Archive for February, 2009

Yesterday was supposed to be a 6-miler with hill sprints at the end. I felt like crap once I got out the door though, partly from a lack of sleep (we went to my best pal’s 50th birthday party in NYC Sunday night) and partly thanks to my “lady time”.

I couldn’t even deal with 6 lousy miles. I cut it at 4.5, though I did manage 4 hill sprints because I’d have been pissed at myself if I didn’t at least attempt them. They were completely anti-climatic, little 10-second nothings, but whatever, I did ‘em.

Then last night, I was thinking about this 4x2k@10k workout, realizing I’ve never done 5 miles of speedwork because, well…it sounds horrible. And if I’m not exactly fond of long intervals, why do 1.25 mile ones? So I compromised and made it 4xmile@10k pace w/3min jog recoveries.

It turned out to be one of my better workouts. Somehow, the dreaded mile intervals weren’t as heinous as in the past. My goal was 7:09/mi. They went 7:11, 7:01, 7:04, 7:07 – Average pace 7:05.

Looks like Sub 45:00 on March 1st is a likelihood. Cool.

My Frankensteinian approach to the next couple weeks (taking Hudson’s final two weeks of his 10K plan and supplanting them in my Half training) looks to be quite a lot of fun, though challenging. This week goes like this:

Today I’m finally getting around to Hudson’s signature workout, Hill Sprints. He loves hillwork but those are the easiest workouts for me to bag, partly because my closest hill is an afternoon hangout for miscreants and partly because I’m lazy. The sprints are just tiny 8-second things, but with a promise of stronger muscles, injury prevention and power gained, I can ignore it no longer. So today’s an easy 6-miler with a few of these sprints near the end. Hopefully, the condom count on the road will be down from last summer.

Tomorrow’s speed session looks pretty entertaining: 2miles easy, then 4x2k@10k pace w/3min recoveries, 2 miles cooldown. I was a little nervous when I first saw 4x2k (5 miles of speedwork is as hard it gets), but the fact that it’s 10K pace and not 5K pace is the saving grace. Still, I’m sure I’ll be adequately miserable by the third one.

Tempo fun this week consists of: 2 easy, 2x10min at Half/10K w/2min recoveries, then 8×200 at 3k pace w/200m recoveries, 1 mile easy. Interesting variety there.

Then on Sunday, I’ve got a 15-mile progression run, last 15 minutes “hard” though I’ll likely change it to “moderate” since at this point in the plan it only calls for a 9-mile LR anyway and I think I may just be a tad pooped by the time Sunday rolls around.

Add to this 3 easy runs and 3 pushup challenge days and that covers it. Oh, but I forgot the sitting. I plan on doing lots of sitting all week. It’s a tough workout, but worth it.

I described today’s tempo run a couple posts down, but upon rereading the plan, realized that Hudson really meant 2 x 15min at Half to 10K pace w/1min rec. Nevertheless, my original plan (15min@Half pace, 1 min rec., 15min@10K pace) sounded really good to me so that’s what I did, along with about 4.5 miles warmup/cooldown.

The Half pace section came in at 7:29/mi, then I jogged lightly for a min and did the second 15mins at 7:09/mi. My HR on the first section averaged 171 (82%WHR) and on the 10K section averaged 178 (85%WHR). According to my fabulous Greg Maclin’s HR Excel sheet, this fits in perfectly with the respective race paces, so…yay!

I still have lots of time to work on my Half pace so that’s pretty cool. My 10K, on the other hand, is just a couple weeks away, so not a lot to be done, but I might be able to make a small dent. We shall see. In any case, it was a strong session today and I’m satisfied with it.

Now for an evening out, a little wine, friends and food and I’d call this the perfect day. Hope yours is shaping up to be a great one, too. Talk to you later, folks.

We are greedy bastards, Nick and I. We couldn’t wait for Valentine’s Day to open presents.

I already knew what I was getting because I’d asked for it. Remember that iPod Shuffle I resurrected a month ago? It worked pretty well for a few weeks, though it had to go back on the cradle immediately after a run or the battery would die. Then last week, it stopped connecting to the computer except to charge, so I could still use it, but there was no way to get songs on or off it anymore.

Sure, my other mp3 player still works (albeit a sticky volume control), but using the Shuffle again got me reattached to its ultimate cuteness and simplicity. Plus, they now offer a 2 gig version and my music library is over a gig. So I asked for a 2 gig Shuffle, taking my chances that come summer, I might fry this one with sweat, too. But I think I can circumvent that with plastic wrap at the headphone jack and if that doesn’t work, I know to dip it in water immediately after it poops out.

