The Start of A New Training Regime

Today was my first official day of training for the Redondo Beach 10K in Feb. on Superbowl Sunday.  I did the race last year (click here for last year’s race post) with my friend John and it was pretty fun.  The best part of the race is the two beers you get at the end, which is super healthy, right?  It’s about 9:30-10am, all you’ve probably eaten is a banana or some oranges.  Maybe a power bar.  And to top it off, you’ve just run 6.2 miles.  So, naturally you would have 2 beers.  Last year I didn’t even finish my second beer because I was already pretty tipsy after the first and I still had to go to work in the afternoon.  John was kind enough to finish my beer and buy me breakfast.  If that’s not a good friend, I dunno what is.

So anyways, as far as my training is concerned, I’ve decided to move onto the intermediate level of training plans.  I think its about time and I think I have enough distance between me and my high school cross-country career to make time goals again and not stress out about them too much.  This past birthday in June marked my 10th year of long distance running, and my 10.5th year of running in general.  I’ve come a long way from the girl who, in 6th grade, couldn’t even run half a lap around the school field.  I’m pretty sure Mr. Crumley never would’ve thought I would be a runner and do a marathon.

The intermediate level involves speedwork and sprints and repeats of various sorts.  This particular plan I have focuses mainly on 400 repeats, and let me tell you, finding a track to run on in my neighborhood was way more difficult than I thought it would be.  The local HS track was in the middle of a fortress and I couldn’t figure out how the hell to get in and the local Community College track was 1.  not a full track and 2.  being used by the soccer team who had their gear spread out over all the lanes.  So I ended up at the gym which I was trying to avoid since I detest the treadmill.  it turned out, though, that speedwork on the treadmill isn’t nearly as painful as straight mileage on the treadmill and I’m pretty sure I sprinted way harder than I would have by myself at the track with no real gage of how fast i was running.

I have a tendency to slow down and “pace myself” out of fear of getting tired and I need to stop that, so being able to control my speed was actually a good thing in the end. My repeats looked something like this:

1.  I started off with a speed of 6.0 for .10 of a mile, then bumped it up to 6.5 for the next .10 of a mile and then 7.0 for the last .05.  My lap time was 2:20

2.  The next 400 started off with a speed of 6.5 for .10 mi then bumped to 7.0 for .10 and then 7.5 for .05.  My lap time was 2:18

3.  The next 400 was my fastest.  i started off at 7.0 for .10, then moved to 7.5 for .10 and finally 8.0 for the last .05.  my lap time was 2:09 and I wanted to die. lol.  it made the last lap the hardest.

4.  i started off at 6.5 for .10mi and then had to stop and breathe and coax myself into finishing the stupid lap because I was so exhausted.  Then I ran 7.0 for the second .10mi and 7.5 for the last .05mi.  My lap time was around 2:18 again.  i messed up on my timing so it was a little off.  i pressed the lap button before I started running, so my time was a few seconds off before I realized what I’d done.

In between each 400 I walked 0.12mi and then jogged 0.12mi at a 5.0 pace.  I also had a .5mi warm up at a pace of 5.0

Overall, the workout felt good and tiring in a positive way.  Which is good since I’m also sick and have a phlemy cough.  Hopefully the rest of the week’s training goes as well!

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