SPEEDwork

I’ve been noting a pattern in my workouts lately that I thought needed addressing. Although I’ve been feeling ‘strong’, as a result of the base I created in the Fall/Winter, I’ve also been feeling slow and unable to run much quicker than 5:20 pace over any length of time. I decided after the race on Saturday that it was time to start working on this, starting with today’s workout at Charlotte Christian track. I met up with Billy and Spada at the usual unearthly hour of 5.15 and we headed to the track to drag each other through 16 300s with a minute jog/walk recovery. Really ‘enjoyed’ this workout. Recruited fibres and muscles long forgotten and definitely want to incorporate more of this shorter and faster stuff over the next few weeks. Focussed on working on turnover and keeping as relaxed as possible. Towards the end the lactic acid was building, I found myself working hard the first 100, trying to increase the foot speed around the curve and then holding on as relaxed as possible down the straight. Very tired and heavy legged afterwards, definitely taking it easy for the rest of the week! Thanks to Steve and Billy for joining me on this one- wouldn’t have fancied it on my own!

54,53,51,52,51,51,51,50,51,51,51,51,51,51,51,49

I definitely need to do more of these type workouts. As it’s now ‘5k season’ I can see myself doing something like this each week for the next few weeks- already lined up next week’s 20*200 with the guys!

Yesterday's run btw was a nice early jaunt through Mcalpine as the sun rose. I retraced the old loop that coach and I used to regularly run. The rest of the week will be nice and easy mileage each day with the race on Saturday.

Had fun yesterday being very unproductive at work and tracking about 15 people at Boston. Major kudos out to my training partners Aaron and Jay for their awesome 2:42/2:43 prs and to Mindi for yet another (number 10!) solid marathon in the bank!

Judging by all the times and considering that apparently the weather is as good as you’re going to get at Boston, it would appear that most people ran slower than they normally would/are capable of. I know the atmosphere up there and everything else that surrounds the event is awe inspiring, but it’s not for me for a few years yet I don’t think- I’ll probably tackle it once I resign myself to the fact that I’m slowing down and go up there more to soak in everything ‘Boston’ rather than shoot for a breakout marathon performance….