Daniels workout from 5k-15k Training Plan, Week 9 Quality Workout 1. On Table 19.1 on p.244 in my book (2nd edition). 4x200 + 2x400 + 1x800 + 2x400 + 4x200 with equal distance jog.
Ran at about 3pm. Weather was 75, sunny, humid, with a light breeze. Decided to do the workout on the SHHS track because I thought the trails would be messy after the heavy rain this morning, and because the workout is complicated.
At the level I'm at, Daniels recommends a pace of 73 seconds per lap. I hit that on all but the 800. The full recovery makes this an early-season "rep" workout rather than a mid-season interval workout.
Warmed up with 3 miles including strides and stretching, and the legs were not turning over too well. Started the workout and averaged 35 for the first set of 200s, then hit 70/72 for the quarters, 2:30 for the 800, 74/70 for the next 2 quarters, and averaged 34 for the last 4 200s with a 31 for the last rep. Jogged the recoveries at a pace that made the miles average 6:30-7:00. You can break the workout into 5 one-mile segments, each of which has 800m of fast running and 800m of recovery jogging.
Did not feel speedy but only really hurt on the 800. The fact that a single 800 in 2:30 was so tough reflects my training, I guess. I still have a little bit of basic speed which makes running 200s in the low 30s pretty easy. On the other side of the spectrum, aerobically I'm in the best shape of my life, and I feel like I can run 7-minute miles indefinitely (up to 18 or 20, probably). However, I'm severely lacking in strength right now. A 6x800 workout would be ugly. The next phase in Daniels' plan should remedy that.
50:18 at est. 7:30 pace, so call it 6.7M. Ran at 11:30am at RSPP. End HR was 145. Weather was pleasant.
My calves, which had been very sore after yesterday's speed workout, were fine, but both Achilles were stiff the whole way today. Afterwards, my left achilles feels a little tweaked (worse than just sore). It is down near the connection to the heel, similar to what I had last September. Day to day for now.
Ran in a new pair of Adidas Adistar Cushion 6, same model and size as my last pair (but a lot cleaner and shinier). Since they are exactly the same as my workhouse shoes, I didn't expect any problems. They felt tight when I put them on, but didn't cause any blisters or problems. I don't think the Achilles issue today is attributable to the new shoes.
Ran past KK on the aqueduct trail. He appeared to be cruising and looked fine. We waved at each other and then he was long gone.
8M in 58:02 to Dobbs Ferry and back. Ran at high noon. Weather was 80, sunny, and comparatively dry. Pace felt easy and was very even the whole way.
Legs felt slightly lethargic. Before the run, I soaked my Achilles in a bucket of the hottest water I could stand for about 15 minutes to try to loosen them up. It seemed to help, as they were a little less stiff than usual and didn't really hurt during the run. What was a little sore, though, was my right forefoot. I am sure this is from running fast Monday wearing my Cumulus, which seem to have zero or possibly negative forefoot cushion. This has happened before, and one of these days I'll learn. If the foot is sore today, it will really be sore after tomorrow, when I run a 5k on hilly trails wearing 15-year-old Waffle flats...
Van Cortlandt Track Club Summer XC Serie (3.1 Miles) 00:17:48, Place overall: 2
Easy Miles
Marathon Pace Miles
Threshold Miles
VO2 Max Miles
Total Distance
5.00
0.00
0.00
3.10
8.10
Summary: 17:48 over a cross-country 5k for 2nd place at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx. A decent effort, but not great. Would have hoped to have been about 20 seconds faster given the effort. Almost a carbon copy of last year's race, in that I ran decent 1st and 3rd miles but got my butt kicked by the hills in the 2nd mile.
7 pm race, so I started warming up around 4:30. There had been heavy rain earlier, so I jogged to the Y and ran a couple miles on the treadmill, then came back and stretched. Left the house around 5:45 and drove down to the Bronx, arriving about 6:10. Got registered and warmed up. Storms were threatening with dark clouds and lightning in the distance, but it didn't rain. It was about 70 and very humid when the race started.
Van Cortlandt Track Club puts on these cross country races every other Thursday all summer, and this was the last installment. I ran one last summer but this was my first this summer. The atmosphere is super low-key: it only costs $5 to enter, there are no t-shirts, prizes are carrot muffins from the bakery across the street, and most of the entrants (around 100-150) seem to come from the surrounding neighborhood. In the play fields all around the start and finish area, neighborhood kids and adults were playing football, baseball, soccer, rugby, field hockey, etc without paying much attention to the cross country race.
