A NEW Interval Workout for Me: 5x1000
>> Thursday, May 22, 2025
My coach posted this last week for the team workout:
5x100 sounded fun. 5x1000... a little less fun.
I was aware that a 2:40 800 would be same pace as a 3:20 1000. And being when I do 800 repeats, I usually start around 2:40 and drop to the lower 2:30s, I figured 3:20 was a good place to start my 1000s... if I could. My opening 1000 was a bit slower at 3:22, but then #2 was faster at 3:18. I figured I wouldn't be able to negative split them ALL, but I wondered if I could keep the rest under 3:20. But after making #3 a bit faster yet, then I DID start to think that maybe I could keep the negative split going. I suffered hard, and I got a perfect negative split (only because I hit the final 200 of the final interval HARD):
1000 = 400, 400, 200 meter splits
3:22.0 = 1:22, 1:20, 0:38
3:18.4 = 1:19, 1:19, 0:38
3:16.2 = 1:19, 1:18, 0:38
3:15.0 = 1:18, 1:18, 0:37
3:14.7 = 1:18, 1:19, 0:36
Whew! By the hair of my chinny chin chin!!
In this Garmin map, I started at the lower left, ran 2.5 laps until the upper right, then cut across the track. My water bottle was parked along all the blue squiggles where I got my sips, and then I walked to the start line again to repeat:
I like I how I cut across the track sooner and sooner as I went on. I was POOPED.
You can see the easier dip in the first interval.
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Better Long Run!
>> Wednesday, May 21, 2025
After last week's crappy long run, I was determined to have a good one this week. It was a perfect 40 degree morning for running (albeit a bit breezy), and I hit the "harder pace miles" in the middle a bit harder from the start. In my sluggish run the week before, I had 3 opening half-mile splits of 3:1x. This time, I kept them all at 3:08 or faster. Here were my half-mile splits during my 6 harder "pace miles" in the middle:
3:08, 3:08, 3:05, 3:05, 3:00, 3:08, 3:01, 2:59, 2:57, 3:04, 2:57, 2:56
= 36:33, or 6:05.50 pace - 18:37 first half, 17:56 second half (6:12.33 and 5:58.67 pace)
Overall, I did 11.63 miles at 6:44 pace. Looking at these last 9 long runs (highlighted in my crappy long run post), this week's was the 2nd fastest overall pace (behind the only treadmill run), and had the 4th fastest "pace miles" in the middle. It wasn't an AMAZING run, but it felt a little like vindication after a crappy run last week.
I'll have a post about a NEW track workout tomorrow, some "Friday Funnies" on Friday, and a weekend post about an upcoming race!
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Long Ride with Snake
>> Monday, May 19, 2025
The bike trail under I-35E along Shepard has been closed for a few weeks. And so is the river crossing at I-35E. I've been missing out on my favorite semi-hilly ride, along with the "tempo loop" that I like to do as a "check in" of my bike speed.
Last week, I checked on the progress (it LOOKS like it could open soon!), and then biked back up to the Hwy 5 river crossing. The only problem with that is you have to dismount, walk down 40 steps with your bike to the bridge, bike across the short bridge, and then walk up 40+ steps on the other side to get back to biking. And then cross the high and long Mendota Bridge which can be wicked on windy days! But the good news is that after doing all of that, I'm back on my favorite semi-hilly course.
The bridge that's annoying to bike across.
Hi little fella!
Close-up of his face.
That was the last day it was WARM last week, and then it was 40 degrees and super windy when it was time to bike this past weekend. I stayed on the trainer for that and just did 4x10 efforts in the middle of 100 minutes of riding.
It should finally warm up again this weekend, so I can finally plant all of my started-from-seed plants in our veggie garden. It was 70-80 a few days last week, and since then we've had lows in the 40s and highs in the 50s.
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Crappy, Crappy Long Run
>> Saturday, May 17, 2025
I was really due for a crappy run, and I had it on Monday. I mentioned that my intervals over a week ago felt sluggish and that I had a "training readiness" of 3. And I mentioned in my recent "week in review" post that I've been dragging and need to ease back a little.
I started my run and upped the pace (for 6 miles) as I usually do after 2.5 miles of warming up. But I just couldn't get the times to drop, even though I was working. My first 3 half-mile splits were over 3:10, which is very unusual lately. I just couldn't get my times down. After 3 miles, I knew I wasn't going to get to mile 6, so I decided to only go 5 (and my last 2 miles were a bit faster because I was happy I was skipping a 6th harder mile). So the half-mile splits of the harder 5 miles in the middle of this long run looked like this:
3:18, 3:12, 3:14, 3:09, 3:07, 3:08, 3:05, 3:02, 3:03, 3:04 = 31:27 for 5 miles (6:17.40 pace).
6:23.67 pace for the first 3, and 6:08.00 pace for the last 2.
6:58 overall pace, 6:17 pace for 5 faster miles
If I go back to mid-March, here's what each of my weekly long runs looked like:
- 3/17: 6:48 overall pace, 5:59 pace for 6 faster miles
- 3/24: 6:54 overall pace, 6:13 pace for 6 faster miles
- 3/31: 6:37 overall pace, 5:59 pace for 6 faster miles (treadmill)
- 4/07: 6:56 overall pace, 6:12 pace for 6 faster miles
- 4/14: 6:49 ovearll pace, 6:08 pace for 6 faster miles
- 4/21: 6:58 overall pace, 6:10 pace for 5.3 faster miles (before a race)
- 4/28: skipped because of the Get in Gear 10K
- 5/05: 6:48 overall pace, 6:04 pace for 6 faster miles
So of those 7 previous weekly runs, 2 had pace miles that were barely sub-6:00, 2 had pace miles at 6:0X, and 3 were in the lower 6:1Xs. This week's run was in the upper 6:1Xs... not a huge difference, but it felt SOOOOO crappy.
The next morning, I woke up with another low "training readiness" score telling me to rest:
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