Back in the Saddle

Friday morning and I headed out for what I thought was going to be one of my more typical runs when I decided rather spontaneoulsy to get back on the horse known as speed work. So directed the run on down and over to the lake in the CB to rev it up and air it out some.

I know adding speed work again ( I was doing work -outs of this nature once a week for a time back in January and February before a series of heavy colds sidelined me a few times) is vital to my development, and vital to becoming a "tougher" runner (see my last blog), and also a key component in training for a marathon.

Warmed up then with a little over twenty minute jog, took a deep drink out of the fountain, stertched, took my t-shirt off, and toed the imaginary line I drew on the walkway at the top of the lake. Wanted to run hard, but not too hard; much of the reading I have done over the past few months suggests that speed work or interval training run too hard can be self defeating. Its more beneficial to hold paces that are a bit harder than say a 5K race pace, then to go close to all out each speed segment.

With that in mind I hit start on my stopwatch and was off on the first rep. Felt good whirling around the lake, swooshing along to the tune of the breeze my body in motion was creating... did the first rep in 2:24, I estimated the distance I was running to be about 600+ meters. Knocked out four more using the same pattern of then jogging 1/4 lap, walking 1/4 lap, then going right into the rep of @ 1/2 lap. Sucessively brought the time down, until the last one of around 2:05. Did gun it more and gut that last one out; I like to leave out on a high. Shuffled/ jogged then for another thirty minutes including a short stretch on the beach.

Went 7+ miles then Saturday morning, early a little after 7am as I had to leave out after 9 am to go to work. Legs were tired, pleasantly worked and a bit heavy from yesterday. Felt good then, and today, adding the speedwork back into my retinue of workouts.