Getting behind on all things blogging here!
Despite the race last week and technically being in taper mode over here I decided to try and get in two more quality workouts if my legs (and foot) were on board.
Tuesday I leaned heavily towards bailing on my planned 12* 90 second hill repeats but in the end decided to go forward with the workout after having warmed up for 5 miles with my lunch group and feeling a boost of energy. I managed to get in all 12 repeats with 90 second rests and wasn't overly worried by the extremely tight state of my calf and foot as I had an ART session following the workout. I had the garmin on but opted not to watch the pace too closely and didn't hit the laps until the end of each 3 minute hard/easy cycle to keep from getting down on myself. Clearly my legs were tired from Sunday still, but I wanted to try and get a little bit of turnover going on the downhills and hoping for one last fitness boost from the hills without doing any damage. Mission achieved.
Yesterday was my last official tempo before the race and I was hoping to do 5 miles at 6:16ish. Went out with the goal of running a steady 5 between 6:15 and 6:25 and hoping for a fast finish if the weather and my legs played nice. I settled for a steady 6:15 and had to work for every ounce of the last mile in 6:19 heading into a 16 mph head/cross wind. I am thinking it was okay to go a little wild, it probably won't build any fitness for the race, but hoping it will help keep me sharp and was another good mental workout running the 5 solo and steady at a decent clip.
6:15.05
6:07.17
6:18.71
6:14.92
6:19.60
Showing posts with label hills. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hills. Show all posts
Tuesday Strength Intervals
Changed it up Tuesday and instead of doing straight hill repeats I decided to just run one of the downtown bridges. Mostly so I wouldn't be running by myself in the ghetto. It worked out perfectly as I wanted to do at least 4 sets of 5 minutes on with 2-3 minute recovery jogs and the first repeat I finished the bridge in exactly 5:02 so it was easy to just run the bridge as my interval and have everything right around 5 minutes. The bridge is a little over .8 miles long and on the first, 3rd, and 5th repeats it is steeper but shorter up with a longer gradual down and the opposite on the way back and into the wind. For whatever reason for me that meant the way back was a bit slower despite the same effort. I had no garmin so I was just going based off feel. I wanted them to feel like relatively hard mile repeats and I pretty much nailed it getting slightly faster each repeat while working hard the whole workout. I felt good enough to tackle a 5th repeat and surprised myself making it the fastest of the day despite feeling pretty worked over.
It was a fantastic day out and the foot was a little angry but the pace seemed to be right at the line I can get away with without having to limp back to the office.
5:02.07 (2:07)
5:18.95 (2:03)
5:00.93 (2:03)
5:15.71 (2:00)
4:55.28
It was a fantastic day out and the foot was a little angry but the pace seemed to be right at the line I can get away with without having to limp back to the office.
5:02.07 (2:07)
5:18.95 (2:03)
5:00.93 (2:03)
5:15.71 (2:00)
4:55.28
Tuesday Hill Work
I've been reading Ron Daws "Running your best : the committed runner's guide to training and racing" (on advice of a Michigan running buddy) and I have been intrigued by the Lydiard-esque hill training he recommends. In an ideal world I would have time to do a huge build up for Philly and work on the appropriate systems for a few week blocks etc but since I don't have that luxury I am just trying some new stuff to see if I like it and if I will want to use it in the future. The next few weeks I am trading out track for hill workouts since somewhere below 10k pace is where my foot gets angry. I also buy into the statement Daws makes that hill training may be one of the only true shortcuts to fitness and I am willing to take a chance on it since Philly has some hills anyways!
With it getting dark early now I decided I would just find a decent hill on the lunch route to do this.
I actually had to take the book back to the library so I kind of winged it yesterday and did a sort of modified workout. I skipped the bounding type stuff and just did some hard effort repeats up and down the hill getting a bit longer with each repeat. I ran hard up 4* followed by about 2 minute recoveries and then down hard 3 times with about a 200 meter push at the bottom flat section followed by about 90 second recoveries. The 4th downhill I only made it halfway before the group caught back up so I just did half downhill and headed directly back up hard and followed that with a 30 second stride to finish it out.
I was giddy like a schoolgirl for this workout. I miss pushing myself hard and it was fun to hammer up and down the hills feeling powerful again while not doing any damage. Hopefully Thursdays tempo is just as fun!
With it getting dark early now I decided I would just find a decent hill on the lunch route to do this.
I actually had to take the book back to the library so I kind of winged it yesterday and did a sort of modified workout. I skipped the bounding type stuff and just did some hard effort repeats up and down the hill getting a bit longer with each repeat. I ran hard up 4* followed by about 2 minute recoveries and then down hard 3 times with about a 200 meter push at the bottom flat section followed by about 90 second recoveries. The 4th downhill I only made it halfway before the group caught back up so I just did half downhill and headed directly back up hard and followed that with a 30 second stride to finish it out.
I was giddy like a schoolgirl for this workout. I miss pushing myself hard and it was fun to hammer up and down the hills feeling powerful again while not doing any damage. Hopefully Thursdays tempo is just as fun!
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