Van Cortlandt Park is probably the most famous cross country course in the country. Tons and tons of championship races from HS to college to pro have been held here for decades. This course started with about 3/4 mile around the play fields and then went back up into the wooded hills for the middle section until coming back down to the fields for the last half mile. The surface is all dirt/gravel paths and it was kind of rough in places. Not only that, but it was a bit dark back in the woods because of the storm clouds and you really had to watch the trail closely. It is not the place to run a fast time!
The plan was to not go out too fast, and I didn't feel like I did, but I found myself at the front when the course left the flat and went up into the hills. This is where some interesting tactics played out. In a normal fun run, you usually don't get a lot of surges and pace changes - everyone just usually runs the same pace the whole time - but this was different, maybe owing to the fact that it was cross country on narrow hilly trails with a lot of turns. Around 1 mile, 2 guys working together (including the eventual winner, who I think is Jamaican) shot out in front. I covered that surge and they eased off. A couple minutes later, an older guy with a beard and yellow cap (who ended up 3rd) charged ahead but we pulled him in. Not long after, the Jamaican guy surged again and the older guy went along, but I couldn't stay with them. I was not doing well up the hills and they quickly had about 5 seconds on me. At around 2 miles I noticed that the older guy was coming back to me, and I was getting a bit of a 2nd wind. I was making up ground on all the downhills. As the course came down out of the woods and around the soccer fields with a half mile to go, I passed him. Unfortunately, the leader was long gone. I put in a half-hearted kick but the winner had me by 12 seconds and seemed to have plenty of gas left. The older guy lost 15 seconds on me but held on to 3rd.
It's funny because almost the exact same scenario played out last year when I raced here. I had a strong 1st mile, then absolutely died on the hills and lost a bunch of places, then regained some mojo on the last mile and passed some people back. Last year, though, I was fat and out of shape, so my time was 52 seconds faster this year.
I wore the Garmin and HRM and had hoped to get some data from the run, but evidently I failed to start it, so I have no data, which is a bummer. Also, the HRM kept slipping down from my chest onto my stomach during the race and I had to re-adjust it a few times, which was distracting.
Overall it was a decent race, definitely not great. The goals were to run hard and get an early-season readout on where I am in training, and to try to increase the pace each mile. For the effort I put in, even taking the slow course into consideration, I thought I would have been about 20 seconds faster. It didn't feel like I went out too fast, but the 2nd-mile hills hit me all at once, so maybe I did. I think the weak middle of the race reflects the fact that I haven't really done much strength work yet: I need some 800/1200/mile repeats, tempo runs, and hills to whip me into racing shape. Competitively speaking, it was a decent effort, again not great. I made an effort to stay in front for the first couple of moves, but couldn't hang in there the 2nd mile when they broke ahead. I did reel in the one guy, but I should have put in a ballsier kick. On the plus side, I did win a carrot muffin.
Stayed up real late after the race lifting weights in the basement, icing, and watching the Olympics.
6.5M in 51:52 (7:58/mile) at noon from Gory Brook up the OCA to the school and back. Pleasant weather (sunny, not too hot, moderately humid).
Slow pace the whole way, the slowest I've run in some time. Wanted to recover from yesterday, but mainly, didn't want to run fast because my left Achilles was sore the whole way. This is worrisome, since it usually loosens up 1-2 miles into the run. Besides that, I had no soreness (i.e. muscular soreness) from last night's race. Guess I didn't push it too hard.
There was a huge limb down across the trail just south of the bike bridge.
11.2M in 78:24. 4 of the miles were 6:45 or better, so call those MP. Ran south on the OCA to Hastings and back. At 2pm, it was 80 deg, sunny, and comparatively dry. Avg pace 6:59, avg HR 153.
Felt good the first couple of miles and even threw in some pickups, even though this was supposed to be a long run. Starting losing energy around the 3rd mile but kept the pace under 7:00 until the 8th mile when I really started to struggle, but kept the pace 7:15 or under until the last mile, which was 7:30 and includes a hill. Especially lately it is unusual for me to positive-split a long run. I think the 1st half was 6:51/mile and the 2nd half 7:07/mile.
Felt exhausted after the run. I know I've been pushing it training-wise with both running and weights. Probably I am overtraining right now. I have a race in 16 days and I'd like to get in another hard week before easing up a bit the week before the race. Tomorrow is a planned day off, but maybe I should take two. We'll see.
My legs were shot and the 2nd half of the run I was having trouble with footing, which is a sure sign of leg fatigue. I was bouncing all over the place side to side and my ankles felt loose and floppy. This is from a combination of hard training, the weights from yesterday (unwisely did squats and lunges, which I just should not do, period), ongoing Achilles problems, dead shoes, and a slight turn of my left ankle which happened on Wednesday's run. Also I have bad blisters on both feet from the race Thursday. Very dehydrated afterwards as well.
