Time For Speed!

I know I said I was just going to train by heart rate from now on. BUT I really feel like I need to do speed work to get faster. I mean, I was getting faster when I was doing speed work, then I stopped and I got slower. So it makes sence, right? I'm still going to do the heart rate/time thing for my long run and easy runs, but for my tempo runs and intervals I'm going to go by pace.

I found this website that tells you what pace you need to do your different distances to meet your goal time for whatever distance you put in. It's pretty cool. I need to be a lot faster! It also has some workouts for you to do, and one of them called, "Fast 400s" says to do 5 x 400m at 800m pace. My 800m pace is 7:03 so last Thursday I decided to try that on the treadmill, even though I can bearly run that fast at all! The good thing about the treadmill is that you set the pace, and it makes you stick to it. I wasn't going to do 5 so I thought I'd try for 3, and I did it! Well, I almost did it. I did back it off a little bit early on the last one. I was happy that I was able to even do it, though! I'm going to keep working on it.

Then, Monday, I did a 45 minute tempo run where I tried to run at my tempo pace (which is 8:54) for the middle 25 minutes. I thought I could do this, no problem! But, I didn't quite make it. It was really, really hard. I was able to do 4.58 miles in 45 minutes which is faster than I've done in a long time so that felt really good! But, my splits were:

1. 10:18
2. 9:05
3. 9:19
4. 9:50
5. 11:06

I almost did it on the first mile, but it just got more painful and slower from there. So, I'm going to go down to 20 minutes for the next one. Once I can do that, I'll add more time on.

Yesterday I had taken the morning off because the night before I was really tired and awnry. It was really nice to just spend the day with the kids anyway, since they're on spring break right now. We did go on a lesurly walk to the park, but that was it. But then, my friend from swimming, Chris, invited me to go with her to a track workout with the Desert Sharks Triathlon Club. I figured I had taken most of the day off anyway, and if I went I wouldn't have to wake up early the next morning to do speed work.

Chris had me meet her at Sugarhouse Park at 6:45, but when I got there she told me she had just realized it was the wrong track. So we got in her car, went and found the highschool where they were actually meeting. Luckily, we were only about 5 minutes late so we got to do half the warm-up. I could have used a little more time, but I started with them when they were ready to go! The plan was do to 6 x 400, resting for 1 minute between each one starting when the slowest/last person (ME) got there, then 4 x 200 jogging the rest of the lap then just going again when you hit the start line.

Those guys were fast! I took off with them at first, thinking, "I feel good, I can do this!" That feeling lasted for about 1/4 a lap, then the pain started. Chris and I ended up skipping the 4th 400 because we just needed a little more recovery time. I mean, come one, everyone else was getting 20-30 seconds longer to recover than me! :)

Here are my times (I didn't hit the button right on the first one, though)

400s:

? (7:30 pace)

1:54 (7:19)
1:56 (7:27)
1:59 (7:45)
1:53 (7:24)

200s:
:53 (7:04)
:52 (6:33)
:56 (7:20)
:49 (6:11) Oh yeah, look at that last one! :)

This was hard work, but it was actually really fun! I hope I can work it out to go with them again sometime! It was really good for me to run with such fast people, and they were all really nice and would cheer me on when I'd come in. It was also fun to hang out with Chris other than at the pool!

When I got home, I was still feeling it in my throat/lungs. It was a weird feeling, almost like I needed to cough or had a sore throat. It was hard going to bed after working out so late in the evening like that (7-8pm). I stayed up until 11, but then made myself go to bed. Then it wasn't like my legs were sore, but they almost felt like they were just humming with energy. It was like I'd had a bunch of caffeine or something. It was weird, and I had a really hard time sleeping even though I felt tired. I didn't like that so I don't know how much I'll be able to meet them and workout at night like that. I did get to sleep in this morning, though, luckily! Anyway, it was really good and I'm glad I got to do it.