Woe is me.
When I screw up a hard workout, I REALLY screw it up.
I was supposed to run 10 miles with 4x1200 intervals at 5k pace on Wednesday. Chris and I ran 11 miles the previous day, and in talking to my long run friends throughout the day Wednesday it was determined that we'd do our long run, 20 miles, on Sunday instead of Saturday. Phew. That meant I could move my speed session to Thursday and enjoy a recovery day on Wednesday. Ahh..
However, that meant I wouldn't have a running buddy to join me. No worries though. Extra easy day will make up for that!
Next issue was getting on a track that wasn't being occupied by high school football practice. But then, at work I had the option to leave at 1 p.m. since I had to come in on Sunday. Perfect! No practice at 1 p.m.
Guess how hot it was at 1 p.m.? 87 degrees. Barf. No thank you. I went home, after a failed attempt at getting a session of recovery boots where the person in front of me was allowed to start their session 20 minutes late, thus pushing mine back as well. Not that anyone bothered to tell me that until what was 20 minutes into my session. But I digress.
I decided I would just do my workout around Tea. I mapped a little one mile loop near home so I could grab water and change shoes as needed. And then I procrastinated it. Setting out at 8 p.m. And I hadn't eaten since 1 p.m. First mistake.
Second mistake: do you know how dark it gets these days? Very dark. Do you know how much of my extremely high property taxes goes towards street lights in this town? Very little to none.
But still, I was ready to rock it!
Three mile warm up felt great, despite the heavy humidity and still warm temps. I came home to switch out shoes for my first interval, grabbed my nox vest and my headlamp because it was pitch black out.
Started my first interval and my shoes felt terrible. I'd only wore them on the track and I started to get really nervous that I was going to hurt myself this close to the marathon. I did an out and back from my house to change back into my shoes. And by then my goose was cooked.
I was starving. I couldn't see the street I was running on, despite my headlamp in my hand. I couldn't make myself run fast without seeing the road.
And each and every interval got slower and slower. The fourth one being slower than my last 5k pace in the Sioux Falls half marathon, at the end of 18 miles. Uff. I desperately wanted to quit early, and I definitely didn't want to finish my 2.5 cool down miles. But I did it anyway.
Miles are miles even when they don't go as planned.
The best part about a really crappy training session is that a unicorn run is usually just around the corner. So I'm waiting! I'll take it October 7th, if I'm able to pre-select it. Thanks!
Showing posts with label intervals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label intervals. Show all posts
Thursday, September 20, 2018
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Kisses to Ze Track
I'm in love with Princess Leia. Since my car took a giant poo on me, I got to spend a ton of time riding her to and from work last week. Recently I redid my training program so I could have Sundays devoted to my biking day. My running/biking buddy is trying to get me to do a 30 mile "recovery ride" with the area bike club, so I've been trying to do longer rides so I could hang with the cool kids. Sunday I set out to do 20-25. Of course, I set out to do the ride after laying on the couch for hours alternating between apple juice, water, and gatorade to restore my hydration levels. Oh, also giving plenty of attention to my DVR that has been sorely neglected as of late.
Miss Jenn had just gotten back in to town and wanted to hang out so I decided I'd bike to her (with some extra miles thrown in) and then bike home when I was done. Obviously not the ideal way to get 20 miles in, but hanging out is more important than biking. :) Aaron had adjusted my seat height a couple days prior so this was my first ride post-adjustment. It made all of the difference. I felt way more comfortable on the bike, the seat felt more comfortable, and I felt a lot more steady. I tried to focus on keeping my speed up and not being such a wuss with slowing down for twists and turns on the trail. Success!
Of course, after hanging out much too late the sun was setting as I was leaving Jenn's, so I knew I was going to have to get only 20 miles total in. Let me say that biking at dusk with the fireflies lighting up the trail has got to be the most beautiful thing in the world. Yes, it's also one of the least safe things in the world, but we'll forget that part for now. I saw a baby deer, that I scared the hell out of. And then saw his giant dad a mile or two later. Then I started getting really concerned about hitting a deer on my bike. I'm deathly afraid of driving at dusk because I'm so afraid of hitting a deer. Fairly certain that hitting one on my bike would destroy my bike, and potentially also myself.
I did the 20 miles in 1:25:04 for a pace of 14.11 mph.
My fastest mile was 16.3 mph zoooooooooom!
And my maximum pace was 22.7 mph (yes, I was probably squeezing my brakes throughout. baby steps people.)
Monday I hit the track for 8 x 400 meter repeats (6:28-6:48 pace). Upon arriving to the track I noticed a few things: 1) it was hot. 2) I failed to bring any water. Excellent. I started in on my slow warm up mile and I was throwing down some serious sweat droplets.
