Posts Tagged ‘intervals’

I’m racing a 5K on the 30th and hope to get close to last year’s PR of 20:25, but have no expectations to exceed it.  Sub-20 is definitely on the radar this year and I’m confident it’ll be mine but not till Fall.

In the meantime, I had a speed session today, same as last week (8 x .25mi w/1mi recoveries) which was by design, since last week’s paces were all over the place and I wanted a basis for comparison.  Plus, it takes me a week or two to get used to faster running and this workout is a “no big deal” way to do that.

My splits, while not perfectly consistent, were eons better than last time:
1:37,1:35,1:39,1:35,1:37,1:38,1:38,1:38 (avg pace 6:28)

Three things helped:

1. The temperature was a lovely 60 degrees.  Interesting factoid: when it’s warm (last week was 75) my heart rate caps out low though the effort feels much harder.  Weird that, since you’d think the HR would be higher.

2. I did strides beforehand.  I know I should do this before every quality session, it gets your HR up and your body prepared for running faster. I will from now on, it really made a difference.

3. Confidence.  Last week, for all the crappy pacing and even though it was only 400s, that last fast one gave me an inkling that speed is indeed returning.  I needed that like nectar to a hummingbird.

Next two weeks I’ll do 6 x 800 w/ 90sec rec’s. and then my Half cycle begins!  Nice to be priming the pump before the heavy-duty work starts.  Though I must say, I’m pretty much doing what I’d do in a regular cycle anyway but it seems so casual and fun now, almost vacation-like.  Maybe it’s the weather.

Pill Popping
I’m not a huge pill-popper by nature, though I’ve been taking glucosamine and MSM since the IT band crap last summer.  This week I cut my glucosamine by half, so one pill instead of two.  So far, I’m not noticing anything different.  As for my MSM capsule, I’ll continue to take that daily but am open to seeing what’s what without these things.

I don’t think I mentioned that I started taking an Iron supplement a couple months ago.  I had my ferritin levels checked back in August which came out normal, but my mileage hadn’t reached the level it’s at now.  Also, I was still living with Nick at the time and ate red meat quite often.  I love red meat, so don’t think I’ve gone all veggie on you, but I’ve probably had it 3 times in the last 6 months.  I do eat a lot of fresh spinach but surprisingly, if you eat a whole bag of the stuff, it’s still only 30% of your daily requirement.  So anyway, I take an 18mg capsule daily.

Calcium is my other supplement – Viactiv chews, twice daily.  I wrote a whole blog piece two years ago on the different types of calcium and how this type (calcium carbonate) used to stop me up.  But now I eat so much more fiber and drink more liquids, I’m a great pooper.

Core Work Continued
I was doing those Runners World exercises for a couple weeks which are great, but I’ve started switching it up with one of my favorite exercise DVDs: Mari Winsor’s 20-minute Slimming Pilates.  It’s basically a fast-paced core workout that I love because she doesn’t chatter on, it goes boom boom boom, from one exercise to the next.

Group Thoughts
Today was a slow day on my running path, I only waved to about 7 people I knew.  Seriously.  I love my park because there are probably 35-40 regulars with whom I wave and exchange a couple words.  When we see each other in races or on the street, it’s a fun shot of recognition.

I was thinking about the whole “running with others” thing and while I enjoyed the outing, I’ll always be a lone runner at heart.  I’ll try to make the hill workout this Thursday because I like the idea of sharing a hard workout, but I guess I wanted to explain that while I’m out there on my own day-to-day, I’m surrounded by camaraderie every time I run.  So we’ll see how much running club action I get.  Maybe I need to work on my bar-hopping skills instead.

I’m enjoying my runs more than ever lately – without a huge scary race to worry about, the fun factor has gone up 10-fold.  In fact, I’m not taking a rest day this week so it looks like I’ll be around 65 miles by Sunday.  This is unexpected (was planning on keeping it mid-50s) but I’ll ride the wave and just keep doing what feels good.   Hell, I even considered doing a double the other day but gathered my wits about me to nip that one in the bud.

Monday was 7.5 easy, Tues 10.5 and Wednesday was my first speed session in a while (8 x .25mi with 1 minute recoveries, aiming for 6:35 pace).  It was a toasty 75 degrees and I’ve been out of the speed loop so I expected a rocky start…it was.  My first interval was a lethargic 6:56 pace but each one got progressively faster till my last one @ 6:16 pace.  The only reason I did that one so fast was a cute guy passed me earlier and I felt compelled to pass him back. Total for the run, 8.75 mi.

Yeah, it was some terribly erratic pacing but I’m just getting my feet back in the game, next week will surely be steadier.  I feel really good about the session – it’s the complete opposite of my first speedwork after the Philly Marathon when I went from bad to worse and had to abandon the workout entirely.

