Notes
I was very pleased with this workout today (albeit not because of my level of fitness), but because I met the specific goals I wanted to meet, and neither knee hurt. Success, from my perspective.
The workout was 5x5 min @ tempo pace. And the tempo was supposed to start conservative and get faster as I went.
Goal #1: No injury pain; check.
Goal #2: Have the pieces get faster; mostly check.
Goal #3: test the building a workout function on my new watch; Check! And wow, its sweet!
Goal #4: not get bogged down in particular paces or discouragement about fitness; check! Which is why I did an entirely time-based workout as opposed to going to a track or doing any sort of specific distance intervals.
Our new watches are sweet, and Anders and I are playing around with all the new functions and how to use them. One of the features is the ability to build a workout- include any length warm-up you want to when you're running, then start the workout, the watch will beep/vibrate after each piece and after each rest period to signal the start of the next segment, and you can specify the length of each and the number of sets. It was awesome! And then post-workout you can import the data and actual feedback about what paces you were actually running because the GPS records the actual distance. I think its the best of both worlds for my mindset right now: I ran the whole workout based upon perceived effort, and it was entirely time based, and then I was able to go back and get specific feedback. I loved it, and will probably continue to incorporate more workouts like this one, especially right now when I'm just beginning to start the building block stage of fitness.
So, again, the workout was 5x5 min @ tempo, and the goal was to make each piece faster than the one before it, which I almost accomplished, and to feel good to start and be able to accomplish the whole workout without blowing up, given my current state of fitness, or lack thereof. The first two pieces felt easy, I was starting to work by the VERY end (last ~30sec) of the 3rd piece, and the last two felt hard. Ideally the paces of the 4th an 5th piece should have been flip flopped, but for my first workout back in a long time and with little gauge of where my fitness is, I'll take it and was pleased. I ran the workout based upon perceived effort, and now its fun and helpful to go back and actually see feedback.
1st piece .69miles; 7:17 pace (I'm glad this one felt easy, given that it was 7:17, hah. conservative start accomplished)
2nd piece .71 miles; 7min pace
3rd piece .74 miles; 6:43 pace
4th piece .78 miles; 6:27 pace (this was the one that really got hard and in hindsight I should have been more conservative)
5th piece .76 miles; 6:38 pace
Its incredibly fun to be back in the game. Enjoying what I believe to be a well-deserved runner's high.