I’m taking a moment to summarize my run today because my kids not only cooked dinner tonight, but they are also cleaning up all of the dishes that they used preparing dinner!! Nope, that is not a joke. I’ll share more on that later, but first my speed workout from today.
I’ve already shared about my long run that happened on Friday. My Sunday workout was 9 miles with 5 at half marathon/15K pace. I was a little surprised when I looked at my schedule and I saw that I had the “important” long run on Friday, and a hard speedwork on Sunday. Seems that there are not enough days in the week to spread all of my hard runs 4 days apart, so I went with it. I was debating running outside for this run, or just using my treadmill, but coach Alan strongly advised that I do the run outside if I could. I was a little nervous because I haven’t run that fast in a long time. Also, on Friday’s run I rolled my ankle a little on some snow/crud and it was feeling just a little odd. Despite that, I decided to run outside and give it a fair try.
I did a warm up for the first two miles, and then got into the fast miles. My target pace for the fast miles was around 8:05-8:15. I programmed it into my Garmin watch as a “workout”, but I guess I did something a little odd because this is what my splits showed…
| Avg. Moving Pace | Miles | |
| 1 | 8:51 | 1.00 |
| 2 | 8:57 | 1.00 |
| 3 | 8:08 | 1.00 |
| 4 | — | 0.00 |
| 5 | 8:06 | 1.00 |
| 6 | 8:06 | 1.00 |
| 7 | 8:17 | 1.00 |
| 8 | — | 0.00 |
| 9 | 8:08 | 1.00 |
| 10 | 8:55 | 1.00 |
| 11 | — | 0.00 |
| 12 | 8:35 | 1.00 |
| 13 | 0:13 | 0.04 |
| Summary | 1:16:16 | 9.04 |
There were a few odd spots in there! Not sure why it had done that because I only had 9 items (2 mile repeats of warm-ups, 5 miles repeated fast, 2 mile repeats of cool down). Odd! The overall numbers were quite nice I think, but since I’m all about keeping it real around here I have to admit that they don’t show the true story. Here’s what really happened (click to enlarge graphic)…. [stopping my watch]
That view of it is not so pretty. So instead of a steady state tempo run, it turned more into intervals, with too many rest breaks sprinkled in there. Doh! But overall, I was happy to get some speedwork done, get outside in the cold temps (19 degrees, feels like 11!), and run to the point of exhaustion!
When I get to those hard parts in my running I try to keep in mind that I won’t improve until I push myself out of my comfort zone, and making my self uncomfortable is what helps me manage it when race time comes. It might not be easy/possible now, but with continuous effort, I will improve.
When I got home, my husband whipped up an omelet for me while I warmed back up. Thanks honey!
And what about that dinner my kids made? Well, I’ll just give you a peek of what it looked like. I’m saving that for a blog post later this week 🙂
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Q: What is your favorite speed workout?
I do like intervals… well, the resting part.
Q: What was for dinner at your house?
Q: Rest break – stop the Garmin, or not?
I really shouldn’t have. 🙁 Shame face! LOL
I tell myself those same things when a run gets hard. And I tell myself THIS right here, this moment is when I improve. It wasn’t the “easy” miles, it’s when things get tough! I tell myself that when I lift too. Like if I am doing pull ups and I get that pukey feeling and want to stop, I try to make myself try to bang out at least one or two more because that is where improvement lies!
Wow what a lucky momma to have what looks like a DELISH dinner prepared for her! Can’t wait to hear the story behind that one. Probably just letting you know how much they appreciate all the things you do for your family. 🙂
It is so true though, right? – hard work pays off! I’m happy to be able to push it a bit, and not be too afraid of injury again. At least, I hope that is a safe assumption!
The dinner was awesome!! They did great!
Favorite speed workout is the Yasso 800’s. Few warm up miles, 10 sets of 800m (or in my case 1/2 mile) repeats, then a few more cool down miles. People claim that whatever your average time to finish the repeats is will translate to your marathon time. So, if you can do the 800’s in 2 minutes 50 seconds that should translate to a 2:50 marathon time. I think it is optimistic by about 5 minutes, so I add that much extra time on it and it seems pretty close for myself.
I really enjoyed our track workouts a few years ago. We must do those again this summer!!
I prefer interval runs, but the minute rest always goes so quickly, and the fast minute seems to take forever lol.
I don’t stop my Garmin for breaks, as you can’t do it in races. Even if I have to make a “pitstop” or tie my shoes, take pictures I just let it keep recording the time..
I know, intervals definitely defy the laws of time. haha! I think I’m starting to worry more about my splits because I know people will see them on Strava. I have to stop worrying that I won’t seem “fast enough” to other people.
I used to be the same, but then realised I should be using GPS for me, and not worry about everyone else. Sometimes I go for runs with my dog that are 13 minute miles, but I just put a note underneath saying it was with Sheldon.
Don’t worry about what other people think, you are only running for your running, not theirs 🙂
I have my Garmin set to automatically pause when it knows I’m standing still. I don’t like my time including a re-tie of shoes or something stupid.
I thought it was very interesting how Strava eliminated the long standing times when I was doing the Donut Dash, and gave me really fast miles, but Garmin kept my time (I didn’t stop my watch while eating). Looked like I was eating donuts and running 8:30 miles. That would be impressive!!