Yesterday, I thought a bit about my poor lifting workout in the morning. I posted a question on a lifting and nutrition forum where I have a mini training log. I was thinking the workout went so poorly that maybe I should repeat it rather than move on to my next weight workout tomorrow morning.
The advice that I got in return basically said to move on, don't worry about it, and realize my body was probably tired from a tough previous week. That made a lot of sense, so I took that advice one step further and skipped my easy run last night.
This morning, I had 7 by 1/2 mile repeats on the schedule and this was a way more important workout than last night's easy run. I used to always do these workouts on the track, but lately, I've been doing them on the roads more. I have lots of good reasons for switching to the roads:
I have to drive 20+ miles each way to get to a track, which is expensive right now.
I also have a Forerunner, which allows me to hit distances on the road pretty accurately.
I find that my legs are less likely to be sore if I run on the roads, rather than doing lots of miles, turning in the same direction the entire time, on the track.
Add in lots of recent evening thunderstorms and my son having soccer practice in the evenings, and doing the workout on the road in the morning is really the only option I had left.
To be honest, I've never liked doing speedwork in the mornings. I think I perform better in the evenings for faster runs, but I ended up happy with this morning's workout. According to Daniels' Running Formula (DRF from now on), I should be doing Interval (I) work at 1:44/400 meters, or about 3:29 per half mile. On the track a couple weeks ago, I tried to average in the low 3:20s and it was hard and beat me up. Today, I backed off to the 3:30 range per half mile, and had a really solid workout. My median time was 3:28 per half mile, although my average was a bit higher. I ran on a rolling course and one repeat managed to hit 2 of the 4 significant grades on the loop, so one repeat (#3) was pretty slow.
According to the Yasso 800 "rules", I'd like to be down to 3:20 per 800 meters by the end of October. That corresponds pretty well with the DRF VDOT level of 47, which is my target as well. If I have races and speed work that hit my goals, I'll go into my marathon comfortable with my chances of running sub-3:30 pretty easily.
Tomorrow, I'll do upper body lifting - 5x5 with high (for me) weights. I'll do an easy hour run tomorrow night. On Thursday, I'll do a 6-mile run with 3MP miles. I'll rest on Friday, with the 100 on 100 relay scheduled for Saturday.
3 comments:
You don't have to keep going the same way around a track to do repeats - you can turn around any time you want to and go the other way. And do that again and again, all in the same workout.
And I like doing repeats on a dreadmill, as the pace is definite.
Jimp just doesn't want to go outside. :)
Plan the work and work the plan. Sounds like you're on track.
Jim,
I know that you can turn around, but I'm rarely alone on a track around here, so I hate to run against traffic.
I do intervals on the mill as required by weather, but I don't like doing them there. It seems to me, that even at 1.5% grade, that a particular pace is easier on the treadmill than on the road. I think you can do a bit of "floating" - not literally, of course - over the belt that allows you to cheat a bit. I never trust my interval times on the treadmill.
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