5.12.09

Another great day to run. Gorgeous weather. Maybe warm, but hey I'll take sun and heat over clouds and thunderstorms any day. I was really excited to get to the track today. I found myself smiling as I was getting all my gear ready - stopwatch, a cliff block, ipod and headphones, waffle spikes just in case. I've been hovering over 50 miles a week and it's really helped my attitude towards running. I don't feel like I have to get in the miles, but rather just good old hard quality running - running fast is fun!

The track was pretty much empty except for a couple runners who were using the middle and outside lanes to run in. Good track etiquette is appreciated my fellow runners! I started with a mile and half warmup, then did my drills. My HR monitor has been wiggin' on me and was displaying 199 yesterday, it did it again today. The bad part is I have to reset it, which if you are in the middle of a run, there goes all the previous data (it isnt' stored and gets deleted when you start over). I was actually a little sore today in the hams, a little from the long run Sunday and a little from doing a couple different exercises during my core work last night. But by the time I got my drills done and did a few striders just to get moving I felt loose. Tonights workout was some tempo pacing around my goal 10k pace, then some shorter faster stuff to work on form and efficiency.

First up 3x1200 @ 6:13 pace. Now for some reason I've always thought tempo run mean't running hard like a 5k pace and maybe that's right, but tonight the pace felt very comfortable. The goal here was to do them with only 60s rest - I was kind of leery of that before I started these. First one started out well -41 at 200m, well within pace, then around 1:27 for lap 1 -800 was ... lol, I just now realized i ran miles instead of 1200's!!! omg. I guess I just like running miles! Geez I feel like a total idiot. So holy crap on that because I took the rest for a 1200....

so anywayz I was around 4:30 for 1200 and then finished the first MILE at 6:07. Good, well within the tempo pace of 6:13. The nice part about this was I was just flowing along - didn't breath hard the entire time and was very much within my comfort zone even though it was a little faster. So for these I took only 60seconds rest and I stuck to that. Mile 2 went through the half at 3:02 and maintained that pace from the start to the end at 6:04, couldn't have asked for better on that one. 60 seconds rest and I'm off to another mile, 1:26, 2:56 at 800 (started picking it up) 4:something at 1200 and the last lap I worked on turnover, but still stayed smooth. I was still within my comfort zone and came through at 5:56. Impressive considering I did these without even realizing I was supposed to run an entire lap less (and with the same recovery to boot)

60 seconds rest then I started 400's. These were to be at repetition pace which is 79 for the quarter. First one I came through in 73, not easy like the tempo stuff, but I was okay. Recovery was more for these, a jogging lap. Lap two I felt the first one and came through in 76. (recovery lap) lap 3 was 73.84 and I felt the muscles getting tired. Lap 4 was very rough and I was breathing hard and getting tired by 200 meters, still I pushed pretty hard and was totally out of breath coming through in 72.94. All in all that wasn't too bad, and was well within 79, so no fussing here. Jog lap for recovery.

I ended with some 200's, supposed to be run at 39-40 pace, although I knew I would be going faster than that because my tempo were at 42 and I felt fine. I was really huffing on the first one, but worked on staying strong and driving, 33.90. I was breathing hard after this one and the legs were tired. But I decided to do another just for good measure. This time I wasn't breathing hard, legs were utterly tired, but I just drove and pushed and ended up with 32.97 for that. (recovery was 200m jog for these) Then I did another mile and a half for cooldown and it felt great.

So those 1200's were interesting today :P I kind of feel like my mom switched my chicken nuggets for fried ochre or something. I just sort of tricked myself into doing more. No big deal it's just one of those things you get into the habit of looking at mile pace and go with it. I take a little notepad with me to the track so I can write down my splits (otherwise they all blend together) and right there on the paper it's says 6:13. It never crossed my mind that that wasn't what I was supposed to do until I started writing the times in the blog, lol. Still it was a great workout and although I ran more, it felt well within my comfort zone and was a great quality workout.

I'm feeling good about the 10k. Honestly I've never really focused this much on speedwork or pacing, so it will be interesting to see what happens at the race. I sort of "know" what 6:00 feels like, and the difference between working hard and all-out. It looks to be a fun race. They changed the course this year a bit, so I can't exactly compare it to last years. I just hope they don't add more hills :)

6:30pm. track.75° 36%H 7mph from ENE (warm, sunny, nice)
3x1600 @6:07, 6:04, 5:56 w/60s rest
4x400 @73, 76, 73.84, 72.94 w/400m jog
2x200 @33.9, 32.97 w/200m jog
56:09(8.27), fasttwitch 75
AHR ?? MHR 191