This would have been Six weeks of Speed but one week has passed! A few people have emailed me asking about my speed work plans so without further ado here they are:
All of these work out are from the FIRST 5K training plan so I can’t claim any ownership to them other than getting them done and making them my own! They are based on a 20:00 5k which right now would be a bit of a stretch but hey if it was easy everyone would be doing it!
This obviously doesn’t include any “off the bike” runs, next time I will leave my keys under the mat!
It’s late so here’s a general round up of the week:
Took Monday off after last Sunday’s race.
Nailed my Intervals on Tuesday 6 x 800m all within my 6:25 - 6:47, I am still short of my target pace but I am getting there, slowly but surely
Wednesday; I hit the pool, pushed for time as there was a lesson waiting, it was drills, legs, float, fins on, fins off, up down, up down, 1000m done! Not far by tri training standards but hey!
Thursday; met up with Billy (LARunr) for a great mixed tempo run on the beach path, 8 miles, again short of target pace of 6:35 by about 20 seconds, but again I am getting there.
Tonight; Sufferfest time! An hour on the trainer having my butt kicked on the Downward Spiral…it’s brutal and that’s all I have to say, I’ll be posting a review next week and have two copies to giveaway in a competition; enter at your own risk!
In other news, I am having issues with my Kayano 16s, not long after I got them I developed a pain in my heel, not while running but the next morning or after being in chair for a while when I started walking it would be tender. I have reverted back to my 15’s and I picked up another pair in the sales. I’ve also been running in my flats with some effect and focusing on both form and function, I find myself going back time and time again to the Newton website…hmm we’ll see!
Tomorrow I have an 8 mile tempo run, an hour on the local roads and that closes out this week of training. I only have 4 weeks left on this plan. I’ve decided to do the 10k at the Redondo Beach Super Bowl race rather than the 5k, it’s one week ahead of the end of the training plan but it is the race where I set my current 10k PR, no predictions yet other than an improvement!
I fell off the wagon in my own Situp/Pushup/Squat challenge but I am back in the saddle, talking of challenges don’t forget to email me your start weight if you signed up for the 20lb/$20 Challenge…move over Howie Mandel! There seems to be some confusion mostly caused by me! The basics are it’s a percentage loss challenge not pounds. Everyone buys a $20 RRS card and each week one person will win one from someone else…you only buy one each and when they are all gone it's over, if you’re still confused, don’t worry you’ll get the hang of it as we go!
Finally I’ve a whole bunch of reviews in the pipeline, but I am going to eek them out one a week or so…lots of good stuff for y’all!
****************
PostScript from Saturday Jan 16th
I had an awesome 8 miler today, even after Friday nights Sufferfest I managed to just miss the 8 miles in an hour by 36 seconds, that the fastest I have been in a long time and was 40 seconds faster over today’s hillier course than last weekend’s race!
I also nailed my SPS Trifecta tonight…yep I am back in the saddle!
My last post, where I documented my increase in pace, got me thinking. It really got me thinking what do I need to get faster, I am, after all, looking for every edge I can but the reality is that I am forty cough-cough year old so there is a limit to the improvement.
Like most people I put on a little ‘Christmas Pudding’ or should I call it padding! In fact since September I have probably put on, depending on the day, somewhere between 15-20lbs! This is the downside of eating like you running 50 miles a week and actually running nothing, teens and now early twenties! Now there’s a correlation here heavy equals slow; well to a point. I remember reading somewhere an article which indicated what you can expect to gain per pound of weight lost!
After a bit of rummage on the interwebthingy I turned it up and the details are quite amazing; for every pound you lose you can expect a gain in speed of 2 seconds per mile, 2 seconds per mile, what’s that you say well if you lose, say, 5lbs: over a 5k that’s 31 seconds, over a 10k that’s 1:02, over a Half Marathon that’s 2:11 and over a Marathon 4:22!
If I apply that to my 5k PR from 2008 when I was probably 10-15lbs lighter that extra 5lbs would reduce it down to 19:10. So let’s extrapolate that; I need to lose; well I actually want to lose, 20lbs, over a marathon that’s 17:28, 17:28! Well, I’ll take some of that please, that’s completely free time, which off of my existing marathon PR would get me under the 3:30 marker in fact that makes me pretty close to 3:26, so what that really means is I need to go a bit more than one minute per mile faster that I did in June of 2007!
