Stepping it Up

With the season starting up here in June, May is the critical month.  It's now time to take all of the other training - the tempo runs, cruise intervals, and hill repeats - the lifting, the core work, the long Sunday runs, as well as the long intervals, and volume speed sessions - and draw from all of that to handle the intensity of what's coming.  

At this point in the build, it's pretty much "Go Time".  I got my first taste of some speedwork last Saturday w/ the three 62 quarters after the 5:14 mile.  On Wednesday, after the 3x800m, I got a little taste of a short rest speed session w/ the 6 x 200m (60-seconds rest).  Today it was time to bring it together for my first high intensity anaerobic session.

Today's workout:

3 x 200m

2 x 300m

500m

2 x 300m

3 x 200m

all at 32-second/200 pace, and the whole lot w/ 90-seconds rest between reps.

After that, it's an 8-10 minute break - then:

500m @ 62-second/400m pace. 

What makes this session so much tougher than the others is that 2x300/500/2x300 section in the middle - having to go 48-48-80-48-48 getting only 90-seconds between each repeat.  That's a tall order for me - the 500m is very difficult w/ what comes before it.  After the 500, you're not going to be feeling all that great and you've still got half the workout to go.  The lactic acid just keeps building and you're forced to run through it w/o ever slowing down.  And all of this simply builds up to that last 500m which is faster than anything else in the workout - even after the break, you just don't have much left in the legs to run the thing properly.  

I told coach that I thought I'd struggle w/ the 500s on this one, and that hitting this entire w/o as it's drawn up may be something I'd need to build towards during the next 2-3 months.  She told me that it was OK if the first 500 was at 82-83, and for the last one she said, "just hit the pace for 400m, the last 100 we'll just consider a bonus".  

The session started well enough w/ the 200s:  31-31-30.  The initial 300s weren't bad either, 47-48.  By now I was feeling it and I had that bear of a 500 in front of me.  I was targeting 82, but w/ the short rest I started to get into trouble after 350m.  I pushed to get in by 83, a little slower than I wanted, but I had no time to be disappointed.  In a few seconds I had another 48-second 300 to do and for the life of me I couldn't figure out how that was going to be possible.  Somehow though, it just worked - 48.  Feeling quite horrible at this point I counted down my minute and a half and took off again, another 48.  

After the last 300 I got lightheaded for a few seconds.  I was going on fumes at this point, but the tough middle section was thankfully over.  "Just 200s left", I told myself.  "You can always do 200s".  The first one was actually the toughest.  The 90-second rest was long enough such that w/ just 200m reps, I was surprisingly recovering during this portion of the wo.  The 200s went: 31-31-30, same as the opening 200s.  (perhaps I did have enough in the tank to hit that 500 a little harder?)

During my break, I walked a lap and then put on my spikes.  I had 500m left to go w/ whatever I could throw out there.  The target I had in my head was to just break 80.  JT wanted a good first 400m and we'd take whatever we got on the last 100, but still I thought sub-80 was possible.  

The first 100m felt smooth and effortless.  I was running very relaxed w/ almost no arm action and still I crossed the 200m mark in 29.  I crossed the 300m mark in 45.x, "damn I'm on 61 quarter pace after all that!"  Unfortunately this is the point where the fatigue hit me like a ton of bricks.  I still managed to cross the 400m mark in 62.x, but I was dead in the water here.  I got down the last straightaway as best I could, fumbled a bit stopping the watch, and when I finally turned it off it read:  80.02  Well, maybe that was a 79.8, but I'll call it an 80 and just look to do better next time.  

That was tough.  All totaled it was 3.4km (2.11 miles) @ 4:15 pace - for me, that's a solid day's work.