Yesterday was 9 easy and today was a tempo run.  I had planned on 7mi w/3 tempo but there was a huge regatta in the park, university rowers everywhere, so I couldn’t start my tempo till a couple miles beyond my usual start point so it ended up being 9 w/3 tempo.   The tempo miles were a tad slower than I wanted but I was doing some dodging and it was hot for me (near 70) so they went 7:11, 7:12 and 7:09, average 7:11.  Average for the entire run was 8:01.

Again, very satisfied with the session despite not hitting my intended pace target – like I say, it’s one more coin in the speed bank and every coin counts.  Also, the weekly recipe of 1 speed, 1 tempo, a medium long run and a long run is my favorite.  When I’m able to get all 4 in, I know I’m doing the best I can for myself.

Now, about Saturday’s group run and that vow…  The weather report says there’s a 50% chance of thunderstorms but it’s supposed to clear off by the afternoon.  So please don’t hold it against me if it’s thunderstorming and I don’t go clubbing tomorrow.  I’m genuinely excited about getting involved now so it won’t be because I’m trying to weasel out of it, I just want my intro run with them to include zero chance of electrocution.

Did my first proper (non-Billat) interval session in 6 weeks and am happy to say, saw a clear sign of progress, something I took for granted last year till it starting backing up on me like a gas station toilet.

Today’s session was 10.20mi total: 2.75mi to my interval spot, 5 x 1000 w/2min recoveries, then 3.25mi home.  The intervals averaged 4:07 (6:37 pace) and when I compare that to my last set of intervals 6 weeks ago (6×800 w/2min rec’s. averaging 6:54), that’s a solid improvement and getting closer to last Fall’s times.  Looks like the Billats were not spinning my wheels one bit.

Another happy thing about this workout was it’s only the 2nd time I’ve ever hit my max recorded HR of 193, which I was beginning to think I’d dreamt up.  The first and only other time it’s ever hit it was in 2007 at my first 5K and that’s what I’ve been basing my HR around (calling it 198 since it’s unlikely you ever hit 100%).

The interesting thing is that I once hit 192 a year ago, also doing 1000m intervals, so perhaps that particular distance draws it out of me better than any other.  It was 65 degrees today, so that probably helped sneak it up there, too.  All I know is, however it got up there it’s a relief since for quite a while now, my max HR has felt capped, that my tempos were reaching the same max as my speed sessions (too high for a tempo, too low for speed).

And for the record, I averaged 184 on those intervals.  Don’t want you to think my heart was about to explode or anything.

Weight
Yay! I finally hit my usual “normal” weight of 117.5 this week (4 lbs lost).  I haven’t been sacrificing much, just stopped buying cookies and candy and have been eating salad for most dinners – which I love.  I stick in a handful of walnuts and dried cranberries along with tons of veggies, so it’s not a sacrificial meal.  I’m still eating my nightly ice cream topped with sweet cereal for added yummy crunchiness.

Breakfast is usually a 5-grain hot cereal with tons of cinnamon and some sweet-n-low (nobody’s perfect), lunch is a turkey sandwich and I’ve been addicted to Bobbi’s Hummus (thanks Jenn!) so I eat that daily as a snack with crackers.  One main thing is I stopped buying huge bread.  Seriously, I was getting very large sliced bread which means more peanut butter or whatever you slather on there.

I was 119lbs. when I ran Philly but my best races last season were at 115.5, so it looks like I’ll be right there again for Boston.  As mentioned before, I hate to say this stuff with so many people having body issues, but it’s physics, so there’s no sense pretending it doesn’t make a difference.  And for those tsk-tsking readers (you know who you are) remember, I’m 5’4″…so 115 is not a radical body weight by any means but it will, unquestionably, be an important component to racing well.

The Wheelchair Lady
If you’re my friend on Facebook, you’ve already read about that lady on Tuesday.  As I was finishing up a 12-miler, a stones throw from my front door, a woman passed me in an electric wheelchair and called out, “run an extra mile for me!”.  If it wasn’t a couple days after the race with me feeling achy still, I would have, but I didn’t, I just wanted to stop.  And I got called out for it a tad.

Of course, I felt like shit for not doing it but I’m honest about my foibles and that was one.  So yesterday I ran 2 miles extra for her, did an 11 instead of the 9 I had planned.  Made me feel somewhat better but hey, I think we all know I’m a solid bitch at heart.  I got no problems with that, since I have enough sweetness to equal out.  hee hee

Boston Goal
Been thinking about this a bit and am hereby declaring it…3:25, nothing faster.  My race last Sunday calculates out to a 3:20:26 marathon but it was on a totally flat course, so I figure 5 minutes of leeway should do me alright.  If not, and I end up slowing down more, that’s cool too, I really don’t give a crap.

