Former Bad Ass
Tropical Storm Arthur has formed just East of us. We've been getting the outer bands since Sunday. We had flash floods on Sunday. So, East Coasters, be prepared for rain. A LOT OF IT!
Damaris
Luckily, not his own.
Luckily?
10 miles done. 8:32 pace is all I could muster in that heat. Pas capable de plus.
Scotty, a mini heat wave is 106 *F humidex (Cyber will explain what humidex is. He's the brain on this side of the border). Sometimes, we also have big heat waves...
PRs: Boston Marathon, 3:27, April 15th 2013
Cornwall Half-Marathon, 1:35, April 27th 2013
18 marathons, 18 BQs since 2010
Baboon - Obviously I'm not LRB, but you'll see a huge improvement after 10 weeks if you keep at it. I would say that you'll feel minor improvements even after 2-3 weeks, or at least it will suck less.
All true.
Boon, I do not necessarily do speed work to get faster at it, but rather to get faster at racing, which may sound like semantics but it really is not.
Check it; the paces I run at the track are all set paces (Tempo, VO2 Max, Repetition or "R" pace) and are based on a current race PR, which means if all things are favorable (usually weather) I should be able to run and hold those paces. So usually the only variable is how much rest between the intervals I need to hold my target pace for each interval.
When you first start with new paces, you may need 3 minutes to recover between intervals (which is an eternity) or need to stop and walk a couple of times after an interval. But if you are unable to hold a given pace for the bulk of your session or even within an interval then you may need to rethink your target pace.
Once you are training at the proper paces what you will find (rather quickly as BP astutely pointed out) is that the time to recover between intervals becomes less where you eventually are able to run 6 X 1200's at 5k pace with as little as 2 minute recoveries without stopping a single time to walk or take a break from the time you leave your house to the time you return to it. That is when you know you are ready to take a huge jump in fitness at your next race.
Once you score a new race PR, your training paces reset and the entire process begins anew. You then go back to struggling between intervals and working on eliminating walk breaks and/or long recoveries.
Look up Daniels VDOT values or McMillan's training calculator if you prefer to find the paces you should be training at based on a recent PR. Your speed work paces should be based off your current fitness or you may do more struggling than adapting.
The other important variable is rest & nutrition. You have to treat each workout (or at least I do) like it is a race, therefore you are mentally geeked for the ass kickin' you are about to endure, and have eaten properly in the days leading up to it so that you have the energy (both physically and mentally) to see the workout through to its end.
delicate flower
layin' down the education
mucho appreciato, el mariachi.
<3
Somehow I missed seeing the hairy arms the first time ... had to go back for a second look. And then a third.
LRB - If I could only whip my diet into shape the way I'm trying to get back into the ab work, I would be looking forward to taking DS to the pool this summer instead of dreading it. :P
20,000 miles behind me, the world still to see.
Somehow I missed seeing the hairy arms the first time ... had to go back for a second look. And then a third. LRB - If I could only whip my diet into shape the way I'm trying to get back into the ab work, I would be looking forward to taking DS to the pool this summer instead of dreading it. :P
Hairy arms? Lemme go check that...
His arms are hairily out of proportion.
Sorry, it's the heat that's gone to me head...
Edit: I meant "my" head. Not me head. I'm not Scottish. It's just the heat...
Sorry, it's the heat that's gone to me head... Edit: I meant "my" head. Not me head. I'm not Scottish. It's just the heat...
You had to get back to take a second look, eh? And a third.
Look at what? The man with his tool? Or was it not not his tool? I forget. Lemme go check...
Are you drunk?
I have to say I didn't notice the hairy arms either. Good thing he has that tool.
Took advantage of the TM to nail my "track" workout this morning! I had the feeling that my trouble with the pace was all in my head, so on the TM my only options were keep up, fall off, or wimp out and turn the speed down. And I chose keep up- hit every interval at target pace!
It was 5 x 1000 @ 5Kish pace (8:05) with 400m recoveries. The metric TM helped a lot with measuring those intervals. So now I at least know I can do it.
No. Just making sure that B-Plus's assessment was correct.
Uffda
Nice running there Z! I have a race on Friday, but thinking about doing some Interval work tomorrow. Hmmm, maybe that's too close to the race.
- Andrew
I have to say I didn't notice the hairy arms either. Good thing he has that tool. Took advantage of the TM to nail my "track" workout this morning! I had the feeling that my trouble with the pace was all in my head, so on the TM my only options were keep up, fall off, or wimp out and turn the speed down. And I chose keep up- hit every interval at target pace! It was 5 x 1000 @ 5Kish pace (8:05) with 400m recoveries. The metric TM helped a lot with measuring those intervals. So now I at least know I can do it.
Great work, Zel! TM running is very useful for interval sessions.
I read your blog. It's great! So you would say that you are what age now? 17 in terms of autonomy as a stranger in a strange land? Travelling helps us be young again. I love the way you write, keep it up!