Am I being too simplistic, maybe, but it strikes me that a combination of the weight loss and the speed training from the FIRST plan may just get me to the finish line with a 2:**:** on the clock face?
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);
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);
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!
Last Tuesday I had my first Tweet Up! Yeah I know it sounds a bit silly but whatever the name it was an opportunity to meet up in person with people whose blogs I follow or who I know through Twitter (hence the name) and it was also a chance to catch up with Billy who I had not seen since November. After a bit of a disastrous swim session (more on that later) I found my way to The Shack in Marina del Rey, known for it’s quality burgers, I ordered a garden burger and settled in to catch up in person with everyone.
L-R @ianreyerson @notorias @larunr @quadrathon
The conversation as you would expect circulated about running, races past and current states. I caught up with MsV from Gymnotes and Jen from notorias.com and all too briefly spoke with Glenn from The Running Fat Guy as well as Billy; LARunner. Billy and I are both recovering from injury, him from a stress fracture and me…well you know all about that.
After settling in the conversation turned to future plans, Billy threw out the question of why was I training for a sub 3:00 marathon? His point being, and let’s be honest to which I am the first to agree, it’s a lofty goal, to which my answer is a simple why not. But to put my cards down on the table and not to sound glib or too confident there is some basis for this:
Now this is itself is perhaps not enough and in reality I might never achieve it but the truth is if I don’t try I’ll never know and as a firm believer in time time, training and tenacity should allow you to really achieve any realistic goal. To that point here is the GTC data from yesterday’s tempo run;
I am the first to admit that I am ways away from where I need to be but considering this ends Week 5 of training after coming back from injury I am not that far away from where I was a little over a year ago and then I had a solid base shown below:
Anyway am I aiming to high, is my goal too lofty, well maybe…but it’ll be fun finding out and that’s that point right?
I am babying my left heel, it’s sore, like it’s bruised rather than it’s injured and so after Wednesday’s run I decided to push back Friday night’s long Tempo till the weekend, I had a Christmas party to go to as well which started at 6:00pm. Anyway Saturday came and went and so Sunday morning I was up and at them. It was feeling better but not 100% so I decided on hill intervals, why not; I had ridden them on my bike (see below) them on Thursday so it seemed fitting enough!
There’s this hill near where I live called Tarantula Hill; I am not sure why it’s called that other than the obvious! It’s about a mile away, well actually it’s 0.78 of a mile away, it’s more than a hill it looks kinda like a mini volcano, it’s small, sharp and steep; half a mile and about 200’ gain, there’s a service road that winds around it like a corkscrew. Three intervals I thought, and the end of the second one I was done, but I stripped of my second shirt and left it at the top…I’d have no excuses for not going back up when I got the bottom.
By the third ascent I really was done! I wound my way done and headed home! Here ends week 4 of training, for some reason I am feeling pretty beaten up, not enough sleep is a huge contributing factor to this, something to address in the new year, other than my ankle my recovering knee/quad is sore and I can feel a cold coming down the pipe – time to think myself healthy! Trust me this works…I don’t have time to be sick!
With Christmas looming I need to get out the last of my 2009 reviews, so watch out for them this coming week including POM, Smootie Selector, Tangerine, some Sugoi clothing and the Sufferfest’s Downward Spiral, talking of which I picked up this little pain-pill earlier today, is it bad that I like the pain!
Brett over at Zen and the Art of Triathlon is having a giveaway this week for three free copies…enter at your own risk!
So earlier this year I applied to Sugoi to become a Brand Champion. I had seen someone I follow on Twitter announce they had been accepted, I looked it up online and read the following:
…..The main criterion for inclusion to the program is not always the people who are fastest in the competition, but it is the person who inspires other by chasing their own personal bests. Many SUGOI Brand Champions are podium finishers in major international events; many others are everyday athletes whose personal bests come in different forms other than winning. All athletes are successful at what is important to SUGOI: the ability to be inspirational and to make a difference.
