Friday, June 14, 2013

6/13 runs - and why I am loathing speed work

3.7 miles: 41:36: 11:11 pace
3.5 miles: 3713: 10:33

I started out running about eight-years ago when I decided to get some sessions with a personal trainer. He was great and I feel awful right now because I can't remember his name. At that point I had been doing the elliptical machine and weight working the big muscle groups.

I wasn't seeing results and having just gotten out of an awful relationship I decided to try and get healthy. The trainer put me on the treadmill, which I had tried a couple of times before but never really felt comfortable. He started me off walking for one minute and the running for 30 seconds. We did these intervals for about 10 minutes. I was hooked and other than some lapses in the interim have more or less kept running since.

Why am I sharing this now? I started out doing intervals and loved it. Now when I do intervals for my speed work I despise it. Just about every session has been torture and I feel like my overall pace is getting slower.

My speed work now is a one-mile warm up and then two blocks sprint and one block recovery walk. I'm wondering if I should mix it up. I can set up my watch to do times intervals and maybe I'll give that a try.

The second run was the Road Runner Sports Adventure Run. I had some friends there that helped push me a bit quicker than I normally would have gone. It was, as always, a good time. Though it was the first time I missed out on winning anything in the raffle.

I'm sadly going to miss the next one. I'm volunteering to help lead a group of beginning runners for the Chicago Area Runner's Association. The sessions take place Thursday evening's in downtown Evanston for anyone interested.

I will pass 300 miles for the year during tomorrow's nine-mile run -- that's what I ran all of last year. I should hit 600 with the marathon training but it'll be interesting to see what my total will be for the year.

2 comments:

  1. I am happy to share my speedwork workouts if you want some ideas.

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  2. I will take all I can get. I do have access to a track -- I think they leave it open, need to check. You can leave it in the comments or shoot me an email: zmartin07@yahoo.com. Thanks!

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