Training:

Thurs, 4/30:  5-miles @ 6:58

Fri, 5/1:  5-miles @ 7:09

AM  lifting (upper-A, abs)  stretching, rolling

Sat, 5/2:   3x200m, 2x300m, 500m, 2x300m, 3x200m (31-31-30-47-48-83-48-48-31-31-30) (1.5' rests) 10-minutes, 500m:  80 (62.x @ 400m)

Mix and Match

Today was another "combo workout" where I did some long intervals up front followed by some speed work on the back end.  These sessions are new to me - I'm used to running the entire w/o at close to the same pace, so it takes some getting used to.  I can clearly see the value in the sessions - use the long intervals to get in some VO2Max type work (even if it is in lower volume) which also pre-fatigues the legs such that I can be forced to work hard on the speed portion even though I'm no longer able to go all that fast. (which hopefully decreases the chances of injury)

Today's deal:

Standard warm up:  Mile jog, stretching, 2x200m (the 200s are like long strides to get the legs ready to go)

3 x 800m @ 2:35 (2.5' rests)

5-minutes

6 x 200m @ 30-31 (60-second rests)

The 8s went off without a hitch, but one thing I learned today:  coming from a sprinter's background - I'm not that big a fan of combining 60-second rests w/ speed work!  (although this is exactly the type of training I need to process the lactate better to handle that 2nd lap during an 800m race - the reality is, I need to do a lot more of this, unfortunately)

I hit all the times, but the 5th one wasn't much fun, and I honestly didn't even want to go to the starting line for #6.  The fastest one was 30.0, the slowest was 31.4 and I averaged 30.8.  Not too bad, but these guys should get better when I get more of these short rest sessions under my belt.

A few easy days ahead - I have a session from hell scheduled for Saturday. 

Training:

Sun, 4/26:  5-miles @ 6:56  (should have been a long run, but the hip was tight so I cut it short)

Mon, 4/27:  Appointment w/ CMT - hip is getting better, everything else was much improved, and there are now no other issues.  No running (scheduled off day)

Tues, 4/28:  lifting (upper-B, abs) stretching, rolling. 

No running - took an extra day to rest the hip

Wed, 4/29:  Interval/Rep combo.  Standard w/u, 3 x 800m (2:34, 2:35, 2:35 - w/ 2.5' rests), 6 x 200m (30.8 average - 60-sec rests)

Dustin' Off the Track Spikes

I was supposed to do some speed work on Tuesday, however the mild issues w/ the hip and quad caused us to call an audible and do a volume speed session instead.  (400s @ 68)

There are still a few sore spots here and there, so I needed to be careful, but I was feeling good enough to do my first real speed work of the season.  Today's workout was a few 400s at a quick pace w/ near full recoveries.  JT being as clever as she is, decided to 'extend' my warm up just a tad to make sure I wouldn't be able to really go out and hit it on the 400s.  What we didn't want to have happen was me overdoing it on the 4's and potentially straining a muscle somewhere, so the idea was to pre-fatigue the legs to keep this from happening.  This warm up 'extension' came in the form of a 5:15 mile that I was to do prior to the quarters.  "Yeah", I said, "that ought to do the trick".

The target for the session was as follows:

Mile warm up

2 x 200m

Mile @ 5:15

7-minute rest

3 x 400m @ 62-63 w/ near full recoveries (about 7-minutes)

**  I was to switch over from the flats to the spikes for the last two 400s

I nearly nailed the session.  Once again I didn't bother to time the 200s.  Just ramped the pace up - went at speed for about 100m and then ramped it back down.  I was a little lax early on w/ the mile (2:38 first half), but I closed w/ a 2:36 to come in at 5:14.  Clearly this was a little tougher than my usual warm up - let's not turn this into the standard deal, shall we!?

The first 400m came in at 62.3  I then switched over to my spikes for the first time in, well, way too long.  Ah the feeling of being back in spikes - you feel like a duck when walking in them, but boy they're nice to have when moving around an all-weather oval - 400 #2:  61.1  

After #2 I think the adrenaline was wearing off as I started to feel some of the soreness from before.  In addition, my legs were already getting tired.  (this should improve drastically after a few legit speed sessions)  I knew I had just run my fastest 400 for today, and all I wanted out of #3 was to go under 63.  The session was going pretty well, and if I could just hit a 62.x w/ all the work I'd put in thus far, I'd feel like it would be an excellent opening speed session.