During my first 400, at roughly the 200 m. mark I felt a spark of pain in my right hip (similar to the pain the last time I did 400 meter repeats...fail). I let up on the pace a little bit, and stretched out once I finished the 400 before going in to my 400 meter recovery jog. I decided that I would revamp the work out to 800's instead of 400's using last week's pace guidelines. Once the 800's were over, I felt the legs were loose enough to try another 400, and then 2 x 200's. All repeats had a 400 m. jog in between them, except the 200's which had 200 m. jogs. Following here?
warm up mile-9:28
400-1:43 (6:52 pace)
800-3:45 (7:30 pace)
800-3:41 (7:14 pace)
800-3:41 (7:22 pace)
400-1:47 (6:52 pace)
200-:49 (6:17)
200-:49 (6:49)
**These paces are factored on the actual distance (some were .01 long, so that's why the math doesn't quite add up.) The 2nd 400 felt fine, so for future training, I will make sure that I do an 800 m. interval prior to starting 400's to make sure my legs are nice and warmed up. It's not surprising that my body would have troubles going from a 9:30 pace to a 6:30 pace.
I did the 5 miles in 45:59 for a pace of 9:12.
It was the strangest thing, while doing one of my repeats, the smell of grilled meat filled the air. As you may know, I'm not the biggest fan of meat. But I wanted some right.that.minute. It was insane. I compromised with myself that if I ran hard for the rest of the speed work, I could get some meat for dinner. Go figure, as soon as I was done, meat sounded as nasty as it normally does. Silly tummy.
Miss Jenn had just gotten back in to town and wanted to hang out so I decided I'd bike to her (with some extra miles thrown in) and then bike home when I was done. Obviously not the ideal way to get 20 miles in, but hanging out is more important than biking. :) Aaron had adjusted my seat height a couple days prior so this was my first ride post-adjustment. It made all of the difference. I felt way more comfortable on the bike, the seat felt more comfortable, and I felt a lot more steady. I tried to focus on keeping my speed up and not being such a wuss with slowing down for twists and turns on the trail. Success!
Of course, after hanging out much too late the sun was setting as I was leaving Jenn's, so I knew I was going to have to get only 20 miles total in. Let me say that biking at dusk with the fireflies lighting up the trail has got to be the most beautiful thing in the world. Yes, it's also one of the least safe things in the world, but we'll forget that part for now. I saw a baby deer, that I scared the hell out of. And then saw his giant dad a mile or two later. Then I started getting really concerned about hitting a deer on my bike. I'm deathly afraid of driving at dusk because I'm so afraid of hitting a deer. Fairly certain that hitting one on my bike would destroy my bike, and potentially also myself.
I did the 20 miles in 1:25:04 for a pace of 14.11 mph.
My fastest mile was 16.3 mph zoooooooooom!
And my maximum pace was 22.7 mph (yes, I was probably squeezing my brakes throughout. baby steps people.)
During my first 400, at roughly the 200 m. mark I felt a spark of pain in my right hip (similar to the pain the last time I did 400 meter repeats...fail). I let up on the pace a little bit, and stretched out once I finished the 400 before going in to my 400 meter recovery jog. I decided that I would revamp the work out to 800's instead of 400's using last week's pace guidelines. Once the 800's were over, I felt the legs were loose enough to try another 400, and then 2 x 200's. All repeats had a 400 m. jog in between them, except the 200's which had 200 m. jogs. Following here?
warm up mile-9:28
400-1:43 (6:52 pace)
800-3:45 (7:30 pace)
800-3:41 (7:14 pace)
800-3:41 (7:22 pace)
400-1:47 (6:52 pace)
200-:49 (6:17)
200-:49 (6:49)
**These paces are factored on the actual distance (some were .01 long, so that's why the math doesn't quite add up.) The 2nd 400 felt fine, so for future training, I will make sure that I do an 800 m. interval prior to starting 400's to make sure my legs are nice and warmed up. It's not surprising that my body would have troubles going from a 9:30 pace to a 6:30 pace.
I did the 5 miles in 45:59 for a pace of 9:12.
It was the strangest thing, while doing one of my repeats, the smell of grilled meat filled the air. As you may know, I'm not the biggest fan of meat. But I wanted some right.that.minute. It was insane. I compromised with myself that if I ran hard for the rest of the speed work, I could get some meat for dinner. Go figure, as soon as I was done, meat sounded as nasty as it normally does. Silly tummy.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
I'm seriously drowning....
...in my own sweat. YUCK! I will be honest, I am a sweaty person. I blame my parents, they both sweat at the drop of a hat, and I'm no different. I've always been the sweatiest person on the basketball court or volleyball court, and for sure the sweatiest runner. I was once told that you sweat more the better shape you're in. If that's the case, I'm in TIP TOP SHAPE. All of my grey tee's are put away during the summer because it's just not cute to pit out if you're a girl. :(
With that being said, I could literally wring out my shirt after my run today, and almost half of the run was done INSIDE. Whoa is me, seriously. It was pretty similar weather as yesterday, mid-60's with 97% humidity. I think sweat droplets formed as I was stretching outside. Ick. Today was 8 x 400 at mile pace. Again I decided to run to my gym as my "warm-up." I'm secretly obsessed with my weekly/monthly mileage so it's nice to get in another 2.75 miles on these "sprint" days. The run to the gym was 1.37 miles in 17:45. Although I think the Garmin was off. It "lost satellite" for a minute while I was running under an overpass, and my first mile ended up being an 8 mm split, which was not the case. Probably closer to 9mm I'd imagine. Or slower even.
