Last week...
I made a triumphant* return to circuits on Monday. It was partner circuits, which means you work in a pair and one person does a number of lunges (for example) while you do sit ups, then you swap over. I was with Tracey, and we were quite evenly matched, but she decided to take her time choosing a resistance band to use for lateral raises, so I ended up doing over a minute of non-stop climbers. I will get my revenge...
*Sloth-like
On Tuesday I helped at beginners running club and took some of the run-walkers on a 2 mile slow-paced run (2 min run/1 min walk). I think I broke one of the ladies because she told Pete after that her shins really hurt. Oops. Pilates was hard on arms and core this week, with more lateral raises and lots of press ups. I think Zanna and Pete are collaborating :(
I intended to run either after the morning school run or at lunchtime on Wednesday, but work meant I was busy until 2pm. Giving myself 45 minutes, I decided to run up to Wilbury Hills/Standalone Farm. It's just over 5 miles, and I finished in just over 45 minutes (no time for a shower before the school pick up!). A very good tempo run that made me feel happy at the end.
I went to both running club sessions on Thursday. Ed and I took the run-walker beginners for an underpass session (fast up and slow down). I joined in on some of the sprints but didn't push hard. For inters we did a pyramid session: 100m, 200m, 300m, 400m, 300m, 200m, 100m sprints. Didn't do all that badly really, even though I hate doing sprints.
I didn't do anything on Friday and Saturday in preparation for my long run on Sunday. Original plan was 14 miles as a cutback week, but after chatting to Lewis about long runs he convinced me to run another 20 miler. (Completely screws up my Jantastic plan for March but nevermind!) Ed suggested we run 2 mile laps of Stotfold (the route we take our beginners on), which meant other people could join us for one or more laps and not have to run too far. The aim was to run at marathon pace, which for Ed is 8:30-9:00. I stuck with him for about 10 miles but then started to tire. Lewis joined us at 10 miles and I ran with him for a bit, then with Pete. I thought I was running backwards at one point, perceived slowness. Anyway, finished the 20 miles in 3:03, which is 12 minutes faster than last weekend, thanks mainly to Ed and his fast first 10 miles.
Next week...
Monday: Rest day
Tuesday: Beginners running club (2 miles); Pilates
Wednesday: 9 miles, with 6 @ marathon pace
Thursday: Both running club sessions. I'm leading this week, so will be general runs out and back to Fairfield (for both groups). Will hopefully gain miles by looping back between groups
Friday: Rest day
Saturday: Bike ride, I'm behind on my annual target so I'm thinking of an early morning 15 mile cycle ride around the Greenway
Sunday: 13 miles, running with a friend on the Greenway from Standalone
Showing posts with label speedwork. Show all posts
Showing posts with label speedwork. Show all posts
Sunday, 16 March 2014
Wednesday, 19 February 2014
Speed training
Tuesday run club was speedwork at both sessions.
At the beginners session we ran to a local underpass and jogged down the slopes and then attempted some speed up the inclines. The beginners need a bit of encouragement to run fast. I usually use the "shout loudly" approach, although I was quite kind this time because we had some new club members and I didn't want to put them off. I didn't really achieve much speed, because I was at beginners in a "support role".
At the intermediates session, we ran to a local open road and did 4 x 200 m sprints followed by 2 x 400 m sprints. I don't like sprint intervals so I didn't really give it my all, blaming my lack of effort on "post-race recovery". The 400 m intervals weren't all that bad really, we ran 300 m and then had to "kick" with 100 m to go, and I did manage that OK.
Wore the New Trainers again, they are starting to feel like part of my foot rather than a tight uncomfortable lump of plastic.
At the beginners session we ran to a local underpass and jogged down the slopes and then attempted some speed up the inclines. The beginners need a bit of encouragement to run fast. I usually use the "shout loudly" approach, although I was quite kind this time because we had some new club members and I didn't want to put them off. I didn't really achieve much speed, because I was at beginners in a "support role".
