Quarters

The past few weeks we have started doing the track workout a bit later which is great for me, less stress and I don't have to leave work before everyone else and feel guilty about it.

Last night was our staple quarters workout followed up by an 800. A bit less rest than usual but otherwise the norm. Goal was 85 though coach made it clear we should be faster based on the early groups results. Not my fastest quarter workout ever but it was solid and worlds better than I felt the past two weeks at the track. I'll take it!

Set	Reps	Distance/Time	Goal	Actual	Rep rest	Set rest
1	8	400  Meters	<85	82.12, 81.87, 82.03, 81.18, 82.47, 82.82, 82.02, 82.80	60	2:00
2	8	400  Meters	<85	83.40, 81.63, 81.97, 82.70, 82.63, 82.23, 82.19, 81.74	60	2:30
3	1	800  Meters	Hard	2:41.60

Quarters

Last night I ended up indoors though the goal was to get outside for these. Trying to workout on a track after working all day in downtown Cleveland just leads to stress most Tuesdays for me. Last night was a combination of stress from being a female, leaving work during rush hour (which is never a good idea) and feeling rushed to get the workout done. But somehow as always it did indeed get done.

Literally went to the outdoor track and got out of the car and decided it was too windy and cold and that combo plus it getting dark wasn't going to fly. So we warmed up outside then headed inside to do the workout. Despite getting locked out of the track and being "this close" to tears at that point my awesome boyfriend did manage to get in and let me into the track. I got started on the strides right away while he (yes for real) "played in the sandbox." Apparently I was not in a jovial mood as I did not even notice. Kudos for trying to calm me down though.

I had 2 sets of 8 quarters at 83 with 75 second rests and 2:00 between the sets. Everything went pretty smoothly. BF jumped in on a few for the whole thing, paced my first 200 for a few, and timed me for the rest of them. It was good to have someone to be accountable to after having done these solo for the past few weeks. I'm looking forward to getting outside though, the tight turns combined with the lunar racers had my toes/feet a little cranky by the end despite changing direction every 4 quarters.

Set	Distance/Time	Goal	Actual	Rep rest
1	400 Meters	83	79.8	75
2	400 Meters	83	80.88	75
3	400 Meters	83	80.83	75
4	400 Meters	83	83.93	75
5	400 Meters	83	81.96	75
6	400 Meters	83	84.70	75
7	400 Meters	83	82.41	75
8	400 Meters	83	80.33	2:00
9	400 Meters	83	81.99	75
10	400 Meters	83	81.85	75
11	400 Meters	83	81.35	75
12	400 Meters	83	82.82	75
13	400 Meters	83	81.52	75
14	400 Meters	83	80.83	75
15	400 Meters	83	81.04	75
16	400 Meters	83	78.72	75

Back on Track

How I forgot to post about Tuesdays workout I'll never know :) I'm a busy bee, and I guess the blog is one of the first things to slip right now!

Tuesday I made the journey back to the track! I think I haven't been on a track since September!!! That is a long time boys and girls. I basically stopped all track workouts then because the speed seemed to agitate my calf and my foot to the point of barely being able to hobble after. It was pretty ugly.

So Tuesday was the first test. The workout wasn't extreme in terms of pace or mileage. Just 12-16 quarters at 93 a piece with 90 second recovery jogs. Easy peasy ;)

We were lucky to get access to a nice local track that is 200 meters indoor and had it mostly to ourselves. I was late to the official CED group run, but I was doing my own workout anyways so it wasn't a big deal. I got to start my first quarter with Lizzie as she was supposed to run 2 miles at 90 for her quarters so I just tucked in behind her to get a nice smooth start and not run too fast. That one was pretty much right on in 92. After that every two quarters I'd flip the direction to keep the hips and calves as happy as possible and I seemed to settle into an 88 rhythm for the most part, coach G was pretty buys with those doing their real hard core workouts so I didn't get chastised for being a little fast. I was very conscious of keeping it smooth and pretty easy. The calf got a little tight but I made sure to try and relax it between each quarter.