My favorite part of the gift though, is Nick’s inscription. They only allow you a certain number of letters so it says “No speed limits on road to excellence”. Like a little running fortune cookie.

He was happy with his gift, too. I got him a cute zip-up jacket from Banana Republic that fits like a charm and looks tres cool, so it’s all happiness and love over here. Friday the 13th was never this romantic.

Aside from that, I just completed my first week (Day 3) of the pushups challenge and I love it! When I did my initial test, I could only do 9 pushups (hey, I’m an old lady). Today’s workout was 8, 10, 7, 7 and 14. Woohoo! Bat wings be gone! Or at least diminished…that’s all I ask.

There’s a High Wind Warning today, 30mph winds gusting to 55 or 60. Considering how the windows are rattling, I’ve no problem taking the day off. Besides, yesterday was a 10-miler that left me hot and tired. I brought my small water bottle but it got up to 65 degrees, so I finished it off too early in the run and of course, the water fountains aren’t on yet.

On the good note, I’m excited because I feel like this is the first solid week of Half training. I got in a great VO2max session, started my first round of midweek medium LRs with yesterday’s 10 and I’ve still got a tempo to look forward to.

I was going to do my tempo tomorrow but the winds are still going to be kicking around 20mph and I don’t need the extra stress. So tomorrow will be an easy and then tempo on Saturday. The only pisser with that is that once again, it will precede my long run, which would be more comfy on fresher legs, but them’s the breaks.

The tempo I’m doing will be a new one on me. I always run my tempos as one continuous section but this week I’ll be doing my tempo ala Hudson: 15 min. at Half pace, 1 minute recovery then 15 min. at 10K pace. I find this a little weird, because I thought that the idea behind tempo intervals is that you run them faster than a straight tempo, which makes Half pace kinda slow. But it’ll be a good exercise to “try on” the different paces, especially with a 10k coming up soon.

Time to go make breakfast, a meal that has expanded into a fun list of choices now that I’m eating better. Used to be I’d always eat a bowl of cereal. Yawn. Today it’s an omelet with broccoli and mushrooms plus a couple pieces of toast with Light Laughing Cow cheese. Tonight I’m making a yummy recipe from my Women’s BQ forum buddy, Jackie…Harvest Time Turkey Loaf with mashed potatoes and zucchini. The eatin’ is good here at Flo’s Diner.

It was a hard, yet satisfying interval session: 5 x 1000 with 2min. recoveries (I jogged the first two, walked the second two).

Before I began the session, I followed Audra’s (aka Doggie Poo’s) swell advice to mark the path with duct tape so I would know where the hell to stop and start.  It worked a charm, thanks Audra!

Cut to the chase, my splits were:
4:19 (6:56/mi)
4:09 (6:40/mi)
4:18 (6:55/mi)
4:13 (6:47/mi)
4:20 (6:58/mi)
Average 4:15 (6:50/mi)

Finally, I am hanging out with the Sixes!! Woohoo!!

On top of this, remember yesterday I mentioned that sub 1:40 Half thread I joined?  In there is a wonderful guy, Mick, who’s deep into Heart Rate monitoring and analyzing the results…the guy knows his stuff.  In looking at my HR data and the fact that I reached 192 at the end of the last interval (supposedly 98% of my Max) he thinks my Max is higher than I’ve been calling it.

I established my max from my first race when it hit 193 and then added a couple points, so 195.  From the HR graph of today’s workout however, he thinks it’s probably 200.  This is wonderful news!  It means that some of the guilt I feel for not holding back enough on easy runs is for naught.   My monitored runs will now be accompanied by a clearer conscience.

As for my current Half plan, I had a fun time last night messing around with the schedule.  As you know, I’m doing a Hudson-type plan (“type” because he’s all about adapting it to suit instead of doing it exactly as written).  I was still hemming and hawing on the next few weeks, because at this point in his plan, he only requires short fartlek stuff for speedwork when I’m capable and wanting to do meatier stuff.

Out of curiosity, I thumb to the 10K plans section of the book, because I have a 10k coming up in 3 weeks.  Lo and behold, it works out perfectly to take the last 3 weeks of the 10K plan and plop them into my current schedule.  Now I feel I have some meat to play with.  What more could a girl want?