I’m looking forward to trying out my new marathon pace this Saturday since it’s slower than any of my goal MP workouts thus far.  I hope to see a very pretty number on the HR monitor.  That’ll tell me if I shouldn’t dumb it down further, which would suck since I walked such a large amount of Philly for a 3:33, but hey, it’ll be what it’ll be…the Heart knows.

Today was one of those days when everything goes right.

I had a voiceover in the morning at a studio that I don’t get a lot of work from, not for any reason but that I haven’t built up any relationships there, though they have my demo and that’s how I got this job.

Now, when you do voiceovers, the client is often there at the session – “client” usually meaning  the ad agency or whatever company has hired you, though sometimes the actual client client is there (meaning the company who hired the ad agency to begin with).  Then sometimes, like today, there’s no one but you and the engineer present, but the client (in this case the ad agency) does a phone patch, so they are able to be with you at the session without having to physically be in the studio.

Today’s session was uber fun because the ad agency fellow was a total sweetie, before I started he asked me all sorts of questions about my background, where I was from and things that didn’t have anything to do with the job.  When it got time to do the spot, they were so happy with it that one of the ad people, remembering I’d said I was from Arkansas, asked me to audition for another spot with a Southern accent.  So I may get another job from this one, plus the impression I left the engineer with was that I’m a pleasure to work with which will surely get passed to the higher-ups.

Oh, and I got a parking spot right in front of the building, which in downtown Philly is no small feat.  Then when I got home, I got a spot right in front of my apartment.  A lucky day.

Today’s run

48 degrees!! Capris and a top…heaven.  11mi w/Billat 30-30s (ended up doing 21 reps).

When I do a quality session it’s usually bookended with a pretty good chunk of miles – today, 6.75mi till I started the fast part.  Because I don’t want to “use myself up” before I get to the work, I always take those miles preceding it very easy – usually 8:45s before I get to the good stuff.  But today was different.

At about 2.5 miles, there was a large group of middle-school boys running on the path.  They weren’t too fast but to get past them, I sped up to around 8:15 pace.  After I passed, I considered slowing back down because I didn’t want to compromise the 30-30s but it hit me that I’ve been spending a lot of time in 8:30-8:45 land these days or sub 8:00s, but hardly any time at 8:15ish, though I did more of that last cycle.

It felt pretty good going that pace, easier than the 8:45s for some reason so I kept on.  Then, when it came time for the workout, I had no problems, in fact I was faster this week than last.  So, many thanks to the school boys, you helped me decide to do more 8:15ish runs in the next few weeks.

Arms and Legs

You know the arm/leg connection?  That if you move your arms faster, your legs will go faster as well?  I’ve known this tidbit for a long time but don’t make good use of it because 1. I always get the feeling that I’m wasting energy using the arms that way and 2. I’m not able to speed my arms up easily, it’s like the pace rut I mention above, making my arms move faster isn’t as easy as just thinking it, when you’re already going fast it seems like they’re moving as fast as they can.

But no.  This time I made a concerted effort to really pump my arms and let it see if it tuckered me out more or what.  The What is that I went fucking fast!  I had a few sub 6s in there, which I never do.  Yeah, it was only for 30secs each, but 5:xx is not something I ever see.  So I’ll be messing around with this again.  It’s not something I think is useful for regular marathony stuff (aside from the Billats, of course) but when I get to do 400s come Spring, I’ll see if it’s transferable.  I still think it makes you more tired but maybe that’s because you end up running faster in general.

So that’s my great day today.  Hope you guys had a great one, too!

Many thanks to Jim for turning me onto Veronique Billat’s workout, 30/30s.  It wasn’t till I got home and downloaded my HR data that I really got the point of what these are about.

When you read about or explain the Billats, it’s human nature to want to compare it to something recognizable, so you think it must be like strides or fartleks.  It’s neither.  It’s an ocean wave of running. 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off, 20 times.

The difference between Billats and strides/fartlek is that the latter give you true recovery.  With Billats, 30 seconds goes by in a flash, so while the work portions are fast, the recovery portions are seemingly over even faster.  You literally do not recover, however, you get enough of a break that you can complete another surge.

But enough talk, here’s the dirt:

This is a 5×1000 workout I did in October (I’m using this to compare because I’ve only done 800s this cycle and they compare even less favorably than this one).  My HR for the workout portion averaged 177 and hit 187 Max.  I spent 12:33 at 183.  It was 20:10 of hard running.

Here are today’s Billats (30sec on,30sec off)x20.  I started them at mile 6.75 of an 11-miler.  My HR for the workout portion averaged 181, hit 188Max and I spent 14:48 at 183.  It was 10 minutes of hard running.  Do you see?  I spent more time “in the zone” for 1/2 the amount of hard running as regular intervals! Wow.