After the first 200 I knew I was a little slow, but I was surprised to see that it was almost 32.  "Yikes, this is a problem I need to pick it up".  I was happy in that I did negative split this last guy, but I came in just over the wire in 63.1 - oh well, motivation for next time.  

Overall, a good session.  I got to experience some faster paces again in something longer than a 200m for the first time in a long time.  I also got back into the spikes which is always nice.  Lastly, I walked off the track no worse off physically than I walked on.  I think I've got about a week for the rest of this soreness to subside and then I should be back to 100%.  

Good luck to Rick in London tomorrow!!

Training:

Wed, 4/22:  Appointment w/ CMT - no running

Thurs, 4/23:  5-miles @ 7:02 (sore)

AM  Lifting (upper-B, abs) stretching, rolling

Fri, 4/24:  5-miles @ 6:53 (feeling a little better)

AM Lifting (upper-A, abs) stretching, rolling

Sat, 4/25:  3 x 400m 62-23, after standard w/u plus 5:15 mile to pre-fatigue the legs.

2x200m - untimed, Mile-5:14, 400s (62.3, 61.1, 63.1)

A Bit Out of Reach

JT had a very tough workout slated for early this week and she wanted me to take an extra easy day beforehand which would have pushed the w/o to Wednesday.  Unfortunately, I have my CMT appt scheduled for Wednesday morning, and I was unable to change it.  With the quad perhaps still a mild concern, and the left hip flaring up I really didn't want to cancel, so that meant I'd have to do the session today.  

With that being the case, we switched up the session giving me one that would be less demanding:

2 x 200m:  31-32

5 x 400m:  68 (90-second rests)

4-minutes break

3 x 400m:  66 (90-second rests)

3-minutes break

2 x 200m: 31-32

Yeah, that's the 'easy' one - the other one was a real beast!  I knew looking at this, that I was probably in trouble.  Two weeks ago I did 8 x 400m at about 70 w/ 2-min rests.  Today I was cutting 2+ seconds/lap, cutting 30-seconds off the rest, AND it was 25+ degrees warmer today.  (not a great combination)  I decided to give it my best shot and see how it went.

The highlight of the session was the opening 200s.  Being careful to baby the quad, I ramped the pace up very slowly for the first 30 yards or so, got up to a halfway decent pace by the 100m mark, picked it up a little for the next 70 meters and then eased up towards the finish.  Nice and smooth, never pushed it - 28.6  Did the same on #2 - 28.6  I was fully expecting to see 30-31s w/ that effort, so to see 28s was a pleasant surprise.

However, the rest of the w/o didn't go quite so smoothly!  The good news was that the hip and quad gave me ZERO issues (probably all that digging into the hips w/ the tennis ball yesterday to alleviate the stiffness) But damn - my glutes were SORE!

The first couple quarters were fine, but the short rest started catching up to me after #3.  Times were:

69-67-68-68-69  (the last one was tough)

By now I was feeling pretty dead.  How the hell was I going to do a second set at 66 w/ the same 90-second rests??  Answer - I wasn't.  I took an extra minute between sets, but I was still feeling pretty awful.  I gave it a go, but after an opening 32-second 200 the wheels started to come off and I finished w/ a 68.  Now in fairness, I was not gunning these things - if I was going to do that, there'd have been no point in going away from the original workout.  This was supposed to be a more 'relaxed' session.  But no matter how you sliced it, I was pretty dead at this point.  I imagine I could have toughed it out and thew a 69 up there, gone right to the 3-minute rest (dropping the last rep) and done a couple of token 200s to close the session, but I got everything I wanted out of this one . . . . I was healthy!  Exhausted, sore, hot (it was about 85 degrees), but healthy.

