Hot Runs

This weekend went by entirely too quickly.  I am pleased to report that significant progress was made with both wedding planning and redecorating the master bedroom, and I am feeling quite accomplished. 

JT and I managed to fit in a couple runs in spite of all the other activities.  Friday after work, we headed straight out for another round of intervals, this time of the ladder variety.  After a nice warm-up and drills, we would walk a distance around the track and then run that same distance, increasing the distances as we went. 

I think the ladder intervals were much harder than the straight 200m intervals.  I kept checking back into my internal energy stores only to find that the same effort for the last round was not nearly sufficient to complete the next round with the same pace.  JT kept a consistent pace over the increasing distances; I, very much, was not consistent.

W2:D5

½ mile warm-up jog at 11:00 minute pace – drills (3 sets) – ladder Intervals: 100m, 200m, 200m, 300m, 400m

Drills: 15 push-ups (from knees), 40 bicycle crunches, 10 (each side) side-plank lifts

W2:D6

Rest (lots of errands in town)

I am constantly asking JT what my next workout will be, and he never answers until the last minute.  On the one hand this is very annoying because I like to plan things out.  On the other hand this is a very good thing because it does not give me a chance to dwell on it and psych myself out. 

Sunday morning we dressed and headed out late in the morning.  I was very surprised when JT informed me that I would be doing a full 2-mile run – and in only 21 minutes.  This was both an increase in distance and an increase in speed from what I have done thus far, and no, I don’t count my pace during intervals. 

I set out thinking about my last long run (1.5 miles) and how hard, but satisfying it had been to finish.  I started out comfortably fast and finished the first half mile in just at 5 minutes. 

Unfortunately, not long after that, disaster struck.  My calves seized up in pain, and I had to walk to loosen them back up.  I didn’t even make one mile.  Once my calves were feeling a bit better, I started jogging again at a slower pace.  But the damage had been done.  There was no way I could finish in 21 minutes.

I came in at just under 23 minutes for 2 miles.  While this is not what I was supposed to do and it was not run continuously, I am still pretty pleased with the results because I managed to complete the run home as opposed to walking up to the house.  Ending on a high note makes everything feel better.

Monday we set out for the same route as the day before but this time in blistering heat and 100% humidity.  JT warned me to take it easy due to the heat, and he could not have been more right.  I made it back in just under 25 minutes looking like I had just climbed out of a sauna.  I felt like a sweaty, empowered athlete in a Nike ad (though admittedly less glamorous or toned).

W2:D7

Run 2 miles at 10:30 pace – no drills

W3:D1

Run 2 miles at 10:30 pace – no drills

The heat isn’t expected to break for the rest of the week, so I expect a similar performance today for whatever run we end up doing.

Friday Friday

It seems the touch football game on Wednesday didn’t make for much of a “rest” day.  Despite the gloomy, wet weather, we had 11 very active players running back and forth for well over an hour.  JT and I both spent Thursday in varying degrees of sore, sleepy, and ravinously hungry.  Oh well; at least it was a good workout and a lot of fun running around with some nice work friends.

Yesterday, neither of us were in any particular mood to run, so we substituted a bike ride for the trip to the track.  There’s a nice bike path that runs due North from our neighborhood and conviently passes several restuarants, including a Chipotle, after right at 6 miles.  We rode up, had a nice dinner, and rode home, taking a scenic detour through a park along the way. 

W2:D4

Bike 13 miles at a comfortably hard pace – no drills

I realize that biking is not running.  But it does work several important leg muscles (I particularly feel it in my quads), so I fee like there is reasonable evidence that biking should make me a better/stronger/faster runner.  Probably. 

The plan for today’s workout, and potentially the rest of the weekend, is to head back to the track for another round of intervals.  I felt pretty good after my first set of intervals (W2:D2), and I am hopeful that my legs and lungs will continue to feel good after another few rounds.  