Because the pace wasn't insane I did not get my usual track lung thrashing for the first time back and I wasn't even too sweaty of a mess. It was a nice night to just get in a bit of hard work, and the track, though small, was great for the first time back for me. I decided to go with 12 quarters in the end to try and behave a bit and justified picking it up a hair the last 3 by telling myself I was running less than prescribed :) I focused on getting up on the balls of my feet the last three and trying to run more from the core than my calves, and easily the pace dropped to 85 and 83 and the last one I ran almost full on effort consciously telling myself that I wanted to end this one feeling like I could do one more at the same effort. Thankfully coach missed the split as I probably would have got chided for finishing that last one out in 76. But man did it feel good to move a little bit, and though I know 76 isn't flying, it sure feels like it on a tiny 200 meter indoor track in the dark! :)

Not going to lie I wasn't happy that the calf was tight at the end of this one, but on the positive side it did not knot up at all. So I foresee lots of calf exercises and calf and foot pampering in my near future every day for awhile. Fingers crossed that's all it take to get back up to speed on the track workouts here soon! But if not I am dedicated to whatever I have to do to get in these anaerobic workouts, even if it means deep water running or, god forbid, the elliptical!

Quarter Pacing (Or Lack thereof)

For the life of me I cannot pace 400s on the track. We have gotten in the (bad) habit of running fast on the front 200 of almost all our intervals the past few years and I just cannot get a feel for the proposed pace to really nail it every time.

Since we raced Sunday and it was (once again) unbearably hot at the track last night we had 12 quarters followed by an 800 last night. Nothing too fast, just a workout to focus on pacing.

Goal was 3 sets of 89 (10k pace), 86 (5k pace), 86, 82 (3k pace) with 1:00 rests between each quarter. Followed up by 90 seconds rest and an 800 at 5k pace (2:52)

I didn't hit a single quarter or the 800 at the correct pace and I never ran the first 200 slower than 43 on the 89s, or 41 on the 86s, or 39 on the 82s. I knew the point of the workout was pace and to feel it, but I just could not settle in on the front 200 and would have to jog the last few steps of the 400 to even come close to the desired goal. I never felt like I was straining, I just couldn't run the right paces, my "feel" for the pace just wasn't there.

88.55, 82.83, 84.87, 79.46, 87.99, 83,32, 85.09, 80.49, 88.41, 84.10, 83.98, 78.28, 2:46.90

I am not sure why I struggle with this. Clearly I can run evenly paced miles in longer repeats and events, why I can't nail a pace for 400 meters is beyond me.

Hot and Sweaty Quarters

I had a feeling we were due for a quarters workout this week and sure enough we got to the track and the workout was 16 quarters. Two sets of 8. Last time we did this workout we smoked it, sometimes I look back at last summers track workouts and wonder how on earth I ran so fast. But hopefully that speed will come back soon and hopefully I will get even faster. In the meantime I certainly can't complain about the slightly slower paces as my body and attitude are benefiting from successfully completing the workouts after the craziness of injury and illness leading up to and following Boston.

Same workout as last time. 2 sets of 8 quarters with 80 second rests then 2 minutes between the sets, goal 85 per quarter. It was hot hot hot and humid! Thankfully NC has been bringing a cooler with ice. So between downing 2 bottles of water during the workout (and 3 electrolyte pills throughout the day) and putting ice in my bra every other quarter I managed to stick to the pace without falling off or cramping up. I definitely felt like I was working hard, not sure if I could have run 81s if that had been the stated goal, maybe, but I was content to really try and nail the pace and not race it. Salty and I did a good job of just trying to run smooth and relaxed despite being a sweaty mess!

85.65, 81.45, 85.29, 83.99, 84.79, 84.80, 84.77, 84.89

85.18, 83.50, 85.13, 83.72, 84.05, 83.60, 83.27, 81.15

I do think I need to try and be better about running more even on the track. We are in the habit of always running the front 200 faster than the back 200. We do this even in longer reps. Not sure why, but we consistently run the first 200 of every lap at least 1, sometimes up to 4 seconds faster than the back 200.

Followed the workout up with Video 1 of the Jay Johnson Core and Strength Series. I was a gross sweaty mess by the end of it all! Great way to spend your 8th anniversary :) I'm a lucky girl to have scored such a supportive and understanding husband! He even gutted out 2.5 miles at the track last night before succumbing to the heat and hitting the AC while waiting for me to finish up.

