Tougher work-outs

Have had a succession of good runs in the past week. Last Friday I headed back to my beloved Carolina Beach State Park to run a series of longer intervals, based on a work-out that I had read in Running Times magazine. The specifics called for 5 reps of 2000 meters, which I amended based on the loop I was to utilize, to 5 X 1.35 miles. The pace of which suggests starting at about half-marathon pace, and gradually lowering until the last interval is run at about 10K pace.

I warmed up with about a two mile easy jog up Snow's Cut Trails to Snow's Cut Hill and back. My "loop" that I was then using for the fast repeats consisted of a stretch of the main entrance road from the far corner of the marina parking lot...Nature Trail...and the "new trail"...back to the trailhead of Snow's Cut Trail/ and the marina parking lot.

Did the first rep. in a little over ten minutes, which didn't seem too hard, and was likley a bit slow, but not too far off of my guess of what my half marathon pace would be. Between reps, as per the work-out's suggestions, I jogged real easy but for only two minutes rest. The next rep I ran in 9:45, then the third in under 9 and a half minutes. By this third repeat of the loop, the lactic acid had begun to build in my legs, my breathing was a bit more labored especially the second part of the loop on the trails. All of which mirrored what the intended effects of the work-out are. The main element being that one should be able to finish and get faster each succesive repitition, with less and less percieved "rest" between and "comfort" during the fast phase. Or in other works, they require more and more effort to complete.

The 4th rep. I ran strong and in under 9 minutes, the last one in @ 8:35. Took some guts on the last two, my legs/ breathing were already tired and laboring early in each loop as I set out up the road towards my right hand turn into the woods onto Nature Trail. It kept getting "longer and longer", and the turns wider and wider until I would hit about the half way point and enter the woods. And the last part of the new trail would have me counting every dip, bend, and nook and cranny in the bush until I could see the light of the parking lot and the end of the rep. Overall though, it was an excellent preperatory speed work session for my upcoming marathon in Novemeber. I cooled down with an easy jog up and aroud some of the camp grounds, and even went back out later that night after work and ran an easy five miles.