M - 12k + strides + cross train.
Woah! Busy day indeed. Today I was supposed to begin a run specific cross training group and I was excited for everything but making the schedule work. It seemed a little tough fitting it all in. I did go home before work but decided to workout at the Goodlife at Yonge + Eglinton, which is newer, replacing the old Bally. As a gym it was awkward. No fan for anyone, and the changeroom was super packed. It felt like they threw in another row of lockers into a more crowded space. Pretty disgusting, but past that, I had a good solid run. 8mph for almost an hour. I should have finished it off but cleaned up at 12km (as per my workout) in 56min, then strides (5x 11mph (30seconds hard, 30 off)
Strides are better on the ground - more of a progression to 80% top speed or so. On a treadmill it's tricky. Especially since it takes about 30 seconds for it to get up to speed. Instead I run it at full pace (11mph) and jump off to the side rails for my 30second breaks, try to move my legs one a time in the air, get some water or something and get ready to explode from 0-11mph in a split second.
The XT was good, really good for hips, hamstrings etc. but I was a little tired from the run. I had about 10 min to make it over. Thankfully as I planned my run nearby I was in the vicinity. That's not the extra 4min - didn't really have much time to spare.
T - 15.4kms - Fartleks
I got my treadmill! So excited! At first I thought the fan was removed and was a little peeved. However after my eyes adjusted I noticed it was moved to the corner and sitting in the dark. Success! I had a perfect setup for a tough day.
Yesterday didn't leave me too exhausted so I was good to go. Again a 3k warmup. To change it up I also wore my heart rate (HR) monitor. It was a good way to check up on how I was progressing. I moved it up to 8.0 in my warmup to see if my HR had come down at all (was 160ish when I started training again in Dec). Now it was 150ish. That's really great! Still it was only a warmup so it's hard to really ascertain a message. Plus I had a fan - that alone might be the difference (and why I'm so insistent on it!).
After a warmup with strides it came down to the workout 3 sets of 5min @ higher end tempo (9.6mph), followed by 2 min of rest, followed by uphill at 5.0 at a "hard" effort, and 1 min rest, 1 min hard on flat, and 2min walk.
I wasn't sure what hard uphill meant so I gave it an honest go. I picked 8.5mph and I was sucking a bit of wind! It was certainly "hard". It wasn't full out, but by the 3rd set I was certainly feeling it a bit. They say its about 1min per km faster for every 4% incline in slope. So that means my 4:23/km pace was closer to a 3:23 equivalent! (that's 11mph)
The 1 min rests were over too quickly, and the 1 min hard at 11mph were just long enough that I wanted my break.
My average heart rate bounced around 165 for the tempo, 170s for the 11mph work and equivalents, with a max of 177.
W - 8K - Recovery
Ever have great music so that every km feels awesome? This was one of those days! This was an easy paced run to get a good rest on the musculoskeletal systems to take it easy after a hard day and before another. On this run I went from feeling stiff as a board to nice and movable.
Th - 12.8k - Tempo
Great - slush + snow. I was not happy with my performance. I was tired, hungry, dehydrated, who knows but my mind was certainly out of it as well as my body. It's really tough to do quality things when your mind is not there. I've had lots of runs where I don't want to go out but then end up having a great time. But when your body is also not responding its pure hell.
We started with a 2.6k warmup, which might have been too fast
then 4 x 1.1k loops, faster on the 3rd and 4th. The times were decent (for snow), at 4:06/km pace on the faster loops, but I was wiped.
Next came 800ms continuous with 400 hard and 400 recovery. I started on the wrong foot here (figuratively). I was still gulping down water when the 2 min rest was over and had a sub par 1st loop where I couldn't quite finish the loop. Too bad because the average pace was decent so the pre-im-too-bloated part must have been blazing!
2nd loop, im ready to go and nailed the pace at 10mph
3rd loop, im done - watch the others go by
4th loop - totally out of it - my recovery part is just as fast (feeling a bit sorry for myself)
2.6k run back
It was a bad day but whatever, time to get passed it
F - 10k
Normally a rest day, but instead its a 10k day. Felt nice and decent. Hopefully a sign that yesterday's workout was just a blip. Set the treadmill up on 0.5 incline at 8mph and just ran for about 46:36. Good times.
Sat - 23K + wedding
I was warned against injuring myself today so I spent the day on the treadmill. I was interested to see if I could last anyway - 2 hrs on the treadmill?
Success - 10k @ 5:00/k pace, 6k @ 4:40/k pace, 6 k @ 2min @ 4:09, 2 min @ 4:40 intervals, 1 k cooldown
The wedding was so awesome! (not mine btw) But soon to be family's. Lots of delicious food, good and funny speeches and dancing! I didn't expect to be on my feet for almost 12 hrs continuously though.
A big congrats again to Matt and Ally!! yay
Sun - 10k
Sometimes a recovery run is the best thing - couldn't really sleep in the afternoon anyways so just went for a good run. Nice and easy and felt great by the finish.
Week - 92kms
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