Archive for the ‘Intervals’ Category

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Hungry 2000s

Thursday, January 10th, 2008

This morning, we had what is one of the tougher workouts on the schedule for me.   I guess you get out what you put in, and I guess I just run it hard.  Anyway, we were doing the 2 km laps around the Zilker Soccer Fields.  I felt good this morning, and I went out and started with my pre-warm-up warm-up as usual.  Once the group arrived, I ran with them to Zilker Park and did the drills.

I felt pretty confident as we started.  I planned to do five and pick up the pace each time.  That was going well, but after four laps, everyone else stopped.  Gilbert said that was plenty for me, too.  I wanted to do another one and really get going fast, but that was all.  I felt pretty smooth throughout the workout, and I knew I had more in me.  I guess it will have to wait.  My times were: 7:48, 7:29, 7:28, 7:19.

I did the cool-down run back plus a little bit of stretching, and that was it for the day.  I’m satisfied with that one.  It was a good workout, and I felt really good.

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Last run of 2007

Monday, December 31st, 2007

This morning I ended the running year with one of the toughest workouts we have in the rotation.  We were doing the somewhat hilly mile repeats around Zilker Park, and
that one just always beats me up.  I showed up early for my pre-warm-up warm-up again.  I did about a mile and a half, and I felt warm so I dropped all my warm clothes back in the car.  I ran with the group over to Zilker Park and did the drills, and somewhere around there I wished I had kept my gloves on.

Gilbert had me run the first lap pretty slowly (relatively), and then I really picked things up.  I felt smooth, and people told me my form was good.  Really I was just cold.  Gilbert had the right idea and just stayed in his truck with his stopwatch.  In any case, I ran my best set of these ever.  I even felt like the two minutes between the intervals was too much rest.  I thought I picked up the pace more than the time showed on the last lap, but it was a strong effort nonetheless.  My lap times were: 6:39, 6:12, 6:04, 6:06, 6:06, 5:55.

I felt fine on the cool-down run back, and then I spent quite a while hanging around visiting and stretching a little bit.  I had over 11 miles for the day.  That was a long workout.  If my spreadsheet is right, I had 1915 miles for the year (vs about 1800 for last year and about 1500 for the year before), so that’s a big improvement.  I know now that I’m doing those extra warm-ups (which really seem to help) I’ll be adding even more easy miles moving forward.

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Reverse ladder

Thursday, December 27th, 2007

This morning we had the reverse ladder workout again at the track.  I really like this one because it seems to get easier as we go, even though the pace speeds up a lot.  Gilbert had given me some pace targets yesterday, and my mission for today was just to hit them.  I arrived a little bit early and did an extra 15 minutes of warming up, and then I headed over to AHS with the group.  My first interval was a bit slower than I wanted, but after that I was warm and feeling good.  I didn’t feel quite as smooth as I wanted to be overall, but that might have been because of all the miles I did yesterday.  It still felt much better than it used to.

  • 2000m – 7:49
  • 2000m – 7:32
  • 1000m – 3:36
  • 1000m – 3:33
  • 1000m – 3:34
  • 400m – 78
  • 400m – 81
  • 400m – 80
  • 400m – 78

I’m really happy with those, and I was pretty tired at the end of it.   Gilbert suggested taking the long way back for some extra cool-down.  With that, I ended up with well over 11 miles for the day.  My legs feel pretty good now.  I did some stretching afterwards, and I’ll do some more later.

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Rockstar 800s

Thursday, December 20th, 2007

Last night, one of my friends had a little holiday party, and not only did I mess up my nutrition plan pretty well, but I also spent hours there playing drums on this new Rock Band video game and drinking beer.  It was pretty awesome, but my feet were actually pretty worn out afterwards from working the kick pedal.  So, I wasn’t quite sure how I’d feel for the run today.  I did have plenty of water when I got home, though, and I know that helped.
It turned out to be kind of a strange morning.  There was a thick fog, and it was hard to see much during the warm-up.  I arrived about 15 minutes early like I had been doing to get a little more warm-up.  That really seems to be helping since by the time we get to the workout I’m ready to go instead of still warming up on the first interval or two.  At the track, the fog started to go away as we did our drills, but we noticed some strange temperature spots.  It was generally warmer outside, but there were a few pockets around the track where it was really, really cold.  I don’t know what to make of that.

