Saturday, December 20, 2008

Speed Ladder

Since Sunday I've just been doing some easy runs - only one workout this week, and that was today.  Work's been busy, holiday approaching, crappy weather, the list goes on and on.  No big deal - last week was supposed to be a down week but it included a Hill session, a 5 x 800m interval session and a long run.  Not much of a "down week", so I had no problem taking it easy for a few days.

Today, however was a bit of a different story.  We had clear skies (for the most part) and the temps made their way back to 50-degrees.  And w/ no work bogging me down, I was able to get to the track for my lone workout of the week - and it was fun!  The session would be a ladder at slightly faster than Rep pace: (2x200m, 2x300m, 2x400m, 2x300m, 2x200m) with a slow jog in between each rep equal in length to the previous repeat.  

What made this different than my other short rep sessions was the active recovery - sure the jogs were slow, but my HR never got back down to the level it did when I simply rest for a minute or two between repeats.  This made the 2nd half of the ladder a little more challenging that I was expecting.

My legs were very fresh w/ the easy runs all week and when I looked down at the pace to see 6:38 during the last 400m of the warm up, I figured I was going to be in for a good day.  

The first 200m felt really smooth, and wound up coming in at 30-flat.  This was a bit faster than my target so I made sure I slowed it down for the 2nd one, but it still came in at 31.

After that, I just got into a nice groove and really had fun w/ the workout.  The rest of the repeats went like this:

300m - 49
300m - 48
400m - 65
400m - 65
300m - 49
300m - 48
200m - 30
200m - 30

The last two 300s were tough, and it became clear to me exactly what we were working on w/ this session.  I was able to let the pace go a little more than previous rep sessions and I could feel the body trying to work out the kinks of a faster pace.  Still a lot of work to do there, but this was a step in the right direction.  My only disappointment was that I wanted that 2nd 400m to come in around 63.8 - the first 200m was under 31 so I thought I had it, but I guess I let up too much during the 2nd half.

Next time I do this type of workout - this will likely just be "set-1".  After that I'll take a break and then hit it again, but the 2nd set will probably have less volume.  

A good session for sure.  I'm now hoping I don't have much soreness tomorrow so I can get in my long run for the week.

Training:

Mon, 12/15:  Lifting (upper-A, abs) stretching, rolling

Tues, 12/16: 6-miles @ 7:13 pace

Wed, 12/17:  5-miles @ 7:00 pace

Thurs, 12/18:  6-miles @ 7:02 pace

Fri, 12/19:  Off

Sat, 12/20:  5-miles including (2x200m, 2x300m, 2x400m, 2x300m, 2x200m)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Mike. Congratulations on being in the master's division. It is definitely a challenging division but you'll like it.

I think we're fortunate living in the Bay Area. Despite the weather we're having right now, I'll take it over the conditions back in the Midwest and East.

Take care, Happy Holidays and a successful 2009! Keep on running.

Grellan said...

Nice workout. Doesn't it feel great when everything comes together.

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