Speedwork Wednesday 7/21/10

Since todays training was a bit more complicated, I elected to set up a workout on my garmin watch. Note to self: Dont do it at 1030 pm when very tired. I got it set up okay but didnt discover til midworkout, I forgot to change some distance values and the last 4 steps were wrong.

My plan called for a total of 5 miles: 1 mile warm up run, 1/2 mile at 4:52 pace, 1/4 mile recovery jog (This set done 4 times totaling 3 miles) and then a cool down mile. I was tired and drug out by last nights drama. I did manage to get a 9.11 mile bike ride in despite it all, at a 4:39 pace. So that was a great way to burn off stress but not so great for getting to bed early.

So getting up wasnt on the early side, I think I got up around 630 and made it out the door by 7 am. It was nice and cool to start with, so that was nice. I was feeling a bit sore yet from the biking, so I made sure I did my half mile warm up walk. I did the first running mile in a little over 12 minute pace.

Then the fun began. I began running my pace halves. The first two tenths of mile sped on by and I thought (mistakenly of course) that this wasnt too bad. The other 3/10ths though drug on and on and on. I did the first speed half in 4:55! Then the recovery jog -- somehow that .25 of a mile goes by super fast when the speedy stuff goes super slow. Hmmmm! The next interval, I hit my target right on and did a 4:52. I was super pleased with that. I deliberately picked a route with hills, as I figured races generally have them.

Heres where my late night set up comes into play. The next interval had a distance of a mile instead of a half. So I thought maybe i could run the half and skip ahead to the next step. I couldnt figure out how to do that and I had a horrible sideache after the 3rd half mile interval, so I elected to walk the other half of that mile. It really didnt help my sideache at all though. I kept trying to deep breath and get it to go away, but it really plagued me for most of the rest of the run. Running in pain , really, isnt so much fun.

I was hoping that i just messed up on the one step and could go ahead to the next .25 interval, but nope that was set for a mile too. So i reversed some steps and did my cool down mile next. Not quite what was intended but hey it worked. I then did the last half mile interval and recovery jog with a little extra added in to make sure I made 5 miles of running. I kept going til my Garmin hit 5:52, that way the half mile of walking didnt reduce my running total. So I didnt end up with the 3rd interval time but I was aiming for the same pace. I did my cool down mile in the 12 minute range and then did the 4th interval in 4:56. Overall I was pleased that I hit the pace time within a few seconds!

It definitely was hard and I was feeling it -- when I finished I was sore! So two day break and then another 7 miler on Saturday. Our race is coming up about 2.5 weeks. I cant wait to see how this training effects my total race time!

Keep on running,
Mrs. F