To be honest I forgot about my application until sometime later I got an email saying I had been accepted! Then I started a new job and new training plan for 100 in the Hood, got injured and every thing went on the back burner and before you knew it six months had gone by…fast forward to November and I am starting a new training cycle; my leg is more or less rehabilitated and it’s Winter. Now I know that a SoCal Winter is relative to someone who lives in say, Kelowna or Metro Detroit (you know who you are) but even so it gets a bit chilly and so out came the credit card (as a Brand Champion you qualify for some discounts) and away I went. They are still taking applications, you can apply here and you can read the Brand Champion's Blog here, it makes for a good read as there are a variety of sports covered; running, cycling; road, mountain and 'cross and triathlons and the writers are the Brand Champions themselves and whose abilities really span the spectrum, so it's 'written from the trenches' as it were!
I have owned a few Sugoi bits through the ages and was accustomed to their quality, both fit and function is good as well the attractiveness...gotta look good as you hunched over puking on the side of a trail (been there) or bleeding in a ditch or on the side of the road after an endo (done that)! After looking through their website I selected, with the colder temperatures in mind, a pair of conservatively (not!) colored armwarmers (one of the silliest and yet most practical garments ever invented), a skull cap to fit under my cycling helmet (cold ears are no fun) and a pair of Piston 200 compression tights (I love compression clothing!). Ten days later free shipping, yay!) they arrived, I tried everything on to make sure it fit and I love love love the tights, I can’t wait till it gets really cold; for here…today was 75f, yesterday was 62f so it’s a bit variable right now but in another month or so it will be down in the 50’s at run time...seriously, I can't wait!
Talking of running, Week 1 just ended and it proved to be an interesting one. Not surprisingly my conditioning is for crap! What does surprise me is that CV-wise I am a lot better the muscle-wise, I looked online and the consensus was in 3 months you could expect to lose 50% of your fitness; I did nothing for about 5 weeks and them swam twice a week for another 4 so my best guess I am down by at least 40% maybe more? I certainly felt it during my three runs this week; Monday; Intervals, Wednesday; short tempo and Friday; long tempo, done on a track! My pace is slow and it generally hurts, I am way off my prescribed paces, but, I can only get faster. Cross training-wise I got in my 1000 meters swim and I hit the bike for a pedestrian ride yesterday, I am about 3-4 minutes slower than I was during the summer on my regular timed loop. To be honest right now I am struggling to reconcile that during July, August and September I ran some 20 half marathons, 6 marathons and raced 100 in the Hood, now I am dying at 6 miles! It’ll come back I know but even so…
Anyway the good news is that in general my recovered leg is holding up to what I am putting it through, I need to be smarter as do some general strengthening as well, squats, lunges etc as well as some plyometrics and stretching and also be proactive about my ITB and runners knee that I had back in the Summer, but while early days so far so good! Oh yeah and a toenail fell off...talk about delayed reaction!
Go to bed! This week has been long and it's only Thursday. TGTF! My training has taken a hit. Monday I put in 9 miles, Tuesday I missed my bike and Wednesday I missed my intervals and pushed them over to today. I was home early and Spring has certainly sprung with a toasty 82f awaiting me as I started my interval session! Toasty my foot; 82f is damn hot! I could certainly feel my pace just bleed away as evident in the mile splits.
As you can see; the first 1 mile cut was the deepest!
This week is my last week at work (I actually finish next Tuesday) and I have been slammed wrapping up my project and a bajillion other issues! Add to the mix a teething child who is refusing to sleep through the night and I am as they say; banjaxxed!
I signed up for my second 50k for this month and that's this Sunday; no pressure, it is in effect a long supported run, I am targeting a 6:30 or thereabouts finish. And then we have three weeks to LD50!
Twenty three miles was on the plan for this weekend, seeing as I have verbosely posted nearly every day for the last week I'll spare you the write up and you can have the pictorial version. I ended up a bit short on mileage and I was feeling it by the end which was the feedback from the 8 mile tempo run from the night before.
I ventured off onto a new trail on an out and back and then came back to finish off with running loops, I wanted distance not elevation, it was, all in all a good run. The trailhead is about a half mile from our house and I figured, with our move pending, it may be a last opportunity to run to around this area in a while, enjoy:
Mile 1: The start...
Mile 2: It looked a lot better with the crow on the tree
Mile 3: Damp views over the valley
Mile 4: A carpet of spring flowers
Mile 5: Recent rain and sunshine means everything grows quickly
Mile 6: California Whipsnake; a bit worse for wear
Mile 7: Ever onwards...
