Today was speedwork. The running plan is going okay. Not great. I've had to do lots of reshuffling. However, reshuffling is better than throwing my hands in the air and giving up, so I'm seeing this as a positive thing.
Anyway, today was speedwork. And it was not easy. I went to the gym to use the treadmill. The workout itself should not have been that hard: it was mostly at a fast speed, but not very far.
I did not feel well. At all. Also I was very sweaty.
I was ready to throw in the towel (towels are mandatory at my gym) and concede that I let myself get too out of shape. Maybe the time had come to hold back on this training plan. Then I looked at the thermostat.
It was 26C. I think that they showed it in Celsius so that you wouldn't break down crying right then and there. That's almost 79F.
That's warmer than I keep my house.
Sure, it didn't kill me, but it felt very close. The good news: rumor has it that this experience should have made me stronger. We will see.
Showing posts with label Speed training. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Speed training. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Thursday, February 2, 2012
I can haz speedwork
Something important that I discovered between Sunday and today: the distance that I ran for my speedwork on Sunday was about twice as long as I was supposed to go. Hence why it was hard to run at 90% of my energy level. Today, I ran the right distance. And it was awesome. And I owned every interval. And I love speedwork. These are not words that you hear too often from a slow and steady runner.
Apart from the Speedwork of Awesome, I also ran three miles. It was just fine. Maybe a bit humid out, because I'm somewhat sweaty, but on a scale of 1-10, I think it gets around a 7. Also, I got out and ran, which was an achievement. I meant to go this morning, but for reasons unknown to me, I woke up last night at 3am and didn't get back to sleep for a long time. Today I even went in the dark and everything. Yay!
Could it be that I am gradually shaking off my running funk? Because that would be almost as awesome as speedwork.
Apart from the Speedwork of Awesome, I also ran three miles. It was just fine. Maybe a bit humid out, because I'm somewhat sweaty, but on a scale of 1-10, I think it gets around a 7. Also, I got out and ran, which was an achievement. I meant to go this morning, but for reasons unknown to me, I woke up last night at 3am and didn't get back to sleep for a long time. Today I even went in the dark and everything. Yay!
Could it be that I am gradually shaking off my running funk? Because that would be almost as awesome as speedwork.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Getting back with the program and shaking off the grizzly
Probably if you are a devotee of any sport, you have had good times and bad times. Maybe your training plans got derailed at some point. Maybe life intervened. Maybe you were injured.
I have to say that other than my running fallow period last spring, I really have been lucky for the most part. Usually, I don't get sick very often. I have yet to be injured in any significant way (I did once have the blackened toenail thing). Generally, I am pretty consistent with my training plans.
Except for the past month.
The past month was sick and tired and not good. If I had to sum it up, I think the one word that I would use is frustrating. And now that I am trying to get back in the swing of things, I feel like I am starting from scratch. Nothing feels right. My abs have seemingly disappeared. My legs appear to get all of 2 centimeters off the ground when I run. I feel like I have gained 800 pounds in the last month. That's right. I went from being somewhat zaftig to adding the weight of a grizzly bear, all between Thanksgiving and now. This is not an exaggeration. Okay, perhaps it's more like 5-10 pounds.
Grizzly or no, getting back into the swing of things is proving difficult. However, I am gradually getting back into the swing of things. Which is the point. Because no matter how much I whine about my running, it's weird how the whining seems to have little to no effect. Somehow, though, the training works.
Today was speedwork. I'm not going to lie: I was worried. It was similar to what I did last time around, mostly because I am basically using the same plan as last time around. However, there was a little less and more at the slower of the two speeds (10:30 mile split versus 10:00 mile split). It's still somewhat early in this training plan. I decided to go to the treadmill, since it's easier to ensure that you stay at pace, I find, when a treadmill is involved.
Also, I wore my Half Fanatics singlet, which arrived last week. On the one hand, I was a bit embarrassed since I feel like I am the size of a grizzly bear plus a zaftig person and I don't think I look like someone who ran an impressive, singlet-deserving number of half-marathons. On the other hand, I was all like, 'I'VE RUN AN IMPRESSIVE NUMBER OF HALF-MARATHONS AND HAVE THE SINGLET TO PROVE IT!' This mindset did help a bit. Although I have to say that getting through tonight's workout was less difficult than I thought it would be.
