Some days you have to squeeze in your workouts. Some days, you don’t have time for school to end so you can use the track. Today, was one of those days. But see photo above.
First, here’s the plan for the week:
Monday
1 mile warm up
10×400 repeats at a 7:16 pace
1 mile cool down
Tuesday
Swim or bike
Strength exercises
Wednesday
1 mile warm up
4 miles at Mid Tempo pace (8:28)
1 mile cool down
Thursday
Swim or bike
Strength exercises
Friday
Ab DVD
Saturday
Long run: 8 miles at an 8:43 pace
(Meeting with local runners for the Virtual Run for Sherry Arnold.)
Sunday
Workout DVD or bike
Today, instead of heading to the high school track for my repeats, I opted for the Cedar River Trail. But I had a tight schedule, so I couldn’t drive down to the other end where my out would be slightly uphill and my back would be slightly downhill. Instead, I went to the trail knowing I would be doing the last five repeats plus the last mile UPHILL.
What I didn’t think I’d be doing was those last five uphill and into wind gusts of 15-20 mph. Oh yeah, and someone had a bonfire going nearby. I felt like I needed to sneeze the entire time. (Note: Some of the time variations are due to me not hitting my watch at exactly .25 of a mile — some of them are at .26.)
First half: slightly downhill with the wind
1-mile warm up: 8:49 (oops — didn’t realize I was going so fast)
Repeat 1: 1:50 (7:16 pace)
90-second Rest Intervals (RI)
Repeat 2: 1:48 (7:16 pace)
RI
Repeat 3: 1:49 (7:16 pace)
RI
Repeat 4: 1:52 (7:18 pace)
RI
Repeat 5: 1:51 (7:17 pace) – someone hooted at me from a speeding car and scared the crap out of me.
RI
Second half: Uphill into the wind! Ugh.
Repeat 6: 1:51 (7:17 pace)
RI
Repeat 7: 1:52 (7:18 pace)
RI
Repeat 8: 1:53 (7:22 pace)
RI
Repeat 9: 1:54 (7:34 pace)
RI
Repeat 10: 1:59 (7:51 pace) – serious wind gust almost knocked me off my feet!
Cool down: 1.34 miles at 10:13 pace
The moral of the story is: Wait for the track to open.
9 comments
What tri should we do together? Nice workout! Love the picture and the saying.
Nice workout! That’s funny, I always make sure to start at the lower part of Cedar River too! The first time I bikes there I went the other way by accident and it wa so horrible coming back! It downhill isn’t really that noticeable but the uphill sure is! Nice splits! I have a track workout on the agenda tonight too I’m already nervous about!
Ohmygosh! The first time I biked there I had T Junior in the trailer and I almost died on the way back to the car!
Those are super impressive paces – without a hill and wind. Way to get it done!
Your website looks fabulous!! And that poster is what I needed to read…I queen of its too windy to run outside!
Awesome repeats!! When is your next race??
Thanks, Jess! St. Paddy’s Day 5K on March 17!
That work out looks tough, and you did great! Wowza! Nice job!
Love the quote! Sounds like a tough workout {hills, wind} but way to get ‘er done! I’m lucky enough to live in a relatively flat area {I have to drive to hilly locations to hill train unless I want to do repeats over an overpass} so when I can’t get to a track I am able to run lots of areas that are flat and straight – I ended up doing a lot of my speed work on a “trail” {its just a bigger paved sidewalk set off farther from the road} near by that is a couple of miles long, straight, flat, and only crosses a couple of major intersections. I just always had to time it right so that I wasn’t crossing any streets when I was in the middle of a repeat.
LOVE the quote – so true!!