Mile 8: There are sulfur springs in the area that kill off the trees over time
Mile 9: This is actually a dried river bed!
Mile 10: climbing up from the valley floor
Mile 11: Disappearing into the mist!
Mile 12: Halfway...slight condensation on my glasses!
Mile 13: More damp views!
Mile 14: A sign!
Mile 15: Homeward bound
Mile 16: More spring color
Mile 18: Money can buy you a big house...but it can't buy you any taste!
That’s how I view my speedwork sessions, I put in an hours worth of effort and I see the results as soon as I press stop on my Forerunner (sorry it has no name!).
Scrolling through the laps, looking at the splits and noting those quarter, half, three quarter and mile splits really gives me a sense of reward, especially after the set of intervals I had on Wednesday where I touched on running a sub 6 minute mile, I should qualify that by saying that my time for the 800m was 2:41 so if you extrapolate that to a mile that should give me a 5:57 mile, my unofficial mile PR is 6:15 so sub 6:00 would be great and not bad for a “Masters” runner! I use the McMillan running calculator, which gives you enough info to make your headspin! Interesting that 800m split gives me a 2 minute improvement over my half marathon time and a Boston Qualifier to the very last second!
So here is the speedwork sessions I have planned out over the next four weeks, I’d like to throw in a 10k race somewhere towards the end; that depends on finding one and it’s not crucial. Sorry I can’t code tables in html so you get a screenshot from Excel! Click on any image to make larger.
In other news we're moving house, not far, just 20 minutes up the road, what it does mean is that I will be further away from my usual trail running start point in Cheeseboro Canyon; boo! But the upside is that I will much closer to a relatively unexplored, bigger and much more challenging park at Pt Mugu/Sycamore Canyon; yay!
I have been running with a Garmin Footpod since acquiring a treadmill in September 2007. Originally I purchased it to aid me in using my Forerunner 305 while running on the treadmill; the Forerunner will not work due to fact it uses its GPS functionality for measuring distances.
Out of the box the Footpod was pretty accurate to the treadmill calibration and given that it was a brand new treadmill I had no reason to disbelieve it. I have since proven it’s out of the box accuracy on a track; at least it works for me and my stride length etc. In addition to providing you with the usual data that you can receive, depending on you personal settings, one other dataset that is not standard is cadence.
I had always heard that the way to run faster is to run quicker, that is to increase you cadence (or churn or turnover as it is sometimes called, and using the Footpod on the treadmill I was able to do this. Then last year a friend of mine (thanks Fred) told me that he had been able to use the cadence setting on his Forerunner while being outdoors; to do this when you have the prompt to “Use indoors?” you simply say no…that’s it! You can also then program the Forerunner to beep (read annoy the *beep* out of you) when you deviate from your settings.
The other factor that comes into play is form and I read a really good blog post by ultra runner Rhonda who describes her experience with pain, injury and form here and I have stolen the video from her blog and posted that below, it’s good stuff and worth watching.
Personally I remember watching some video of ultrarunner Anton Krupricka on YouTube and thinking how effortlessly he seemed to cover the ground and without any really thinking I tried to emulate his style which I have (kinda sorta...at least in my own mind) got down, of course I am lacking all his other attributes; endurance of a mountain goat, weight of 120lb soaking wet and being, what 15 years younger than me etc. And now I can keep up a good pace 7.5 - 8mph or a 7:42 - 7:30 pace with an average cadence in the 85 – 90 range with no real problems for an "average" run, LSD are long and slow and usually on the trails and speedwork is well...speedier, I'll get to that below.
Here's Anton doing his thing:
Look at that scenery; and you still want to know why I run trails....
Anyway as you may know I cross train on a road bike and I also have a Garmin Cadence Monitor mounted (no I do not own any shares in Garmin…maybe I should get some!), in my quest for speed I was told by another friend, Jan, to stop mashing the big gear and get my cadence up, well this I have been working on for the last 6 -7 months and I can now happily (I use happily in the loosest sense of the word) roll along with a cadence around the 90-95 rpm, this the number of times my pedal crank passes a specific point on my chain stay during is rotation within a minute. As a result this has pushed my average speed up; not that you'd know with the amount of cyclists that pass me on the road!
