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