At the intermediates session, we ran to a local open road and did 4 x 200 m sprints followed by 2 x 400 m sprints. I don't like sprint intervals so I didn't really give it my all, blaming my lack of effort on "post-race recovery". The 400 m intervals weren't all that bad really, we ran 300 m and then had to "kick" with 100 m to go, and I did manage that OK.
Wore the New Trainers again, they are starting to feel like part of my foot rather than a tight uncomfortable lump of plastic.
Wednesday, 13 November 2013
Winter long runs, and week 2 marathon plan
My plan for the next few months is to maintain half marathon distance until January, before I begin to extend the long runs towards the slightly overwhelming 20 mile distance. Winter long runs aren't very enticing, but if you can run them with someone else then they are much more bearable. Which is why last Sunday I got up at 05:45 to prepare for a 10 mile run at 06:30 with some club friends.
Four other equally mad runners met up and headed to Letchworth, on road for the first few miles and then via the Greenway once the sun was up. The pace was a touch quicker than I anticipated, but my heart rate managed to remain around 140 bpm so I wasn't too bothered, although my post-Stevenage legs weren't mega-happy. I started to struggle around the industrial estate in Letchworth, just by the tip, but I'd just run up a hill, and the next few miles were downhill, so I felt OK again quite quickly. I also set a few Strava segments from the tip to Nortonbury Lane, so I had to concentrate on running fairly fast!
As we headed back into Stotfold we spotted a car in a hedge, it had obviously crashed because the bumper had come off and there were tyre marks across the verge. We stopped for a minute to check there were no casualties, I wouldn't have felt right just running past. All seemed well.
At the end of the run, my friend produced peanut butter cookies from her jacket, which were perfect to finish with! They should be compulsory.
Next Sunday I'll be running 11 miles. I have a hankering to run around Baldock for a change, so I'm going to plan a route that meets that requirement but is safe for dark mornings. It might be impossible without a headtorch (Dear Santa...).
Other stuff this week...
On Tuesday I missed my Pilates class because of school parents' evening, so I ran at both club sessions. I took the beginners for 200 m sprint intervals, a session that I think they just loved going off the comments I received. I managed to swear at a new chap who I could hear catching me rapidly when I was "demonstrating" and who I assumed was Ed... He took it in good humour! Pulled my groin muscle again though, stupidly. The intermediate session was a run out to Arlesey and back, my first Arlesey loop for a long time. The muscle strain felt OK while I was running so I'm not that concerned by it. The second run was 4.5 miles, making 7 miles in total, so I won't bother running on Wednesday.
Instead I have Pilates, which I postponed by a day. I'm hoping this class sorts out my sore groin (from the sprints) and aching shoulder (from being old and creaky). I don't hold out much hope though.
Thursday will be club again. I've promised my friend that if it's speedwork again I'll take him for a run instead. He's had to do 2 weeks in a row of speedwork (1km intervals and then 400m/200m sprints) and I think he's getting a complex.
I need to get back to ab work soon too. I'm in a "can't be bothered" mindset at the moment. I know a plank a day and some ab curls won't kill me, but I'm lazy.
Four other equally mad runners met up and headed to Letchworth, on road for the first few miles and then via the Greenway once the sun was up. The pace was a touch quicker than I anticipated, but my heart rate managed to remain around 140 bpm so I wasn't too bothered, although my post-Stevenage legs weren't mega-happy. I started to struggle around the industrial estate in Letchworth, just by the tip, but I'd just run up a hill, and the next few miles were downhill, so I felt OK again quite quickly. I also set a few Strava segments from the tip to Nortonbury Lane, so I had to concentrate on running fairly fast!
As we headed back into Stotfold we spotted a car in a hedge, it had obviously crashed because the bumper had come off and there were tyre marks across the verge. We stopped for a minute to check there were no casualties, I wouldn't have felt right just running past. All seemed well.
At the end of the run, my friend produced peanut butter cookies from her jacket, which were perfect to finish with! They should be compulsory.