Intervals

I really need to do a better job of keeping track of some of the lines that JT says during workouts.  He’s like a corny, one-man idiom machine.  I’m sure that after a while I would have enough for a proper coffee table book if not a made-for-TV movie.  

I’m not sure if he comes up with any of them himself or if they’re all borrowed from movies or old track coaches.  All of the quotes sound like they would be appropriate in any self-respecting youth football or baseball movie.  Whether he intends them to be funny or not, they always crack me up. 

The one that really stuck out for me yesterday was “this is the last lap.  This is where you give it everything you have left.  Tomorrow, you will look back on this lap and either be proud of yourself or ashamed that you could have done more.”

I’m paraphrasing, but you get the idea.  This line, like any other, was delivered with such significance that I couldn’t help but let out a snort of laughter before kicking myself up into a run for the last 200m interval.  For what it was worth and despite the corniness, I did put everything I had left into that last 200m because I did not want to go home feeling like a lazy bum.  All told, it had been a very solid workout and I wanted to end it on a high note.

W2:D2

At a regulation track: jog one lap (400m) at 11:00 minute pace for warm-up – walk one lap – drills (3 sets) – 6 200m intervals between 45 and 60 seconds

Drills: high knees (20m), butt kicks (20m), lunges (10m)

We rode our bikes to the track at a local high school, about 2 miles each way, and ran just at 2 miles cumulatively while we were at the track if my running app is to be believed.  My intervals ended up being about 50 seconds for 200m with a 200m recovery walk before starting the next round.  Some quick math shows that pace would be a 6:40 minute pace if I could keep it up for the whole 1600m.  Not too shabby in my book.  

JT did his 200m runs in 30 to 35 seconds (4:00 to 4:40 minute pace).  A few tens of meters into my run he would whiz past and then wait for me at the finish line.  He’s really very graceful when he gets running fast, and it’s a nice distraction from the huffing of my run.  In the short walks between intervals he was full of all sorts of facts about the markings on the track and what good times are for different sorts of races.  It seemed like he really enjoyed being back on a track even though he never explicitly said it. 

Overall, intervals really weren’t as bad as I had feared they would be.  The workout was hard, but not impossible.  It definitely wasn’t pretty, but that wasn’t the point.  I had never run intervals before and now feel comfortably smug for completing them. 

Today, we had a rest day.  We attended a picnic with some of JT’s co-workers.  The weather held up, so we played some touch football to get our blood pumping a bit – further evidence that rest days rarely involve actual resting.  It was fun and a nice change of pace from a scheduled workout.  

W2:D3

Rest (touch football)

Upping the Ante

We are officially into Week 2, and despite JT hinting last week at adding some interval training, yesterday’s run was an ambitious increase in mileage – 50%! 

W2:D1

Run 1.5 miles at 11:00 minute pace – walk 1/2 mile – no drills

While the last leg of it was a considerable struggle for me, I was able to complete the whole 1.5 miles non-stop in 16:45 (10:43 at the 1-mile mark).  I am very pleased with myself for not pooping out and stopping when it started to get particularly uncomfortable, as I have been known to do on several occasions. 

However, the idea of trying to explain to JT when I got home that I had given up seemed much worse than actually finishing the prescribed run.  If he thinks I can do it, then I will do the run.

JT uses a different run-tracking app than I do that doesn’t alert him to half mile distances; so, he accidentally ran 2 miles as opposed to the 1.5 miles that he had planned.  As yet, I can’t imagine accidentally running 33% farther than I had planned.  I am very aware of every lumbering step I take and every huffy, labored breath. 

Then again, ‘out of shape’ means something very different for JT than it does for me.  He finished his 2 miles in a little over 15 minutes, more than a minute and a half faster than I finished my 1.5 miles.  His ‘out of shape’ is my fitness dream.  It’s all relative.  Maybe someday I’ll be able to keep up with him, but I’m not worried about that right now. 

I have to keep in mind my goal – a sub-30 minute 5K.  If I let myself start worrying about more than that, then I will just drive myself crazy.