Sunday, January 11, 2009

Unseasonably Warm

Today's temp:  73-degrees.  Great if you had a picnic or barbecue planned on this January afternoon, but not necessarily the best news if you happened to be running a long interval session.  

JT decided to cut back on the workout slightly due to the sore hamstrings, but it was still going to be a tough one:

1200 @ 78 pace
2:30 rest
800 @ 77
2:30 rest
3x600 74-75 pace
2:00 rest between 600s

The pace there is per 400m.  The part of the workout that's a bit sneaky is the relatively short rest after the 1200m.  (typically the post 1200m rest period for me has been about 3:15 - 3:30)  This essentially opens the workout w/ a 2k at about 5:10 mile pace w/ only the 2.5-minute break - and that sets it up such that the subsequent 600s at 5-flat pace are pretty tough.

As I've stated before - these long intervals are much tougher for me than the speed work.  At some point, these sessions will be the focus of my training for a good 5-6 weeks, and as much as I'm going to hate it, I know that once I get through it I'll be a much better runner.  For now though, they are the secondary workout behind the speed sessions - but that certainly doesn't make them any easier.

The workout went as follows:

1200m:  3:51
800m:  2:32
600m:  1:52
600m:  1:51
600m:  1:54  (I struggled some on this last one)

Overall, an OK workout.  The good news is that I never felt the hamstrings, and they haven't bothered me at any point afterwards (which has now been about 4 hours).  I'm hoping that remains the case tomorrow morning.

Yesterday I doubled w/ some lifting at the gym and then a 5-miler.  Ever since I've gotten a few speed sessions under my belt, the pace of these daily runs has increased quite drastically.  Not that I'm complaining, but it has made a much larger difference than I was expecting.

Training:

Sat, 1/10:  lifting (upper-B, abs)  rolling, stretching
5-miles @ 6:47 pace

Sun, 1/11:  5-miles including:  1200m (3:51), 800m (2:32), 3 x 600m (1:52, 1:51, 1:54)  2.5-min breaks after 1200 and 800, 2-min breaks between 600s

4 comments:

Ewen said...

Good news about the hamstrings. 100F forecast here for Thusday - can't say I'm looking forward to the 3000, even though it's at 6pm.

Mike said...

Hey Ewen - 100 is sure going to be tough, but at least it's Summer over there! I was running in the trails w/ frost on the ground a week ago.

Good luck in your race!

Grellan said...

Those longer intervals look, on paper at least, much easier than the short inverval you have been doing.

Mike said...

Grellan - Certainly the long intervals are much slower. (about 10-seconds/400m, which is the difference between I-pace and R-pace in the Daniels book for 400/800 guys - then there's also the F-pace stuff I've done which has been another 6-seconds/400m faster than that)

But, what it comes down to for me is the rest time vs interval length.

In the case of the short intervals, I'm taking 60-90 seconds between reps, and then they're oftentimes grouped into sets where after 4-6 reps I get a 5-minute break.

In the case of the long intervals there are never sets. I might get 2-3 minutes between reps, but 2.5-minutes after a 1200m or 3-3.5 minutes after a mile is much shorter rest on a relative basis. And after a while, the cumulative effect becomes more pronounced.

Also, the long interval sessions are much tougher mentally towards the end. When I'm feeling gassed and I've got maybe a 400m and a 200m to go, regardless of pace, it's easier to get through that then say a 1000m even though the 1000 is slower.

Now, if we added 90-seconds to my rest between long intervals, then that workout becomes the easier one for sure. Like I said, it's all a function of rest/interval length as that determines how tough the cumulative effect becomes as I progress to the end of the workout.