Monday, January 4, 2010

Chasing Cyclists!

Monday night…must be Intervals! Today actually marks my halfway point in this training cycle. Tonight was almost a repeat of my first training session a scant 8 weeks ago; time flies when you’re having fun. Now the proof is in the pudding so I thought I would look at Day 1 in comparison to Day 56. Day 1 called for a 1o minute warm up, 8 x 400m intervals at a 400m target pace of 5:45, 400m Rest Interval, 1 mile cool down, in other words something like this, (intervals highlighted in blue);

11-23 Intervals

Started out fast and then slowed, I then I ranged between 7:11 to 7:38, not bad but really nothing special. So eight weeks later it’s a similar workout; 2 mile warm up, 10 x 400m intervals at a 400m interval target of 5:45, the target pace is derived from the tables in the FIRST 10k plan are is based on my 5k PR of 19:42, 1:30 Rest Interval, 1 mile cool down, tonight’s run resulted in the following (intervals highlighted in yellow);

1-4 Intervals

Started out, got distracted on the second Interval, got into my groove, then fell out on number 7, hit my stride in 8 and 9 and then there was this cyclist. They’re great on their beach cruisers rolling along, oh yeah I went for it and chased this bike down the beach path like my hair was on fire and they had the only cup of water in town! I caught them and then I heard the greatest sound in the world, beep beep beep! Interval over! Much closer to the required 5:45 pace and no puking on my shoes…result!

So if the proof is in the pudding I would say that this is a large bowl of it, clearly I am getting faster, just how fast remains to be seen but having got on the scales this morning pudding is the last thing I need, to get to my race weight I need to cut off one leg or one and half arms…perhaps not the best thing for runner, maybe I’ll just skip desert!

11 comments:

  1. Nice job catching that cylcist! So speedy!

    ReplyDelete
  2. What an improvement!! I would say you are getting FASTER for sure. Very nice indeed!

    Love that you chased down a Cyclist. We do what we have to do to get the result...right?!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Nice. Always so grand to see the improvements (leaps and bounds) in black and white.
    ..in this case, with some highlighting added. ;-)
    good work!

    ReplyDelete
  4. wow that is a huge improvement!! nice job - definitely getting faster :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. dang dude - maybe there is something to this FIRST plan after all...hmmm, must start reading up on it now.

    great interval set Stuart!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Intervals. What are those??

    That is why I chose ultras.....so I can run nice and slow.

    ReplyDelete
  7. This plan is definitely showing some results...good ones at that! There have been times I would've loved to chase down a cyclist, but then again, that's another story. :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. This trainin you speak of...does it involve physical activity?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Sweet ride and nice improvements!!! Nicely done!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hard training pays off. You are fast. Man does it feel good when running by bikes!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for reading this post and leaving a comment, if you are entering a contest, please ensure you put some sort of unique name down so I can get back to you. E-mail addresses are ONLY displayed to me, and never shared, sold, pilfered, or anything else unhappy.