Anyway, Gilbert told me the time he wanted me to do, and it was faster than he’d ever told me to go on these before.  I was a little apprehensive at first, considering my preparation, but I took off and did them anyway.  I had a strong group to run with, and we took the first interval a little easy and picked it up from there.  I just focused on being smooth and graceful, and I didn’t really worry about the speed.  It was there, though.  I felt strong through the whole thing, and I picked up the pace on the last lap.  Amazingly, I knew I could have gone even faster, but I held back a bit to keep things smooth and totally under control.  My times were my fastest set of these ever: 2:59, 2:49, 2:51, 2:49, 2:46, 2:47, 2:46, 2:38.  I recall Gilbert even yelling out something about my form being good, so that’s a good sign, too.

I felt fine on the cool-down run back, did a few stretches, and that was it for the day.  I’m really happy with this one, and I’m glad my legs are feeling this good.

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Sprinkler 800s

Wednesday, September 26th, 2007

This morning we got to run 800s at AHS.  I always like these short intervals.  I arrived a minute or two late, and the group had already left for the track.  I got there with plenty of time to join the debate about where to do the drills.  There was another group in our usual spot, and the sprinklers were spraying part of the other side of the track.  We elected to find a section of the other side that the sprinklers weren’t covering and used that.

Gilbert arrived and gave us the pacing assignments, and soon we were off.  My group was supposed to do 3 minutes for each one, and we were pretty close.  I had: 3:02, 2:57, 3:01, 2:59, 2:59, 2:56.  It was amusing to watch people try to avoid the water.  It’s not like our clothes and shoes don’t get totally soggy with sweat anyway.  The really good thing is I felt pretty relaxed and balanced the whole time.  Gilbert confirmed that I looked that way, too, so I left happy.

We took the long way back to RunTex, and that was a nice change from the usual routine.  I felt really good through all this.  I am just glad I get to go outside and do this all the time.

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Zilker soccer field laps

Monday, September 24th, 2007

This morning I had one of my last couple speed sessions before the marathon.  Because of the way the schedule is working out, I am running with the Monday/Wednesday group this week.  I think there were three separate workouts today based on which races people are doing.  I joined a group of about ten for the trip over to Zilker Park to run laps around the soccer fields.  It was really, really dark again.  We were a bit confused during the drills when we saw some slow moving vehicles on the road, but it turned out to be some folks getting a workout by pushing them.

Once we got down to business, the plan was to do four 2000-meter laps, faster than marathon pace, but not too fast.  I didn’t have anyone running my speed, and my first lap turned out a lot slower than I expected.  I picked it up from there and felt really good through the whole thing.  My times were:8:28, 8:00, 7:45, 7:49.

I did the run back, snuck in a couple of stretches, and that was that.  It’s almost time, and I’m feeling really good.

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AHS 1200s

Thursday, September 20th, 2007

This morning we had 1200s on the schedule.  That’s not a very common distance for intervals for me.  I was just happy to be out there and that my leg was feeling good, though.  It was really, really dark outside.  Only one thing sticks out in my mind from the warm-up and drills.  Today, Gilbert had us do the jog-50-sprint-50 thing for a lap instead of two 100-meter strides, and I overheard someone during that say something like they didn’t like that version as much because you had to run more.  I thought, hmmm, I’m glad I love running, otherwise I wouldn’t be out here at 6 in the morning doing all these crazy workouts!

For the intervals, I felt good.  I was surprisingly consistent for a workout where I never looked at my lap splits during the intervals.  My times were:4:33, 4:29, 4:27, 4:30, 4:32, 4:30.  It turns out those are a couple seconds slower than when I did this a couple months ago, but that time I didn’t do as many.  It was finally starting to get light by the time we finished, so that was nice for the way back.

