31x400 seems mind numbingly crazy.  Most I've ever done is 20, and that felt like forever.

 

If that doesn't help at least with mental toughness, I'm not sure what will...

 

-Kelly

I ran 36x400m back in February, but at a "much slower" 6:07 pace. I considered running the extra 5 repeats yesterday to make it 36x400m again,  just to blow away that previous session, but caution got the upper hand, and also I was too tired and started to realize I would be sore later on.

I just took a look back through my running logs and I've never run more than 8K of intervals in one session at faster than a 6:00 pace before. Yesterday was 12.4K, and  I'm feeling pretty wiped out right now from that. That's a good sign, it means once I recover from this silliness, I'll be stronger and faster. Right?  ??

I tested the treadmill today and ran 5000m in 19:34.  10 years ago, I might have chuckled at the sight of a  40-something, and 40-something pounds overweight doing this. If I can lose some weight, I may surprise a few locals.

Then you had better steer clear of the beer thread.

Geez, if you can run mid-19s carrying 40 extra pounds you have some good speed in there.  Nice.

8 mile tempo in 47:26 (5:56 avg), started in 6:00 flat, most around 5:57, finished with a 5:49.  Comfortable and smooth.  It wasn't many weeks ago that pace was a 4-mile tempo pace.

That's over a minute per mile faster than my tempo run was last night, except mine wasn't so comfortable and smooth, and I was toasted afterwards. Nice running, Spaniel. I'm glad to see things are coming alone so well for you.

8 mile 

(5:56 avg),

Comfortable and smooth. 

No more than one of those belongs in one sentence for me.  In fact that 5:56 (actually just sub 6) for one mile is a life time goal. Will get there once my stupid leg heals up.

8 mile tempo in 47:26 (5:56 avg), started in 6:00 flat, most around 5:57, finished with a 5:49.  Comfortable and smooth.  It wasn't many weeks ago that pace was a 4-mile tempo pace.

Hot damn. Its going to be a good summer of racing.

 

Our mutual buddy John wheeled the track and said that while the 400/800 marks are accurate it is slightly long of 1/5mi, so it may have been 2-3sec/mi faster.

What have I gotten myself into.

Spaniel, I'm curious as to how you're planning to approach this upcoming marathon. On the one hand, you've been fighting injuries for quite a while now and have had some races go not the way you would have wanted. On the other hand, you seem to be coming around to a less painful place and breaking off some good workouts. It seems to me that the temptation would be to try to run a really fast (way under BQ) time given how you seem to be doing lately, but it's also got to be in your mind what the actual goal is, to just get the BQ out of the way. Given that you're ridiculously faster than most of us, how do you reconcile those things? Can a guy as fast as you just run a safe BQ or would it just drive you nuts to coast slower than what you know you're capable of?

 

These, btw, are obviously questions I'll never have to ponder for myself, thus the curiosity.

Heh.  Easy qualifier.  I DNF'd two of those last year.

I am not in shape to run anything significantly fast enough to tempt me.  Perhaps low-2:40s?  My last couple comebacks resulted in 2:38/2:39s (neither of which were good races).  So running another race in that range is not a big carrot.

My plan is to pace sub-2:50 and go late in the race if I'm still feeling good.  That should be good enough for first corral, which is all that matters.

My plan is to pace sub-2:50 and go late in the race if I'm still feeling good.  That should be good enough for first corral, which is all that matters.

Don't count on 2:50 getting you first corral. This year BadDawg was 1266 off a 2:47:52. True, this year was special, but the cutoffs are getting faster every year.