Now this is where the funky stuff starts, there seems to be a direct correlation between the cadence on the bike and the cadence while running with a +/- variance of less than 3%. As mentioned my running cadence is averaging in the 85-90 range. With an average of 90 rpm +/- 3% = 87.9 to 92.7. You can't argue with the numbers.
During my training cycle last year for Twin Peaks I incorporated 6 weeks of speedwork (written about here) which I ended with a 5k race and shaved over a minute off of my 5k personal best finishing in 19:42, placing 5th overall and winning my age group. My average cadence for this race: 93.0.
Since my original purchase I have purchased another Footpod for another set of shoes. Garmin actually sell two versions, the first version, of which both of mine are is a little larger than v2 and requires that you run your laces through it to secure it to your shoe, I understand that that v2 is easier to affix to you shoe by way of a clip. The downside of when I made my purchase was the price and the v2 was always more expensive, now supplies of v1 have dried up and the balance has changed you can purchase, through Amazon, (the source of nearly everything) a v2 for $75 compared to a v1 which is a staggering $185! (I paid $50 for my first v1 and $30 for my second).
So what is the take away from this rambling diatribe is that if you really want to run faster you have to run faster and ride faster…that’ll be another one chalked up to the benefit of cross training then!
PS If you have a minute pop over to Sara's blog and wish Happy Birthday; today's her 30th!
After the fun and games of Wednesday’s intervals (or not as the case was) Thursday’s tempo should have been a breeze, and it was. The plan called for 10 miles in total, the first 9 at 7 min miles or 5k pace + 15 seconds and a mile cool down. I managed to get to start point a little earlier than usual in an effort to minimize the amount of time I was running in the dusk/dark and by a little after 4pm I was on my way. The path I run is the beach path starting at Will Rogers and heading North for a half mile then south for four and half miles to the turnaround, South of Santa Monica Pier, and then basically a reverse on the way back, at this time of year it’s pretty quiet with a few runners, skaters and cyclists etc but it does allow you to pick up some speed, with the major obstacle being sand over the path luring you to slip and fall or forcing you into the path of oncomers. It gets a bit busier by the pier but as by that time its cooling down and getting dark you’ve plenty of room. After trading in Gel DS I am now running in Asics Banditos which are much more comfortable but a little big, I had to go up 1.5 sizes over my road shoes which are half a size up on my regular shoes and I am wondering if that was a half size too much.
The first five miles went by with a huff and puff and I reached my turnaround in 34:55. I had in mind a 70 minute round trip which would mean 9 miles at sub 7 minutes to make up for the cool down tenth mile, so unless I ran a solid negative split 70 minutes was not looking likely. I stopped to grab some water from a fountain and headed back. By mile 7 I was feeling it but only missed the 49 minute mark by one second. Mile 8 and Mile 9 were both over 7 minutes and mile 10 over 8 minutes. So I finished with a 1:11:47 for the round trip, faster than last weeks run but not quite where I wanted it to be. Here are the GTC digits:
A few people have asked how I come up with these targets for the intervals and tempo runs. They are based on those prescribed by the FIRST plan, in fact my whole training plan is based on that; 3 quality runs a week, 2 cross training sessions a week. I initially tweaked the first 8 weeks (base building) with alternating long runs and long bike rides, and then during the last 4 and next 2 weeks (speedwork etc) added in the Intervals and Tempo runs and an extra run the day after my long run. I took those designed for a marathon and cherry picked and tweaked them. Here is a scan of the book.
All in all I would say that the speedwork is hard, but the upside is it is rewarding, after only four weeks of it I could now go out and get a personal best for the 10k and half marathon, after last nights run I would have had 26 minutes to cover the remaining 3.1 miles. However I would caution that it is at pace that you open yourself up to more opportunities for injury, so it is important to build up to it, the beauty of that of course is that you get to see almost instant results week on week. It really reinforces the maxim that if you want to race fast you have to train fast!