There are a lot of new people in the group right now since the fall training season is starting.  I stuck around a little while and visited with some of them.  I remember when I first started with this group, and I felt pretty intimidated, so when I see new people with that same look about them I want to assure them they will do fine and remember the most important part: enjoy every minute of it!

On an unrelated note, the Chicago Marathon website has a video tour of the entire course, played at high speed.  They were playing this last year at the expo, and I enjoyed it then, so I’m happy to find it posted now.  It’s kind of like driving the course, but a lot faster.

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Zilker extra-long ladder

Tuesday, August 28th, 2007

This week the extra-long version of the ladder workout was back on the schedule. I missed this the last time because they do it on Tuesday and Wednesday, and I’ve been going on Monday and Thursday. So, since I heard it was so much fun, I was determined to get to do it this time. I was willing to do it either today or tomorrow, but I decided to go for today. The faster people were there today, and this will give me an extra day to recover in case I get to run in the relays this Friday. I arrived a little late, so I hurried a bit on the warm-up run over to Zilker Park, and the group was already doing the drills when I got there. I got myself caught up and got ready to run.

This workout was intense! I felt a little off at first, but I stuck with it and had some good times. I was a bit confused and thought we were doing four of the 1000s, but after the first one of those the others pointed out that we were only due for three. I decreed that that last lap was the one that really made the difference, so I really stepped it up a notch to make sure I was practicing being tough at the end.

  • 3000m – 12:07
  • 2000m – 7:43
  • 2000m – 7:35
  • 1000m – 3:38
  • 1000m – 3:44
  • 1000m – 3:31

Those are some serious times. I could stand to be a bit more consistent, but I think I might have had some tiredness in my legs from this past weekend after all. I felt good doing it, though. It felt like my cooldown run back to RunTex was exceptionally slow, but according to the watch it was the same speed as the warm-up. Go figure. I did a couple stretches, and that was it for the day!

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Fast times at Austin High

Thursday, August 23rd, 2007

This morning we did a reverse ladder workout at AHS. I really like this one. It seems to get easier as we progress because even though we speed up, the distances always seem to get shorter just in time. I felt sick yesterday morning, so I skipped my run in the morning and just did some exercises at night. So, today it was time to bounce back, and I did.

The warm-up was more interesting than usual because they are setting up for some big event at Auditorium Shores this weekend. So, there were bright lights on and a bunch of equipment in the area. Once we got to the track and finished the drills, Gilbert split us into groups.

I was content to just follow my group today, and we went pretty fast. I felt strong the whole time, and my movement was smooth. I really had a lot of fun. Here are the times:

  • 2000m – 7:38
  • 1000m – 3:39
  • 1000m – 3:36
  • 1000m – 3:40
  • 1000m – 3:40
  • 400m – 83
  • 400m – 81
  • 400m – 82
  • 400m – 79

I had an appointment to reach, so I only did a couple stretches after running back to Riverside. I feel good about this one. I am right where I need to be.

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Fun little AHS ladder

Thursday, August 16th, 2007

This morning we did a fun little workout. After running over to AHS and warming up, we did sets of 600m/400m/200m for a while. This is really nice because each interval in the set gets shorter, so it seems to constantly get easier. This was the first time I’ve tried to run really fast since I got back from my trip, and I definitely started out a few steps slow. I felt better after the each set and finished really strong. My times aren’t as good as when we did this a couple months ago, but it was still a solid workout and a nice return to some fast turnover.

For the set of 600/400/200, I had:

  • 2:20, 1:31, 47
  • 2:09, 1:25, 42
  • 2:10, 1:23, 41
  • 2:07, 1:27, 42
  • 2:05, 1:21, 38

I stretched a tiny bit after the run back, and that was it for the day. I wonder if I could have improved my times by running a sixth set. I feel really good now.

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