Next Sunday I'll be running 11 miles. I have a hankering to run around Baldock for a change, so I'm going to plan a route that meets that requirement but is safe for dark mornings. It might be impossible without a headtorch (Dear Santa...).
Other stuff this week...
On Tuesday I missed my Pilates class because of school parents' evening, so I ran at both club sessions. I took the beginners for 200 m sprint intervals, a session that I think they just loved going off the comments I received. I managed to swear at a new chap who I could hear catching me rapidly when I was "demonstrating" and who I assumed was Ed... He took it in good humour! Pulled my groin muscle again though, stupidly. The intermediate session was a run out to Arlesey and back, my first Arlesey loop for a long time. The muscle strain felt OK while I was running so I'm not that concerned by it. The second run was 4.5 miles, making 7 miles in total, so I won't bother running on Wednesday.
Instead I have Pilates, which I postponed by a day. I'm hoping this class sorts out my sore groin (from the sprints) and aching shoulder (from being old and creaky). I don't hold out much hope though.
Thursday will be club again. I've promised my friend that if it's speedwork again I'll take him for a run instead. He's had to do 2 weeks in a row of speedwork (1km intervals and then 400m/200m sprints) and I think he's getting a complex.
I need to get back to ab work soon too. I'm in a "can't be bothered" mindset at the moment. I know a plank a day and some ab curls won't kill me, but I'm lazy.
Saturday, 31 August 2013
Saturday speedwork
Had a spare 30 minutes this morning while I waited for the family to sort themselves out, so I decided to go for a run. Set my Garmin 110 to 0.25 mile auto-lap and alternated slow/fast laps. It's a good way to do speedwork without having to map out distances or run up a hill.
Slow sections were run between 9:10 and 9:30 min/mile, fast sections were between 7:20 and 7:35 min/mile. Really pleased to achieve 6 reps of 400 m intervals and cover 5K in 26:40.
Felt really comfortable during the run, I was pleased I could maintain 7:30s and the recoveries helped keep tiredness at bay. Could probably have run a bit faster but I'd just had breakfast so didn't want to push too hard...
The fast 5K time has made me wonder whether to approach my next 10K race with a similar strategy, perhaps I'll try 0.5 mile intervals next week.
Slow sections were run between 9:10 and 9:30 min/mile, fast sections were between 7:20 and 7:35 min/mile. Really pleased to achieve 6 reps of 400 m intervals and cover 5K in 26:40.
Felt really comfortable during the run, I was pleased I could maintain 7:30s and the recoveries helped keep tiredness at bay. Could probably have run a bit faster but I'd just had breakfast so didn't want to push too hard...
The fast 5K time has made me wonder whether to approach my next 10K race with a similar strategy, perhaps I'll try 0.5 mile intervals next week.
Monday, 26 August 2013
Summer holiday training
My last training post was written in the middle of July, at the beginning of the school summer holidays, and this one is written at the end of August, when they are almost over. I find training in the summer holidays quite tricky. My children are home with me, so I can't run in the morning anymore (unless I get up at silly o'clock!), and my evening routine goes out of the window when we are away on our camping trips.
I've managed to continue to attend my weekly Pilates class, which has been a great help with healing my leg injury. I also continued to attend circuits, cycle, and swim whenever I could.
I restarted running in August with a training day for the Duck N Dash organised by Freedom Tri. We had an hour of swim training at 7:30 am, then we ran the First Saturday of the Month 5K around Norton Common. It was a good opportunity to see how it feels to do a dual event. I found the swimming really difficult, but the running went well, possibly because I didn't strictly race the event, I took the first mile "easy" and then began to speed up towards the end (26:27).
Because I've been away a lot over the summer, when I do get chance to run I've been trying to make it count. I've maintained my long run distance by running at least 10K once a week. On the other run day (I usually only managed two runs a week) I was focusing on speedwork, either hill sprints or intervals. It's been good to attempt speedwork on my own because I usually leave run club to organise my fast runs! On my last run (5.5 miles) I concentrated on maintaining a faster pace than usual (I aimed at 9 min/mile vs settling into a 10.5 min/mile plod). I also aimed to run fast up all the hills. It was a good run, despite the faster pace I felt comfortable (and wondered to myself why I'd never pushed myself before this day!). It's definitely given me some confidence that I've not lost too much fitness and I can get back something from this year (aim is still to achieve 10K and half PBs).
