After the FICPA 10k, it is pretty obvious that I needed to work on stamina more than anything. However, with a 5k race on Saturday and having been sick the last 2 days, I decided to keep Tuesday's run a relatively easy speed workout, just trading 4 of the 400 m speed intervals for 2 1000 m cruise intervals.
Target:
2 x 1000 ~ 3:35 (3min breaks)
4 x 400 ~ 78 (90 second breaks)
Actual:
2 x 1000 - 3:26, 3:31 (2 min break)
5 x 400 - 74, 75, 74, 74, 68 (90 second breaks)
2 miles warm up / cool down
Total 4.5 miles
Perhaps ironically, despite being sick both Monday and Tuesday, I was feeling great once I got on the track Tuesday evening, and if I didn't have my last 5k for a while on Saturday, I probably would have thrown in some more intervals.
Both my 1000m cruise intervals were fast as I had no idea on the pacing. Ideally I probably should have run several more to get the real stamina benefits, but I decided to stick to the more speed oriented workout and switched over to the 400s. The 400s were all slightly fast, but all felt under control, especially since I was dodging other people on the track the whole time (whatever happened to walking on the outer lanes?) I threw in 1 more closer to all out because I was feeling pretty good. (Is it sad that "closer to all out" has become a 68?)
Finished the workout feeling fine except for some tight calves. This was my fastest workout in at least a year so I'm feeling pretty good about it, despite how short it was. It's nice getting reacquainted with the track before the real workouts of marathon training start in another month or so...
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Race Review: FICPA 1040 10k
Much like my taxes were this year, the tax day 10k was disappointing, the only real highlight being the free beer after the race. This seems to be becoming a South Florida race trend for me – disappointing times accompanying race wins… I need to start figuring out how to push myself without competition. That and some race specific training might help…
The race in general was extremely slow this year. In 2008, the only year I could find race results for this race, 6 runners broke 36 minutes – my target time. This year I was the only runner to break 38 minutes – pretty sad really. The only excuse I can think of was the heat – an uncomfortable 80 degrees with 90% humidity. That and the course might have been a bit long – my GPS showing 10.2k, but my 10k time was still sad.
Full Post:
http://runnerreborn.blogspot.com/2011/04/race-review-ficpa-1040-10k.html
Friday, April 8, 2011
1600 Repeats
The first track work out of the year seems like a good time to start this training blog. I'll try to keep it posted with some of my more serious workouts, especially when I start my ramp up for Chicago in October.
4/7
Goals:
2 mile warm up/cool down
4x1600 @ 5:44 3 min rest
Actual:
Tropical Park
80 degrees, slight wind coming across the track.
1.5 mile warm up / cool down
4x1600 @ 5:52, 5:53, 5:53, 5:41 - 3 min rests
Total: 5.5 miles.
So I may have bitten off more than I could chew for a first track work out of the year. My times were a bit slow but that was partly due to what I was working out as splits... I planned to do this workout at goal 10k pace - which realistically should be about 36:26 (5:52/mile), but I'd love to go sub 36 (5:48/mile). Doesn't seem like a big difference, but it is... So I split the difference for the workout and planned 5:50 miles, and worked out the splits until I realized 1600 is a bit short, so I needed to be running 5:44 1600's to be on pace. Unfortunately I remembered and targeted the wrong splits during the first interval, and then just wanted to keep the pace even...
I recovered well between intervals, but had trouble keeping intensity up after the first 800. For the first 3 I went through the half 5 seconds fast and ended 2 seconds slower than target - a 7 second fade... not good for 1600 intervals. Called off the cool down a little early because the stomach was feeling off and no bathrooms at the track... Still, not going to be too mad about the workout considering I was dodging walkers and little kids on the track and it was my first speed work of the year, and first 1600 intervals in over a year... It's a slow road back, but I've started!
In retrospect a better workout would have been 1000m intervals at 10k pace or slightly faster. The race is just a week away so the goal was more learning the pace than strength training. I think for the race I'll work out the 1k splits and run on those rather than mile splits. It'll be my first 10k in 8 years so I'm pumped to see what I can do!
4/7
Goals:
2 mile warm up/cool down
4x1600 @ 5:44 3 min rest
Actual:
Tropical Park
80 degrees, slight wind coming across the track.
1.5 mile warm up / cool down
4x1600 @ 5:52, 5:53, 5:53, 5:41 - 3 min rests
Total: 5.5 miles.
So I may have bitten off more than I could chew for a first track work out of the year. My times were a bit slow but that was partly due to what I was working out as splits... I planned to do this workout at goal 10k pace - which realistically should be about 36:26 (5:52/mile), but I'd love to go sub 36 (5:48/mile). Doesn't seem like a big difference, but it is... So I split the difference for the workout and planned 5:50 miles, and worked out the splits until I realized 1600 is a bit short, so I needed to be running 5:44 1600's to be on pace. Unfortunately I remembered and targeted the wrong splits during the first interval, and then just wanted to keep the pace even...
I recovered well between intervals, but had trouble keeping intensity up after the first 800. For the first 3 I went through the half 5 seconds fast and ended 2 seconds slower than target - a 7 second fade... not good for 1600 intervals. Called off the cool down a little early because the stomach was feeling off and no bathrooms at the track... Still, not going to be too mad about the workout considering I was dodging walkers and little kids on the track and it was my first speed work of the year, and first 1600 intervals in over a year... It's a slow road back, but I've started!
In retrospect a better workout would have been 1000m intervals at 10k pace or slightly faster. The race is just a week away so the goal was more learning the pace than strength training. I think for the race I'll work out the 1k splits and run on those rather than mile splits. It'll be my first 10k in 8 years so I'm pumped to see what I can do!
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