Columbus Training Week 8

Goals for the week:

Total Mileage 65 - 70.

Tuesday: Track
Thursday: 3 miles @ 6:30, 5 miles @ 6:15
Weekend:
Saturday: Air force Half pacing 1:40 group.
Sunday: Long run 15 miles @ 6:50

How it played out:

Total 65 miles
Monday- 7 at 8:13 pace
Tuesday- 10 with track
Wednesday- 8 at 8:28 pace
Thursday- 10 with tempo
Friday- Off (Slept in and traveled to Air Force, worked dinner)
Saturday-13.1 at 1:39:54
Sunday- 15 at 6:47 plus 1.5 mile cool down

Track was a tough one, quarters always sound easy in concept. In practice the workout seems to drag forever and lactic acid builds up pretty quick, especially into the windy half of the track. We did 2 sets of 8 quarters with the goal of 3km pace or about 81 per quarter. Rests were 80 seconds between each and 4 minutes between the sets.

01:20.7

01:20.4

01:19.6

01:19.7

01:20.1

01:19.6

01:20.0

01:20.2

01:20.2

01:20.2

01:20.5

01:20.3

01:20.1

01:20.1

01:20.4

01:18.8

Thursdays tempo was also rough, but unlike the track workout I didn't quite hit the targets. Nothing new there ;)

We had to wait out a pretty sever thunderstorm and got started in a sprinkle but about 2 miles in the rain died off and it warmed up. We hit the towpath this week and the soft surface combined with wet conditions made it a little tough to hit paces. Given the conditions I'm happy with the effort. Not too far off.

06:38.5

06:26.7

06:28.7

06:19.5

06:18.0

06:22.2

06:29.5

06:17.7

Pacing was fun. 7:38 is a pretty easy pace for me to nail right now since that's about the pace we do on our mile warm ups for the track, so I have it pretty dialed in. Hit miles 5 and 9 right on and was just 6 seconds under the target at the finish line.

Sunday long run wasn't a breeze like last weekends long run. But managed to get the pace down and finish it out. Though it was cooler out I was still sweating like a pig, could have used an extra water stop for sure.

Looks like we're backing off the mileage and getting ready to rock and roll in one month. I'm glad I'm feeling a little beat up and not 100% so I'm actually looking forward to taper rather than dreading it!

Weekly Rundown Speed Phase Week 10

Goal:

Total Mileage 60 - 65.

Tuesday: Track.
Thursday: Tempo run on roads 6 miles @ 6:20 pace.
2 days @ 7:50 - 8:20 or slower at the end of one of these days do 4 - 6 * 100.
2 days @ 7:20 - 7:40.
Long Run: 12 miles @ 7:00
Sunday: 8 - 10 miles (Race + miles) or Long run.

How it played out:

66 miles for the week

Monday-8 miles 8:30 pace with 4*100
Tuesday-11.5 with track
Wednesday-10 miles 7:19 pace
Thursday-10.5 with tempo
Friday-6 at 8:23
Saturday-12 at 6:58
Sunday-2 mile warm up 3 mile cool down with 5k at 17:50.1 PR!

Track:

Goal 12*400 at 1:24 with 60 second rests then 4*200 with 200 jogs targeting 39.

1:23.73
1:23.32
1:21.19
1:23.65
1:22.19
1:23.01
1:22.68
1:23.65
1:22.15
1:22.57
1:18.59 (NC made me do it)
1:16.05

39.67
38.95
38.30
36.15 (Once again NC's doing)

Tempo: Goal 6 at 6:20.

Another less than stellar tempo effort. Need to fix this. I don't know why but I seem to really struggle with every 3rd or 4th tempo. The new course is harder but I was just juiced after that 3rd mile/hill. *Note Wednesday's run was hilly soft surface, probably ran a bit too hard given a tempo was planned for the next day.

6:18.72
6:13.59
6:32.61 (uphill mile)
6:15.08 (downhill mile)
6:29.00 (I stopped at .5 of this mile and took a 2 minute walk break and then just ran the last 1.5 as hard as I could)
6:26.04