And that is the point: workouts are probably not as bad as I am anticipating. Even if they are, they will be over soon. And the only way ever to get better at them is to keep on training.
I would give myself encouragement by saying something like there is only one half to go, except that I got talked in to signing up for another half at the end of June. So maybe I am worthy of this singlet after all.
Oh, the other thing that I am doing is cross-training. I found a not-too-hard plan thanks to Runner's World that I can do in the comfort of my home. Except that skipping and ab-work is involved, neither of which are particularly comfortable. Skipping is really hard! How did I not notice this when I was a kid?
I have to say that other than my running fallow period last spring, I really have been lucky for the most part. Usually, I don't get sick very often. I have yet to be injured in any significant way (I did once have the blackened toenail thing). Generally, I am pretty consistent with my training plans.
Except for the past month.
The past month was sick and tired and not good. If I had to sum it up, I think the one word that I would use is frustrating. And now that I am trying to get back in the swing of things, I feel like I am starting from scratch. Nothing feels right. My abs have seemingly disappeared. My legs appear to get all of 2 centimeters off the ground when I run. I feel like I have gained 800 pounds in the last month. That's right. I went from being somewhat zaftig to adding the weight of a grizzly bear, all between Thanksgiving and now. This is not an exaggeration. Okay, perhaps it's more like 5-10 pounds.
Grizzly or no, getting back into the swing of things is proving difficult. However, I am gradually getting back into the swing of things. Which is the point. Because no matter how much I whine about my running, it's weird how the whining seems to have little to no effect. Somehow, though, the training works.
Today was speedwork. I'm not going to lie: I was worried. It was similar to what I did last time around, mostly because I am basically using the same plan as last time around. However, there was a little less and more at the slower of the two speeds (10:30 mile split versus 10:00 mile split). It's still somewhat early in this training plan. I decided to go to the treadmill, since it's easier to ensure that you stay at pace, I find, when a treadmill is involved.
Also, I wore my Half Fanatics singlet, which arrived last week. On the one hand, I was a bit embarrassed since I feel like I am the size of a grizzly bear plus a zaftig person and I don't think I look like someone who ran an impressive, singlet-deserving number of half-marathons. On the other hand, I was all like, 'I'VE RUN AN IMPRESSIVE NUMBER OF HALF-MARATHONS AND HAVE THE SINGLET TO PROVE IT!' This mindset did help a bit. Although I have to say that getting through tonight's workout was less difficult than I thought it would be.
And that is the point: workouts are probably not as bad as I am anticipating. Even if they are, they will be over soon. And the only way ever to get better at them is to keep on training.
I would give myself encouragement by saying something like there is only one half to go, except that I got talked in to signing up for another half at the end of June. So maybe I am worthy of this singlet after all.
Oh, the other thing that I am doing is cross-training. I found a not-too-hard plan thanks to Runner's World that I can do in the comfort of my home. Except that skipping and ab-work is involved, neither of which are particularly comfortable. Skipping is really hard! How did I not notice this when I was a kid?
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Thanksgiving Week
It was a somewhat busy Thanksgiving week. For instance, I went to a whole other country (okay, it was Canada, which is the country next door, but still). I did, however, get through my entire week of running and it was a big week for this plan: 6 miles on Tuesday, what wound up being 6 miles on Thursday (surprise!), 12 miles on Friday, and speedwork today (Sunday). I had to rearrange things due to travel, but at least everything got done.
The Thursday 6 miles was broken down as follows: 4 miles normal, then 0.5 miles fast, and 1.5 normal to finish. I did the fast quite fast. Plus it wound up being up a hill. A real hill, not a Florida hill (although nowhere on par with a California hill or a Pittsburgh hill or anything).
Other excitement during my week: I bought new shoes on Monday and tried them out on Tuesday. They seemed fine, so I took them to the foreign country. Surprise! They were not. I got back Thursday to find that they had viciously attacked my feet during my run. So I got to buy brand-new (expensive) running shoes in a foreign country. Yay! Ah well, these things happen sometimes. I have to say that these were my first skunky shoes in my running career, so probably I shouldn't complain too much.
