Speed work

I’m still recovering from the injury so the past couple days have been workouts of a different sort. I went to the trails and scretched through them on my bike. I forgot how much I enjoy going out there and riding. I am going to check out a few other trails on the bike for fun.

Today I went to the track and ran some speed drills. I repeated 800s until I was nearly dizzy. It’s good to feel workout pain because then I can reward myself with Mexican food.

I wasn’t supposed to run because I’m in Kansas for a wedding, but I brought my running clothes. I ran on the treadmill for a limited time, because I had to get to the wedding rehearsal. I ran a mile at a good clip and finished in 6:34. It felt really good to run one that fast.

I went to the track yesterday and ran some more intervals. I don’t really like doing them, so I hope that they make me a little faster. If they don’t, I’m going to be really disappointed that I spent some of my time at the track. This time I ended up running an 800, then I ran 5-400 meter sprints with a 200 meter walk between. I finished it all with one final 800 meter run.

I don’t like running fast, but I want to run faster. Conundrum if there ever was one. So today I did a little speed training. Maybe every other week I will go on a two mile run through some hills and see how long it takes. Today I was able to finish in 14:55, which is about as fast as I’ve ever finished this two mile loop. The goal is to get down to seven minute miles where I can run them without any major effort.

Today I ran a seven mile loop in about 1:03. That’s not too fast and it’s not too slow for me. It’s going at a decent pace which is what I need to prepare for this 24 hour run. At no point should I be going at a fast pace when I’m running that race. I hope that I’ll be able to hit 100 miles, but I’m going to have to spend a little time preparing on pace before I go.

Yesterday, my training run went a lot better than expected. I went out to the trails after work thinking that I would just run the seven mile loop alone. It was a gloomy day because of a gray overcast and a little water on the ground from a rain earlier in the day.

I decided that I didn’t want to run alone, so I called my friend Phillip to see if he wanted to go. He said he needed to see if his daughter was going to hang out at his place or if she was just dropping by. He called me back a few minutes later and said he’d be at the park in ten minutes.

I’m glad that I called him because he came with his Jack Russell who was more than excited to run. We started at a fast pace, so it wasn’t long before Phillip and Bandit were far ahead of me.

Around mile 4, I noticed that my pace was a lot better that it normally was. In fact, I thought that I might be able to finish the run in under 1 hour. With this thought, I started to get a little bit of a second wind. I decided to push the pace and caught up with Phillip and Bandit. With about two miles left, I passed Phillip and Bandit and started to run 8 minute miles.

Ultimately, I finished in 59:43. That’s the first time I’ve ever run that loop in under an hour.

I ran 4-400 meter sprints around the track this evening. Right now, I am only able to get around 1:35 for each which isn’t fast enough. I’m going to push myself on speed drills once a week to try to cut those times down to the 1:05-1:10 range. Then I hope that my shorter distance race times will improve. After the sprints, I also ran a mile to see if my pace was correct.

This week has been nothing but speed work on the trails for me. I haven’t run any distances beyond five miles, so I would consider it a laid back week. However, I’m pushing myself harder than I normally do and I’m finding that the key time shaver is pushing it when I’m running up a hill

Just like anyone else, the hills are a major psychological hurdle. This week I decided that instead of worrying about the hills, I would just run them harder than ever. Once I get to the top of the hill, I reduce my to normal pace. So far, so good.

I ran 3.5 miles on Monday in just under 30 minutes. My first mile was just under 8 minutes which wasn’t a good pace for me. I picked it up and tried to push it until the end. Tuesday I ran a five mile loop with my friend in 38:32. That was the quickest I have run that particular loop. 7:43 minute miles isn’t too shabby. Today I followed that up with a 38:40.

Each time I have just been ripping up the hills.

Woo! I need to run with my friend from the running club more often. The last time we did the seven mile loop, I came in about 2 minutes earlier than my PR. We ran a five mile loop today, and we finished it about 4 minutes quicker than my previous PR. It took us 41 minutes which is just over an 8 minute mile.

For a little speed work, I ran a short two miles in 15 minutes. It actually went a little quicker than I would have guessed. I think that on longer runs my average mile is more like 9 minutes. It looks like I need more speed work (e.g. ladders) to sustain the 7 or 8 minute mile pace.

I ran the seven mile loop today in about 1:03 minutes. That’s a good deal better then the run yesterday. I’d like to get that time down to about 50 minutes, because I’d enjoy being at 7 minute miles. That’s a lot to shave off.

Today was just three miles of speed work at the track. I haven’t been doing nearly enough of it. I decided that today would be a good day as I had way too many brownies at a colleague’s going away party.

Now I just need to say no to running until the race on Saturday.