Steve in a Speedo?! Gross!: December 2024

First Decent Training Week in a While!

>> Monday, December 30, 2024

Here's what last week's training looked like:

• MONDAY: long run and good legs. The long run was one of my best in a while (which isn't saying much as I've taken it a bit easy over the last 3 months working through some calf issues). It was a "normal" long run with the first 2.5 miles easier, then 6 miles harder. I didn't try to descend those harder splits and just started them HARDER and tried to hold on. I did those middle 6 miles in 37:05 (6:10.8/mile pace). Then I did another 3.5 miles easier home for 12.07 miles in 1:24:04 (6:58 pace overall).

• TUESDAY: quick upper body. We had a Christmas party all day, so I got up early and did what I could.

• WEDNESDAY: easy run, decent legs, and a little core. This was Christmas day, but we all just hung out at home. I did my run before anyone was up, and then fit in some legs during some "new toy" time in the afternoon. Then some quick core in the evening. Merry Christmas!!

• THURSDAY: good upper body and easy spin. I didn't want to overdo the bike workout knowing I wanted to run hard the next day. But I had a nice long upper body workout early.

• FRIDAY: 800s and 400s on the trail, good legs, and good core. This was a good day of workouts! Here's my post about my intervals from over the weekend - it was raining, but the trails were mainly clear. Then I did good PT legs mid-day, and a lot of core in the afternoon/evening.

• SATURDAY: ANOTHER BIG DAY with a long trainer ride, good upper body, and some outdoor bike miles commuting to the U. My trainer workout was my most common one: 25 min warm-up, 4x10 min efforts with 5 mins easier between (hard, standing, shifting to a harder gear every 2 mins, and alternating standing and seated every 2 mins), then a 25 min cooldown. My upper body workout was good, and then I also got in 12+ miles outside on my mountain bike as I biked to the University and back to scan something for one of Henry's high school applications:

Biking home. The "white Christmas" we had was all washed away
by the rain the day before! (The rain that I did intervals in.)

• SUNDAY: a rare weekend swim, and some core. I did an easy swim to help make up for missing a swim on Tuesday (pool closed, and gone all day). Just an some easy lengths to loosen up the legs.

My "intensity" minutes have looked real different over these last few weeks:

FOUR weeks ago was a big week of nearly 1800 minutes (school was in session and I was still biking to class 2x/week). THREE weeks ago, I had finished at one school and therefore mid-week was smaller. TWO weeks ago ended with some Christmas parties, so that week started BIG and ended SMALL. And LAST WEEK had Christmas events on Tues and Wed, but then it ended BIG. (Put the first 4 days of 2 weeks ago with the last 3 days of this past week, and I'd have a PR intensity week of 2024 minutes! But I'd never do that - I'd back off even if I would have had time that weekend because I'm too afraid of getting injured.)

Ready for a more random "new years" week! Happy 2025 everyone!

Intervals on River Road

>> Saturday, December 28, 2024

The track was still coated with snow yesterday, so I hit the plowed bike/pedestrian trail along River Road yesterday morning in the rain. I had a windbreaker on so I didn't get soaked, but I draped it in a tree before starting my first interval.

Workout when I was done. Into a breeze for my even intervals.

I did a workout I'd done a number of times (but always on the track before): 4x800 with 2:00 rest, then 4x400 with 1:00 rest. I set my Garmin to 0.25 mile intervals before starting my run, so I let it take "auto laps" to tell me when to finish each interval.

Close-up of the intervals: the 800s were from lap 23 to 9, and the 400s were lap 23 to 24.

Close-up of starting the 800s and 400s. Blue "wiggle" was putting my coat in a tree.

Mid-way for the 800s, or starting/finishing the 400s.

Far end of the 800s.

The trail wasn't slick, but I DID try to avoid puddles a bit. I really had no excuses: I was just there to run hard! The ODD intervals were SLIGHTLY uphill, and the EVEN intervals were SLIGHTLY downhill but into the wind. (I felt the wind more than anything.) And I picked a spot that was relatively flat, and an area that was well-lit as I didn't want to be running hard on an uneven/dangerous trail. As I was running my first 800, I realized I didn't have any goals in mind. I didn't know what to expect as it had been 3 months since doing shorter intervals, but I hoped to be around 2:40 and then get faster. And my first one came in a 2:40.9. Here's what I ran:

4x800 with 2:00 rest, then 4x400 with 1:00 rest:

1:19 + 1:21 = 2:40.9
1:19 + 1:18 = 2:37.5
1:19 + 1:19 = 2:39.1
1:17 + 1:18 = 2:36.0

1:14.1
1:11.3
1:13.8
1:15.3

Ave 800: 2:38.38
Ave 400: 1:13.63

The 800s started to hurt, but then it's "fun" (kinda) to bust out some shorter 400s. And note that last 400: it was my slowest as I was DYING. I ran these well!

I had taken off my mittens and hat and added them to the tree with my coat after my 2nd 800, but then I put everything back on for the damp jog home - it had started raining a little harder by then too, but still nothing nasty.

I last did this workout in May (and it was nearly my fastest iteration of this workout), and I was surprisingly close to those times this week! (Extra shocking because I wasn't on a track this time!) My 800s were about 3.5 sec faster back in May, and my 400s were only 0.13 faster back then! I'm thinking my calf is all healed up and I can keep up some semi-regular speed work.