Later I headed over to the gym to get in my primary leg lifting session for the week.  I'll have to talk to coach to see what she thinks about this session.  Clearly I wasn't able to do what she thought I could do.  Was it the soreness, the temperature, or just a slight overreach for my current capabilities?  Perhaps a combination of all of them.  For some reason, I'm not overly disappointed w/ the session - although I didn't hit the goal, I'm pretty sure I gave what I had out there today.  

The most important thing now is to have that appt w/ the CMT, make sure I'm healthy, get some rest, (a few VERY easy runs over the next couple of days) and get ready to really start hitting it.  I've got to start the serious speed work ASAP - the season is little more than 2-months away!!

Training:

Mon, 4/20:  Off  (stretching, rolling)

Tues, 4/21:  2x200 (28.6, 28.6), 5x400 (69,67,68,68,69), 5-minutes, 1x400 (68)  90-seconds between reps

PM - lifting on legs, stretching, rolling

Rotating Discomfort

The plan for the Sunday run was for 8-miles starting at a relaxed pace and ramping down to threshold effort for the last 2 miles.  A couple of things altered this plan:

#1 - I started later than I wanted due to the 90+ degree temps (even at 6:30 pm!).  This late start caused a time constraint so I wound up going faster than planned early in the run.

#2 - With the quad feeling close to 100%, I was hoping to be out of the woods on the potential injury front, however about 2-miles into the run, my left hip began to bother me.  It never got to the point that it became a legitimate problem, but it did keep me from really hitting it towards the end of the run.

The first mile was 6:47 (much faster than planned) and although I did settle into a high 6:50s pace running through the trails - this pace in that heat probably sapped some of my energy.  Towards the end the pace dropped to 6:20, then 6-flat, and eventually about 5:54 before easing up the last half mile.  

Overall the run was OK, but I'm now concerned about the hip.  I've had left quad stiffness plenty of times so I'm familiar w/ what that means for me, how to treat it, and that it really isn't a serious issue.  This hip thing though, I don't know.  It's never happened before, and although it doesn't seem serious, the fact that it's an unknown has me concerned.  Today is my off day, so I'm doing all the standard stuff - ice, ibuprofen, rolling, stretching, etc.  I'm not sure what the schedule is going to hold for this week as I need to see how this thing progresses.

Training:

Sun, 4/19:  7.5 miles @ 6:40

A Few 1000s

On the heels of Tuesday's difficult session, I awoke Wednesday to discover that my left quad was a little stiff.  Other than that, just a slight amount of soreness in the hamstrings and calves, which was expected.

I made sure to baby the quad for a few days - I have an appointment w/ the CMT next week, so I'll be on my own stretching and rolling until then.  

Saturday was long interval day.  Being that the Tuesday session was so tough, and I'm planning on running a bit of a progression on Sunday, coach decided to back off a little on the intervals.  Instead of a more typical 4 x 1000m at about 3:15, we were going to do 3 x 1000m at 3:15-3:20. (3-minute breaks between each)

We're in the middle of a mini-heat wave this week (about 92 degrees today), but I was able to hit the track before the temps got too hot (80 degrees)  I was planning on starting at about 3:20 and maybe ramping down slightly if I felt really good, but surprisingly I felt great from the onset.  

Times were 3:15 - 3:13 - 3:14, and although the HRs were a tad higher than usual (probably due to running in higher temps for the first time in a while), I didn't really feel it until the last 500m of the last interval.  Good short session.

I'm planning on getting in a few hard miles towards the end of my run in the trails today, and hopefully the quad doesn't stiffen up.  

