some sort of quality run in.



This week I'm taking it "easy" and trying not to run as many total miles, and also cutting down on the quality training.  To that end, I set out to do 4x(3:00 fast 2:00 rest).  I ended up doing the intervals faster than I intended (probably faster than I should have), but it made for a more impressive workout than I was inspecting.  I did the 3:00 intervals at 6:48, 6:49, 6:38, and 6:46.  It seems like whenever I do an interval workout, my first interval really sets the pace.  I realized that I had run the first one too fast, and set out to do the second one slower, but I can't ever seem to let myself go any slower.

I was pretty exhausted after the last one, so I allowed myself several minutes of walking before I resumed running the rest of the way. I've been running at 6-6:30 in the morning lately, so I wasn't really prepared for the temperature difference, and I was very thirsty before it was all over.  Luckily, I ran by a pair of little girls that were just setting up a Kool-Aid stand, and they were willing to let me give them and IOU since I didn't have any money on me (which I promptly paid 20 minutes later). It was very fortuitous, because I'm not sure I would've been able to run the whole way home without that little boost.

All in all, it was a fairly difficult day, perhaps more difficult than it should've been, but being able to push through the heat and fatigue made it a great mental run in addition to the physical aspect.

Good interval day

Whew, I ran a little over 5.5 miles this morning and it took a lot out of me, but it was a wonderful run!  Today is Tuesday, which means intervals. It went quite well, I set out with the goal of doing more than I did last week, which was a total of 15:00 at my interval pace (just under 7:00/mile). Last week, I broke them up into smaller, more manageable intervals, but I wanted to keep every interval over 4:00 today, and I succeeded.  I did two 5:00 intervals, and two 4:00 intervals, with 3:00 rest in between (though I gave myself 4:00 rest after the second one).

I did the intervals in 6:55, 6:59, 6:56, and 6:53 for a total of 18:00 at about 6:55.  I'm quite happy with that result, and I think this running everyday with no breaks is going to be good for me. I think it'll be easier to stick to a schedule, and I think I'll reap the benefits of consistency and of running the additional miles. Since I was able to improve upon my run from last week, I can conclude that, at least for the moment, the additional running is not contributing to overtraining.  Even so, I plan to take an easier week (still 7 days of running, just trimming a bit of mileage off) either every 3rd or 4th week.  I haven't decided how often I need the rest, but if my performance on Thursday is better than last week, I think I'll try to go another week before I take an easier week.

If I were able to keep that pace up for a full 5k, that would be a time of 21:26.  I'm not sure I could keep that up, as I felt like I was relatively close to vomiting on the last interval, but in a month's time it might be doable.  Either way, if I keep this up, sub-21:00 in my next race with Jenny and Doug should be very doable, though 20:00 would be an awfully large stretch.  Right now I think I'll put my goal at under 21:00 which would be a 6:45 pace.  I'll have to adjust that as the date gets closer and the weather changes, but I definitely think it's within reach.  The key is to stick with it and not fall off the wagon.  As long as I do that, I should be able to meet my goal.

Week of 8/7 Recap

On Saturday, Greg came over with his bike on his new bike rack, and I ran/he biked to Chaska and back, for a good 12.75 miles.  It went pretty well, especially considering the number of miles I had already run that week.  Finally the path was open the whole distance, though there was one spot with a huge puddle that we couldn't go around.  Luckily, it wasn't too deep so Greg was able to ride through it and ghost-ride his bike back to me so I could get across. I have to say, it was pretty pro. The worst part of the run though had to be the 41 bridge just before Chaska. The entire side was covered in mealworms, sometimes over half an inch thick. It smelled really bad.  For the rest of the run, I kept getting a whiff of the smell from Greg's bike, my shoes, and/or my imagination. Anyway, I'm back to trying to run my long runs slower than in the spring, because I think they fatigued me too much for the rest of the week.  I ran the first 10, then took my first walk-break and proceeded to run a mile, walk a bit, run a mile, walk a bit until we made it back to my house.

That run put me at 40.97 miles for the week, and counting today's run I'm at 10 consecutive days with over 30:00 a day, and a distance of just over 62 miles.

Tempo Run

I had been doing 1 speed day a week earlier in the year, but it didn't seem to be helping too much.  With only 1 day, I was only able to stress one part of my cardiovascular system (like VO2 max with intervals or lactate threshold with a tempo run) per week, and I didn't get the results I'm used to.  In the past, I felt like 2 speed days a week was too much, but I see now that even if I don't have a wonder workout, it's worth it to try twice a week.

On Tuesday, I did some intervals.

Due to my recent performance, I didn't really have a goal in mind as I didn't know what to expect.  I ended up doing 5:00 fast, 3:00 easy, 4:00 fast, 3:00 easy, 3:00 fast, 2:00 easy etc. stepping down a minute each time.  I ended up with a total of 15:00 at I pace, which isn't too bad.  I would really like to consistently do over 20 minutes though. Not all that long ago I was able to do 4x(5:00@6:53, 3:00@9:30), so in the next couple weeks I'd like to get back to that.

Today, I set out to do 3 miles at tempo pace.

Due to my sketchy performances, sometimes I'm not quite so sure what my tempo pace is anymore, so I basically said I needed to run under 8:00, and each mile had to be fast than the last.  The reason for this last part is so that I didn't go out too fast to begin with.  I didn't care if I had to break up the 3 miles into 3 separate cruise intervals or run them straight through; I just wanted to make sure I got 3 miles in at a good pace.  I ended up doing 2 miles at 7:46 and 7:37 respectively, then a 3:00 break, followed by my last mile at 7:24.  I'm pretty happy with this.  Since I've been so inconsistent, I haven't made much progress, but this workout also shows that I haven't lost too much either.  Next week I'll try to do  3 miles at a similar pace, but no break in between.  I'd like to build up to being able to do 5 miles or so at this pace, and then start working on bringing the speed up a bit.

Terrible race

On Saturday I ran the Urban Woodland Half Marathon, and posted my second worst time ever in a half.

Now I'm redoubling my efforts. I never got into a good consistent training groove, so I'm really going to try and change that. I want to run a minimum of 30 minutes everyday, with 1 possible day of walking, and at least 60 mins (ideally 90) on a weekend day.  So far I'm 5 days in on this strategy.  I'm really going to try to check in more often.

Dave