When I got to the gym I was SWEATY. I got some stretching in and hopped on the treadmill.
2 @ 1:42 (6:48 pace)
2 @ 1:41 (6:44 pace)
1 @ 1:40 (6:40 pace)
1 @ 1:39 (6:36 pace)
1 @ 1:38 (6:32 pace)
1 @ 1:36 (6:24 pace)
For an average pace of 6:40. In between each quarter, I walked .1 and to de-sweat. Ha. I did mess up on #7 by only running .2, so I ran .3 on #8 (at a faster speed, ugh). But I'm too lazy to calculate that out, so I took the easy way.
My legs were tired. But I still needed to get home. I headed home on the bike trail since it was light enough (it's too dark, in my opinion, to run them on the way there) and felt like I was crawling. It was miserable. 1.38 miles in 12:29.
When I got home I looked in the mirror and had to laugh. I had some serious raccoon eyes. I used a new mascara yesterday, and it must not have washed off all the way last night! I'm hoping it ran on my run home from the gym, but I'm guessing I looked like a fool AT the gym when everyone was wondering why I put on eye make up for the gym. WHOOPS. Oh well. I had to laugh. :)
For my post-run breakfast, I made my first ever green monster. It was delish. I've made some protein smoothies in the past (frozen strawberries & banana, ice, a splash of vanilla soy milk, and 1/2 scoop of protein powder) but this was my first with a healthy heaping handful of spinach. It was delish. Honestly, it tastes the same as the ones without. Plus it was my favorite color. :) Too bad I was running too late to snatch a picture. I could use a nice photo to break up this monotonous text (which apparently is a pet peeve of some, who knew!!) :)
I love me some speed work, but I swear I'm always starving for the rest of the day. Keep your fingers crossed for no storms so I can watch some men's softball, and for goodness sake humidity, go away!!
P.S. If you haven't seen Taken you totally should. We watched it last night and it was AWESOME!
With that being said, I could literally wring out my shirt after my run today, and almost half of the run was done INSIDE. Whoa is me, seriously. It was pretty similar weather as yesterday, mid-60's with 97% humidity. I think sweat droplets formed as I was stretching outside. Ick. Today was 8 x 400 at mile pace. Again I decided to run to my gym as my "warm-up." I'm secretly obsessed with my weekly/monthly mileage so it's nice to get in another 2.75 miles on these "sprint" days. The run to the gym was 1.37 miles in 17:45. Although I think the Garmin was off. It "lost satellite" for a minute while I was running under an overpass, and my first mile ended up being an 8 mm split, which was not the case. Probably closer to 9mm I'd imagine. Or slower even.
When I got to the gym I was SWEATY. I got some stretching in and hopped on the treadmill.
2 @ 1:42 (6:48 pace)
2 @ 1:41 (6:44 pace)
1 @ 1:40 (6:40 pace)
1 @ 1:39 (6:36 pace)
1 @ 1:38 (6:32 pace)
1 @ 1:36 (6:24 pace)
For an average pace of 6:40. In between each quarter, I walked .1 and to de-sweat. Ha. I did mess up on #7 by only running .2, so I ran .3 on #8 (at a faster speed, ugh). But I'm too lazy to calculate that out, so I took the easy way.
My legs were tired. But I still needed to get home. I headed home on the bike trail since it was light enough (it's too dark, in my opinion, to run them on the way there) and felt like I was crawling. It was miserable. 1.38 miles in 12:29.
When I got home I looked in the mirror and had to laugh. I had some serious raccoon eyes. I used a new mascara yesterday, and it must not have washed off all the way last night! I'm hoping it ran on my run home from the gym, but I'm guessing I looked like a fool AT the gym when everyone was wondering why I put on eye make up for the gym. WHOOPS. Oh well. I had to laugh. :)
For my post-run breakfast, I made my first ever green monster. It was delish. I've made some protein smoothies in the past (frozen strawberries & banana, ice, a splash of vanilla soy milk, and 1/2 scoop of protein powder) but this was my first with a healthy heaping handful of spinach. It was delish. Honestly, it tastes the same as the ones without. Plus it was my favorite color. :) Too bad I was running too late to snatch a picture. I could use a nice photo to break up this monotonous text (which apparently is a pet peeve of some, who knew!!) :)
I love me some speed work, but I swear I'm always starving for the rest of the day. Keep your fingers crossed for no storms so I can watch some men's softball, and for goodness sake humidity, go away!!
P.S. If you haven't seen Taken you totally should. We watched it last night and it was AWESOME!
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