Training:

Wed, 4/15:  5-miles @ 6:57  (quad felt stiff during the last 1/2 mile)

Thurs, 4/16:  5-miles @ 7:12 (quad OK)

AM  lifting (upper-B, abs) stretching, rolling

Fri, 4/17:  lifting (upper-A, abs) stretching, rolling

Sat, 4/18:  4-miles including 3 x 1000m (3:15, 3:13, 3:14)  3-min rests

Brutal Conditions

Wow, what a difficult day.  A long session in absolutely brutal conditions:  volume speed workout on the schedule:  2x200m, 2x300m, 2x400m, 600m, 2x400m, 2x300m, 2x200m, and this was run under a "high wind advisory" where we had gusts up over 35 mph.  That's some tough sledding.  

The idea for this w/o at this stage of the build is to get in some solid volume at a pace that's faster than the long intervals, but not really "fast".  Target paces:  200s - 33, 300s - 50, 400s - 68, 600 - 1:45 w/ a jog in between each rep equal in length to the previous repeat.  The way it should go is that I typically run the 200s a little quicker, and then just get into a nice rhythm throughout.  The paces are a little quick, but not to the point where I need to over exert myself and the total volume at pace winds up being the real value of the session.  

I'm comfortable running this type of workout in the heat, in the rain, whatever - but extremely high winds make this kind of session quite a challenge.  How bad was the wind?  On one repeat I started off in lane-1 . . . and later found myself in lane-3!  I'm supposed to be averaging about 17-seconds per 100m here - one 100m stretch took me 21-seconds.  (I came very close to coming to a complete stop for a second there)  And making things even more 'enjoyable' was the fact that the wind was coming at an angle such that I was dead against it on one of the turns, (and thus the wind was w/ me on the other turn), but on the straights, it felt like it was a good 80% against me on one - and nothing more than a cross wind on the other.  (i.e. 200m against the wind, 100m with the wind, and 100m w/ a cross wind)  Just awful.

I got a good sense of just how  tough the day would be after the 200s. The last time I ran timed 200s was during a warmup about a month ago.  There I ran two 200s in sub-28, but it felt like a nice relaxed effort.  The first 200 yesterday I figured I'd put in a good 30-31 effort, but was amazed to see a 33.  Next 200 - same thing.  I upped my effort a little more - still 33.  Wow, this was going to be a mess.

At this point I figured my times for the day were going to be out the window and perhaps I should just accept it, run the workout on "effort" and try to get into the rhythm I was looking for.  However, I'm pretty stubborn when it comes to repeats. . . .

300s - 48, 49

400s - 67, 67

I really had to work for these, but I still felt like I was in a good rhythm.

The 600 was laughable.  First 300 in 51 seconds, and then I went into the wind on the back straight - got blown into

lane 2, and that 100m took me 21-seconds!!  Then I had the turn dead into the wind, just awful.  I finished in a crappy 1:47.

After the 600, the tone of the workout totally changed.  It was no longer going to be a "get into the flow" kind of thing.  I had almost half the workout to go, and I was tired of getting blown all over the place.  I was pissed (in a good way if there's such a thing) and I started working harder to cut through the wind.   

400s - 67, 66 (the 66 felt like a 61-62 effort)

300s - 48, 47 (I hit that 2nd 300 pretty hard)

200s - 29

As I got to the start of the 2nd 200 my left calf started to cramp a bit.  I figured I only had one more 200 left and I wanted to finish, so I gave it a go.  After about 140m I felt the cramp coming on so I eased up.  No injury, no big deal - my body was just telling me it had had enough for one day.  

The totals were:

33-33, 48-49, 67-67, 1:47, 67-66, 48-47, 29-x

But the effort required to get those times was probably at least 2-3 seconds/400 more than that.  Very challenging day.  I'll have to wait and see how I feel over the next day or two before we nail down the specifics of the Fri/Sat session. 

Best of luck to you Boston guys during your final prep before the big show!

Training:

Mon, 4/13:  5-miles @ 6:57 pace

Tues, 4/14:  7-miles including 2x200, 2x300, 2x400, 600, 2x400, 2x300, 2x200 (times above)