The runs all went okay, although none was particularly great. I didn't have enough fueling stuff for the long run because I was out of my sport beans. By the end, I was hungry, which is a sign that you did not have enough en route. But that wasn't such a big deal since I wasn't too concerned about my time.
On to tapering! I am super excited about this since the past week wore me out.
The Thursday 6 miles was broken down as follows: 4 miles normal, then 0.5 miles fast, and 1.5 normal to finish. I did the fast quite fast. Plus it wound up being up a hill. A real hill, not a Florida hill (although nowhere on par with a California hill or a Pittsburgh hill or anything).
Other excitement during my week: I bought new shoes on Monday and tried them out on Tuesday. They seemed fine, so I took them to the foreign country. Surprise! They were not. I got back Thursday to find that they had viciously attacked my feet during my run. So I got to buy brand-new (expensive) running shoes in a foreign country. Yay! Ah well, these things happen sometimes. I have to say that these were my first skunky shoes in my running career, so probably I shouldn't complain too much.
The runs all went okay, although none was particularly great. I didn't have enough fueling stuff for the long run because I was out of my sport beans. By the end, I was hungry, which is a sign that you did not have enough en route. But that wasn't such a big deal since I wasn't too concerned about my time.
On to tapering! I am super excited about this since the past week wore me out.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Ha!
Last night I sat down and plotted out the training for the first of the four (eek!) half-marathons that I plan to run. No biggie, right? Just like doing two marathons in six months? Actually, I am feeling remarkably good about this whole thing, so BRING IT ON!
I chose a half-marathon plan from about.com, which is a first. It's called an advanced beginner plan, although I am not sure what that means...still looks considerably easier than the 'beginner' plan that I did for my last one. I'm having to start with the week where you do the 10M run to be ready in time, but that's okay. I'm still in decent shape from the last one, even though I took some time off in between. In fact, that might prove to be a blessing in disguise since it gave me a break.
Things are going to get hectic this week due to travel, so I opted to try the 'speed' training tonight. You run one mile as a warm-up, then do 2.5 at race pace, and finish with a mile cool down. This was going really well except that I ran the 2.5 much, much too fast to start. I think that this kind of training will require some practice for me since I've never tried to sustain my race pace for any amount of time before. It's a great exercise and one that I'm looking forward to improving. But today I didn't quite have it. I did meet my goal overall, but my pace was all over the place.
The weather felt great to start, a beautiful, Florida fall day. What I mean by a Florida fall day is that it was still in the 80s when I started (90s with the heat index), but that the humidity was a mere 70%-ish and the dew point only in the lower 70s. As I was running, the dew point went up to the mid-70s and the humidity increased because of storms in the area, meaning that the end of my run was above the threshold of ick--which might also account for why my pace dropped. And yet, it still felt about 100x better than the horribleness that was this summer. Right now, for instance, I don't feel as though I am going to die by melting into a smelly ball of sweat. Neat.
I chose a half-marathon plan from about.com, which is a first. It's called an advanced beginner plan, although I am not sure what that means...still looks considerably easier than the 'beginner' plan that I did for my last one. I'm having to start with the week where you do the 10M run to be ready in time, but that's okay. I'm still in decent shape from the last one, even though I took some time off in between. In fact, that might prove to be a blessing in disguise since it gave me a break.
Things are going to get hectic this week due to travel, so I opted to try the 'speed' training tonight. You run one mile as a warm-up, then do 2.5 at race pace, and finish with a mile cool down. This was going really well except that I ran the 2.5 much, much too fast to start. I think that this kind of training will require some practice for me since I've never tried to sustain my race pace for any amount of time before. It's a great exercise and one that I'm looking forward to improving. But today I didn't quite have it. I did meet my goal overall, but my pace was all over the place.
The weather felt great to start, a beautiful, Florida fall day. What I mean by a Florida fall day is that it was still in the 80s when I started (90s with the heat index), but that the humidity was a mere 70%-ish and the dew point only in the lower 70s. As I was running, the dew point went up to the mid-70s and the humidity increased because of storms in the area, meaning that the end of my run was above the threshold of ick--which might also account for why my pace dropped. And yet, it still felt about 100x better than the horribleness that was this summer. Right now, for instance, I don't feel as though I am going to die by melting into a smelly ball of sweat. Neat.
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