My plan had me running intervals last night (1 x 400, 1 x 800, 1 x 1200, recover to 100-110 HR bpm in between) rinse, repeat and top and tail with a warm up/cool down. I programmed my Forerunner on the fly at the parking lot which is a bit cumbersome but if you’re got Crackberry thumb dexterity you can do it in a couple minutes. Changed and set off. Two miles warm up check, threw in some high knees and butt kicks and felt good. Got the go alarm and we're off:
First 400 1:26, 41 seconds rest Next 800 3:06 53 seconds rest Next 1200 4:48 (and hereafter it went to hell and a handbasket) 4 seconds rest WTF! Next 400 1:35 (duh yeah after 4 seconds rest) and then I missed the next rest interval completely Next 1.26 miles! 10:07 hang on, 1.26 miles that's two in one…ugh I give up! Mile and a quarter cool down
It would seem that I missed the rest period ran through the next half mile, missed the next rest period and then finished off with the last interval…sigh! Not the best of workouts but kinda sorta got it done, my first two split were pretty good and the third was ok. Next time I think I will just use a simple distance or time rest period. But if anyone from Garmin is reading this can we have a vibrating alert in the 505! Tempo run tonight swapped from Friday as I am at the Doctors (again!), that's easy; slow for a bit, fast for a bit, slow for a bit...even I can manage that!
This week I broke the 1000 mile mark for this training cycle (395 running/628 bike), only 250 or so to go to the start line and then another 50 to the finish line!
Maddy and NikeMom have claimed their Swap-Beat SWAG; Robin's shirt/socks and JKRunning's iTunes card have gone but there's still plenty of good stuff left!
Wednesday I was scheduled for Intervals, quarter, half and full miles on a ladder working up and working down (¼ x 2, ½ x 2, 1 x 2, ¼ x 2) topped and tailed with a warm up and cool down. Usual place; on the beach path, not so usual weather: a strong head/tail wind depending which way you were going and usual time; and here is where it went wrong somebody moved the clocks! I managed to get through the warm up and first four sets but realized that I was going to end up in the pitch black on unlit stretch of path, after a quick readjustment I changed the miles to halves changed direction to stay in the relative light and had a shorter cool down. I ended up with a reasonable set of splits, not great but reasonable and a slightly shorter than planned run. Here are the splits:
Quarter mile intervals
Half mile intervals
Thursday I had switched for Friday (Tempo run for bike) and so this time I got to the start point earlier. Ten miles was the distance two to warm up at around eight minute miles, four at sub seven minute miles and another four at sub eight. I had traded in my Gel DS shoes, the asymmetric lacing was bothersome and for this run I was wearing Asics Banditos (doesn’t the name make you want to run like you stole something!), such is the joy of Road Runner Sports' 60 day trial. I set off with a real spring in my step, new shoes, zero wind compared to the previous day and the determination to have a good run. Well I had a great run, one the best I have had for a long time. My splits for the first two miles were a little fast. In the next four I was sooooo close to having a ladder (increasingly faster times) for the pace section; I was a mere 3 seconds off on mile 3 (#5 in total)! I eased off in miles 7 and 8 and then caught a second wind for mile 9 and went sub 7 minutes again, finally taking my foot of the gas in the last mile. So 10 miles in 1:12:35, average pace 7:15, that’s only 30 seconds off my best 5k pace of 6:47 and if you took the four miles at pace and the next two and a bit I would have run a 43:00(ish) 10k which is about 4-5 minutes faster than my 10k best. Here are the GTC splits:
Tempo run splits
It’s runs like this one that make me keep coming back for more and seeing a return on the training investment is always great. It got me thinking about to next year. I am pretty much set for the Spring, (more on that to follow) but the Summer is problematic due to the heat so, and this is early stage planning, I am thinking that I may just have to copy Nitmos’ Summer of Speed and work on 5 & 10ks and half marathons. My existing 5k and HM PBs are pretty good, I think, 20:47 and 1:37:32 respectively but my 10k PB is rubbish at 47:53. So with some work maybe I could get a sub 20:00 5k, sub 40:00 10k and sub 1:30:00 HM, having a quick pair of heels would certainly be handy when I start going longer distance next Fall/Winter…anyway, at least for now, it’s all just being kicked around in my head. .
And so this morning was a quick hours spin on the bike trainer; 15 miles making a total of 32 bike miles and just under 50 running miles for the week.
No running this weekend due to a medical thing, no biggie just off my feet for a few days. Those of you in Swap – Beat don’t forget to email me you weight by Sunday, Viv and JKRunning have had their swag added to this post, Laura I need yours. Finally Nick has some excellent incentives for you all, go check them out.
Friday night’s Tempo night. I was planning 10 miles but with Trick or Treating on the agenda I only had time for 8 miles. The plan was 2 miles at 8 minute pace, 4 miles at sub 7 minute pace, 1 mile at 8 minute and the last at 8:30.
