Double Update: Saturday Long Run + 2x2 mi threshold run

Saturday Long Run

14 miles on the docket, with the last 3 at 7:15 pace. I plotted a loop that was more of a big irregular square, starting in the middle of the southern edge, which was paved sidewalk. The eastern edge was bike trail, to around mile 4. Then sidewalk following a major road on the northern edge, for 3.5 miles. Then a bit before mile 8, the western edge was back onto trail (in this case packed dirt road). Then back on road at mile 10. This section didn't have sidewalks until around mile 11.5, but traffic was light. I got out around 6:45am, and the day was beginning to heat up by the time I got late in the run.  

I was pleasantly surprised by how good I felt. A couple nights decent sleep will do wonders. And I had just swapped in new running shoes for this run. I ticked along at 7:30-40 pace for most of the first half of the run, slowing down a bit when I get onto the dirt road. Right around mile 9, I suddenly had a bad cramp in my left calf. Bad luck! I think it just got overstressed from navigating all the irregular lumps and divots on the dirt road, although I had also been sweating a good deal, so might be electrolyte depletion too.  

Mile 10 was a painful limp at around 9 min pace, and I thought things looked grim for what was supposed to be the "fast finish" section of the run. I was pleasantly surprised to feel it loosening, though, and by mile 11 my stride had opened up and I was running almost normally. I accelerated as per plan, and wound up running 6:48, 6:52, 6:48 for the last 3 miles. (All by Garmin watch, but at a macro scale it tracked with my google pedometer estimates). 

I felt pretty pleased with myself, but my calf stayed tight through the next couple days. I haven't had much time for self-care, foam-rolling, etc, just the squats and toe-drops that I do habitually. Nonetheless it did get about 80% better by today. 

 

Tuesday 2 x 2mile Threshold Intervals

These are supposed to be run at ~6:20 mile pace, which should be AT pace or thereabouts. Indeed, based on my performance on the last long run, this seemed very plausible. But I would say, similar to last week's workout, that this feels harder than AT pace, maybe 90% of my max effort for a long interval like this. I think lack of speedwork (and age, ofc) have definitely affected my top range, so there's just not a lot of a "gear" up past there--at least not right now! The next training phase (starting in ~2 weeks) is going to be more focused on strength/speedwork. 

Anyway. Nice cool morning--I did almost the entire run on bike trail, with only a couple of dodgy road crossings. Flat and shady--definitely can't complain about conditions. 

Interval 1: 6:12, 6:41 == 12:53 (+13s)

Interval 2: 6:23, 6:22 == 12:45 (+5s)

Paced the 2nd interval better, which I could feel during the run.  All in all, feel OK about it--calf was still not 100%, and only had 1 night of good sleep after a couple nights of interruptions. 

 

3 mile tempo

 Squeezed in a tempo run this morning. Various life craziness--normally I would do my workout on Tuesday, but my long run got bumped to Sunday from Saturday, and my legs were not fresh. Things got busy Wednesday and I only just managed to squeeze in the core of the workout. Was supposed to be 8 miles, 3 miles @ 6:20 tempo pace, with 4 striders. I did 5 with the middle 3 @ tempo pace. 

 Garmin reported:  6:45, 7:11, 6:34. Middle mile was on trail, with a turn around at 0.5. So I wasn't anywhere close to the goal pace, but probably somewhat closer to my true threshold. Whole family slept poorly last night, which is one reason why the run was squeezed this morning. 

5 x 1000m on bike trail

 5x 1000m on bike trail. Conditions were ideal: cool and calm. I used google pedometer to find the exact starting point; this section is so flat and straight that I think it should be pretty accurate. 

90s jog recovery between intervals.  Target 3:55-4:00.

3:46, 3:47, 3:53, 3:46, 3:53

Paddy's 3M Race Report

3M in 18:18 

First race of any sort in two years. It was fun to race again! I've missed it. Weekends are still very busy with childcare responsibilities, so it is hard to squeeze in a race. But I can see the trajectory of that gradually getting easier, so something to look forward to in the future. 

Based on my track workouts, I thought I could probably have run under 6:00/mile, and I suspect I probably could have but...man, I screwed up those splits. My sense of pacing has faded as I've raced less and done less quality. I caught my 1st mile split and then timed my 3rd mile: 5:38, 6:30, 6:10. If I had managed to go out in 5:59 I bet I could have done it. Oh well, hopefully won't be another 2 years before I get to try again.  

5,4,3,2,1 laps @ Leary

 @ Track at 6:20. Season is turning, so the first interval was in near-darkness. It was cool, almost cold, with a light breeze. In autumn, some thoughts turn to pumpkin spice lattes, others to warm sweaters, others to jack-o-lanterns and spooky movies. For harriers, it is 5Ks, and I've sure been putting the hay in the barn. Loosely following the club track workouts, this is the 4th consecutive 5K-oriented track workout I've done, and I'm starting to feel some improvements. 

Workout: 2000,1600,1200,800,400 @ 5K pace, with 400 jog rec. 

I keyed off 89s quarters. 

2000m: 7:32 (+7s). Lost most of this in the last lap--not sure what happened, since I felt like I had more in my legs--lost my pace sense in the dark maybe. 

1600m: 5:58 (+2s).

1200m: 4:26 (-1s).

800m: 2:53 (-5s)

400m: 1:21 (-8s). 

5,4,2,2,2 laps @ Leary

Workout was: 

 1x 2000 @ 5k+15s pace

1 x 1600 @ 5k+15s pace

3x800 @ 5k pace 

 with 400 jog recovery. 