Funny thing was, I had a preconceived notion that it couldn’t be as good a workout since 10 minutes sounds so paltry.  Truth is, the recoveries end up being included in the total time since your HR doesn’t have a chance to go down much. Who’d a thunk it?

Oh, and before anyone comments on how hard it’d be to keep track of that many intervals, it’s a simple matter of programming 30/30 or just 30 seconds into your Garmin or Ironman-type watch and setting it to repeat 20 or 40 times.  Easy schmeasy.

Before I close, I wanted to update you on my resting HR after the whole quitting-pot-heart-rate-escalation phenomena.  About a week and half ago, over 4 months since I quit, it finally, finally hit my old normal HR again.  I’m really shocked at how long it was affected but utterly relieved that it’s back to good ole 48, flirting on 47.  Took long enough.

It’s snowing outside again as I type this. Philly is very close to a record for most snow ever, so this is getting old.  Still, I have to thank the snow for some new found energy pumped into my running.

New route = a great find

I’ve mentioned how amazing the Parks dept is about clearing off the bike path so usually snow is not an obstacle, but after last weeks deluge, they surprisingly left it for a couple days so I was forced to change my usual route. No major complaints because they did clear off part of the river path going in the opposite direction so I still got my river fix, but it was a bit repetitive since I had a 2.75 mile loop to work with. I did this for 11 on Thursday and 8 on Friday.

Now, the good that came of it was that in order to get that loop, I ran on areas I’ve ignored in the past, one of which is a ramp that goes up to the museum. It’s about .07mi and Sporttracks tells me it’s 6.5% grade (with the elevation correction plugin since Garmin is an idiot when it comes to calculating elevation), so it’s short but quite sweet as far as adding in some convenient hillishness to my run.

Saturday was a 12-miler and most of the path had been cleared off so I was back to my usual route, though the icy sections made it more like a trail run in places, so again, I was quite pleased about the added difficulty.

Bits of gold in Runners World

That night, I finally cracked open the Runners World I bought. I never read that magazine though their forums are my online hangout, I rarely even look at what’s going on in the rest of their website. But I bought this issue because people were saying great things about the cover article on Kara Goucher. And my, oh my, it really is a wonderful article and I recommend everyone get their hands on it.

To find a world-class athlete has the same mental crap roaming around her brain as us regular runners was truly eye-opening and it hit me like a big fat hug from the Running Gods. Honestly, it gave me a new perspective on races, time and the future.

Another thing in the magazine that caught my eye was a speed workout article about developing a finishing kick. One of the workouts for marathoners consisted of 8-20 200m repeats at 5K pace. Now, that got me thinking about Jim who’s been doing Billats this cycle and seeing real progress with it. If you don’t know about Billats, read this article and this, it’s fascinating stuff. What it boils down to is that by doing short repeats with short recoveries, you actually stay in VO2max longer than if you did a longer workout.

Yesterday I played hooky

I felt enormously guilty about it but it was yet another cold, windy day and I was feeling cold in the apartment and frankly, just didn’t want to brave the elements. I appeased myself by realizing that my supposed cutback week had not really been a cutback at all, it turned out to be 58 miles and since I’m doing low 60s, that doesn’t qualify.  Blowing off yesterday’s 15 (I wouldn’t have blown off a 17-20) gave me 49.75 miles for the week…so a proper cutback.  Nothing lost though I still gave myself crap about it all day.

Today’s Workout, 11.75mi w/26 30-sec hill reps (Hillats)

I am so glad I took yesterday off! Seriously, I had a renewed energy and was rarin’ to run.  Since it’s going to be snowy tomorrow and my planned hill workout will be questionable I decided to do a modified Billat workout on that newly discovered ramp. I was pretty excited about trying something new and the fact that it’s only 30 seconds per rep is low-pressure plus it fits in perfectly with the ramp distance.

I did 7.25mi before hitting the reps (30-30s x 20, though the recoveries were 36-38secs to return to the bottom of the ramp).  When I got to the 19th rep I thought, “oh yay, just one more” but the idea is to do these till exhaustion and my pace was still steady, so I didn’t stop till 26. This means I should have done them faster but it’s hard to gauge that when it’s your first time and there’s uphill included.  Bottom line is I feel great about the workout, it was fun and I ended up with more hard running than if I’d done tomorrow’s scheduled 6 x.25mi hill reps.

Part of me is all “this is really not conventional marathon training” but the other part says “you hate the long slogging, so screw what “should be” and do what’s fun and gets you working hard.”  So I plan on doing proper Billats and these Hillats for the duration of the cycle.  I’m thinking it’ll fight off the slower turnover I inevitably get during marathon training.  As long as I have the tempos,  marathon paced workouts and LRs, it’s all good.

So that’s the latest dirt, sorry this is sooooo long!  I just couldn’t help it. :-)