Usual location on the beach path, it was overcast, cool a little humid and pretty empty, although I did meet my wife, who was also running, at my 2 miles mark (her six mile mark; she has a half marathon in December), a quick chat and I was off of my tempo section: the miles rolling by pretty quickly I managed to surprise a few cyclists who were pootling along. At the 4 mile mark I stopped stripped off my shirt and headed back, another 2 miles rolled by as I huffed and puffed getting more and more odd looks, I hit the 6 mile mark and started to put on the brakes and finally just eased into the last mile. As for the results well a picture is worth a 1000 words but it was pretty much on point of the four tempo miles the fastest was 6.46 and the slowest 7.04, just over my target , my other miles were pretty much where I wanted them to be pace wise. Here are the digits for those who need to know:
Afterwards I jumped in the car and headed straight to my son’s best friends house met my wife and we all went Trick or Treating, my son amassed a life time supply of candy…but that’s the point right!
Today it rained…a lot, thunder, lightening the whole nine yards, me thinks the trails might be a bit muddy tomorrow. I am meeting another member of the TRC an hour before the main group, at least it should not be too hot!
There’s still time to enroll in Swap-Beat and don’t forget to send me your starting weight by Monday morning and the item to swap. I’ll add a page with all the swag on it when I get a second, oh yeah and don’t forget the clocks go back tonight unless you live in Arizona or Hawaii.
Last night was intervals, tomorrow night is tempo. Yesterday I parked at the beach and used the same path as last week; it was warm but not as warm as it had been in the week and my car said early 80s. I had wanted to run an interval ladder 400/600/800/1200/800/600/400 but found out that I can’t program anything so complicated through the watch and have to use GTC, so instead I settled for 7 x half mile repeats with one minute rest in between. I headed to the restrooms to change and realized that I had no socks; three choices; nix the run, run without socks or run in dress socks, I went for the latter thinking if I don’t care why should anyone else?
I set off on a warm up run for two miles and also used the time to measure out the half mile distance and try to find as flat a section as I could. After 2.33 miles I was set and headed off. Twenty five later I was done, although I confess to only managing 6 out of the 7 intervals, I had ridden for an hour before breakfast and my legs were feeling it. I finished off with a mile and bit for a cool down for a total of 7.5 miles...very neat! It wasn’t easy or pretty but I was pleased with results and I got a real sense of achievement when I loaded the data from my Forerunner onto my PC. The quickest half mile: 3:07, slowest 3:20, a 3:14 average. The full set can be seen in the picture below. Sunday I am back running with the TRC, I have not been out with them for nearly two months! They are planning a 14 or so mile run, I have a 26 mile run planned so I get there early and stay late, rain is forecast so at least it will be cooler than last weekend!
Good luck to everyone racing and especially Robin who will be completing her first 50 miler this weekend at MMTR!
Maybe a tad too high for day one! First set of intervals tonight. Two mile warm up, 3 x 1 mile repeats with quarter mile rest in between, 2 mile cool down (actually a mile and a quarter as it turned out). Also ran with my new racing flats Asics Gel DS Trainer XIII; first impressions, snug; I needed a full size up, light; 9.6oz (compared to 12.9oz Kayanos I normally wear) and while surprising comfortable to run in, not so for walking?
There is no local track available to me. I choose the beach path which has recently been resurfaced with new tarmac; which is softer than concrete, wide and less populated and therefore I could get up a fair head of steam without worrying about mowing down Aunt Edna who had gone for an afternoon stroll. I ran out a mile and back to warm up and get a feel for the shoes and then was off for the intervals. The downside was no shade and it was in the mid eighties.
I have to confess to being pleased, as mentioned before it has been a long time since I ran speedwork so I was expecting my mile splits to be slower than the final results. Above all I am pleased that I managed to get a limbo set of splits; as you can see (click on the image and it gets bigger) increasingly quicker miles. Tomorrow I am switching with Friday so I have a Tempo run and then a quick 12 miles ride on Friday as I want to save my legs a bit, the race is a half marathon and I am scheduled according to the plan to run 22 so I am going to run 6 milesbefore, then race and then another 3 miles afterwards which should net me out at 22.1 miles for the day.