 It was a beautiful cool, clear morning, no wind. In the first two intervals, I felt strong and relaxed, and felt sure I must be crushing the slightly backed-off pace. Alas no, my watch reassured me I was feeling strong and relaxed because I was just barely on pace. Doubled down for the 800s and and ran a bit under 5K pace. 

2000m: 7:40

1600m: 6:06

3x800m: 2:51, 2:51, 2:49

 

6 x 1000m @ Leary

6 x 1000m @ Leary, ~5K pace, with 400m jog recovery. Cool, clear, no wind--ideal conditions. I felt OK, not flat, but not a lot of extra spring. There hasn't been much time for strength training, and I'm sure it's holding me back on speed. 

 

 3:39, 43, 41, 38, 41, 37

3 x 1600 @ Leary

 Cool, misty morning. 

3 x 1600 with 400m jog recovery:

5:55, 6:00, 5:57

  

9x600 @ Leary

 Early morning, but already warm. Did club workout-- 3x600 200 rec, x3 (400 rec). Two other people in lane 1, but they were all doing speed and we didn't get in each others' way, for a wonder.

 600s: 2:04, 2:09, 2:10, 2:07, 2:10, 2:09, 2:11, 2:11, 2:09 

5x800 @ Leary

 Sun red this morning with wildfire smoke, but air quality index was in the yellow, so I decided to carry on with a workout. Track was busy, with some walkers on lane 1. 

5x800 with 400 recovery: 2:48, 2:54, 2:56, 2:57, 2:52

 Was shooting for a 2:58 for that first one--nominally supposed to be 5k pace.   

Intervals @ Leary

1x2k, 1x1600, @ 5k+15s (~6:16 pace). 

3x 800 @ 5k (~6:00 pace)

Cold today! At the track by 6:30, which was still near-darkness. Just as well the pace was backed off a little, as it's hard to get going in the cold and dark. Felt strong, though--goal pace was probably a bit conservative. 

2k : 7:44 (goal 7:50)

1600: 6:16 (goal 6:16)

3x800: 2:58, 2:56, 2:52 (goal 3:00)

 

Intervals @ Leary

 2x 1k, : 3:42, 3:47

1x 2k : 7:38

2x 1k : 3:42, 3:39

400 jog recovery, 5k pace goal.

It's finally getting cooler in the mornings--almost feels like autumn. The track was quieter, with dawn just starting to break as I got there.

Road Intervals / Norumbega

Road intervals. Warm, foggy morning. Light is going quickly now; I started in the dark, but things had brightened up considerably by the time I had warmed up. I felt strong throughout, so the pace was likely a little conservative relative to goal 5k pace. No GPS watch, no idea how fast I was really going. 

4 x 3min, 1min recovery

4 x 2 min, 1 min recovery

4 x 1 min, 1 min recovery

7.5 miles total.

Intervals @ Leary

 2 x 800  : (2:52, 2:57)

2 x 1600  (6:09 oops!, 5:58)

2 x 800  (2:56, 2:51)

@ 5K pace throughout, with 400 jog recovery. 

As a pacing exercise, this was an obvious fail, as I was all over the map. But I felt good about recovering strong from the third interval after messing it up. My 800s were pretty symmetric going up and coming down. 

Cool early fall morning with no-one in Lane 1. Ideal conditions.

4x1600 @ Leary

 Cool, pleasant morning with some early fog. 

 4x1600m with 400m jog recovery, 8 miles total.

 5:57, 6:05, 6:04, 6:08

 I felt more limited by the neuromuscular system than the cardiovascular system today. Started to feel a bit rubbery on the last interval. As always, returning to the track is doing me some good, though. I can feel my morning jogs getting easier. Funny how even a jog seems hard if it's the fastest you ever go.

4 x 1200 @ Leary

Clear, cool, early fall morning. Shadows retreated down the back 100 with every lap as the sun rose. 

4x1200 in: 4:25, 4:26, 4:27, 4:26

with 400m jog recovery. 

I probably have a <6:00 pace 5k in me. I'm going to sign up for a couple of fall races and find out.

1/2 Ladders @ Leary

 Warm summer morning--lots of people on the track. 

200s : 34,37,38  (should have been mile pace). 

400s : 79,82,80 (should have been 5k)

600s: 128s, 134s  (should have been 5k)

Hill Repeats In Prospect Park

 3x hill repeats, Prospect Park South entrance. measured from first vehicle gate to 2nd vehicle gate (inner posts on both sides).

1:46, 1:45, 1:45. 

Man, that's a gut buster. The 2nd pitch is steep enough that there's not much difference between me running it, and me running it full-out. Felt like jello after the1st one. Couldn't have asked for a nicer spring morning, though!

Intervals @ Leary

Sunny, calm, temps in the upper 30s--a smidge chilly but otherwise ideal conditions. I did the club workout this morning for the second week in a row. I actually hit my goal paces throughout, but obviously had pretty conservative targets. (400,400,200,... jog recovery).

2000m (7:29 / 90s )

1200m (4:24 / 88s )

800m   (2:46 / 83s )

800m   (2:48 / 84s )

400m   (1:20 / 80s )

400m   (1:21 / 81s )

400m   (1:19 / 79s )

Ladders @ Leary

 Did the club workout this morning at Leary. Sunny, temps in the 50s, with a light breeze. Ladders, 1,2,3,4,5,4,3,2,1 minute intervals, with 1 minute jog recovery. My quarter time was hovering around ~92s, so probably about 4 miles hard, 9 miles total. 

Throat's a bit scratchy--hopefully just allergies.