This week I'm taking charge of run club. My plans aren't too complicated because I'm not very confident on my own! Tuesday will be about negative splits, taking the beginners to Arlesey and back to see if they can make the return journey faster, and intermediates will be attempting to run a progressive 5 miles. Thursday will be speedwork for the beginners at the Norton Rd underpass, and intermediates will be running 4-6 miles depending on who comes (we might race the distances).
I don't really want to risk injury on Thursday, because Sunday is the Duck N Dash. I can't believe it's less than a week away. I need to concentrate on my diet this week, I need to lose some weight but I also need to keep my energy levels up. I'll be blogging about my diet on soggous.blogspot.co.uk.
Thanks for reading!
I've managed to continue to attend my weekly Pilates class, which has been a great help with healing my leg injury. I also continued to attend circuits, cycle, and swim whenever I could.
I restarted running in August with a training day for the Duck N Dash organised by Freedom Tri. We had an hour of swim training at 7:30 am, then we ran the First Saturday of the Month 5K around Norton Common. It was a good opportunity to see how it feels to do a dual event. I found the swimming really difficult, but the running went well, possibly because I didn't strictly race the event, I took the first mile "easy" and then began to speed up towards the end (26:27).
Because I've been away a lot over the summer, when I do get chance to run I've been trying to make it count. I've maintained my long run distance by running at least 10K once a week. On the other run day (I usually only managed two runs a week) I was focusing on speedwork, either hill sprints or intervals. It's been good to attempt speedwork on my own because I usually leave run club to organise my fast runs! On my last run (5.5 miles) I concentrated on maintaining a faster pace than usual (I aimed at 9 min/mile vs settling into a 10.5 min/mile plod). I also aimed to run fast up all the hills. It was a good run, despite the faster pace I felt comfortable (and wondered to myself why I'd never pushed myself before this day!). It's definitely given me some confidence that I've not lost too much fitness and I can get back something from this year (aim is still to achieve 10K and half PBs).
This week I'm taking charge of run club. My plans aren't too complicated because I'm not very confident on my own! Tuesday will be about negative splits, taking the beginners to Arlesey and back to see if they can make the return journey faster, and intermediates will be attempting to run a progressive 5 miles. Thursday will be speedwork for the beginners at the Norton Rd underpass, and intermediates will be running 4-6 miles depending on who comes (we might race the distances).
I don't really want to risk injury on Thursday, because Sunday is the Duck N Dash. I can't believe it's less than a week away. I need to concentrate on my diet this week, I need to lose some weight but I also need to keep my energy levels up. I'll be blogging about my diet on soggous.blogspot.co.uk.
Thanks for reading!
Thursday, 20 June 2013
Juneathon day 20: 10 days to go
Forgive me for counting down, but Juneathon has been hard! 10 days to go. 10 days to go. *and repeat*
At running club tonight we were supposed to do speed work for beginners and intermediates, two sessions of speed work! I was my usual encouraging self and sprinted alongside particular beginners to make sure they were "reaching their full potential". Pleasantly surprised to be caught and passed by a few runners. Although that makes them future targets for pain (from myself or Pete). Just warning you Julie ;) xx
At intermediates we had the prospect of more speed work, and Pete had brought his whistle. Goodness knows what he had planned. Anyway, no one seemed keen on speed work, several people have injuries, two guys are running a marathon on Sunday, and I was a bit tired from beginners speed work, so one of the runners said he would lead us on a short run around town.
3 miles in and I'm wondering where the heck we're running to. At 4 miles I was ready to lie down and sleep. At that point we all stopped running and decided to walk home, for another mile and a quarter! Was nice though, we had a good chat about "stuff".
So total running/walking was just over 7 miles. I'm rehydrating with cold lager and pretzels.
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