Hey! So, as I said in my post on the bike thread yesterday, to try and maintain my commitment to staying off the treadmill I flipped workouts by doing the bike yesterday (super cold and windy here in Michigan) with the hope that weather conditions would be a bit more hospitable today. They were...but just a bit more! 12 degrees (compared to 7 yesterday) when I rolled out, light wind, but enough snow on the ground to slip a bit with each foot plant. Shrug it off and press on. Standard warmup. 1/2 mile @ 7:12/mile; Mile #1: 7:28; Mile #2: 7:31; (Rx'd pace for these intervals = 7:44/mile); Finished up with 1.25 miles at ~8:00/mile. DONE!
Ahh the treadmill, juicy theme for the runs. Well I live in a climate that permits outdoor running year long, not sunny California/Florida, just not typical Canada winter. That said, I choose to run indoors on treadmill Wed specifically for 2 reasons, the first being I do my bike wko in the evening so I run wed in the evening to maximize time between Tue FTP bike and Wed TP run. It is simply safer than outdoors in the dark. The second reason, is running on the TM helps my foot speed. Outdoors I tend to lengthen stride and slow cadence, not so on the TM.
HOWEVER, last night a thought occurred to me that I was also getting in some heat training. It was soooo hot in the gym I felt like I was getting extra benefit of slugging thru the heat both mentally and physically.
Posting late - but I got the Wed run w/o in on TM (and I do think the heat in gym makes it more difficult).
Plan Pace = 7.44 1 x .5 (7:47) 1 x 1 (7:41) 1 x .75 (7:41) (pee break) 1 x .5 (7:41)
Had to break up the 2nd 1 x 1 for a nature call but made up for it w/little more distance. Did about 5.75 miles total. Was happy to get the full speed work in given my sore left calf (but felt okay while running). Thursday is my day off this week and my body needs it. 2nd day off of month (I try to swim on Mon/Fri). Will do Thurs bike on Fri AM and then swap the weekend workouts - due to some travelling for family bdays.
Working on switching my mindset in 2013 --> Embrace, Absorb, Adapt to whatever is thrown my way whether that be Mother Nature, work, life, injuries etc. So if it is five below I committed myself to Embrace the weather, Adapt to the conditions (dress, hydration etc.), and execute the work. Additionaly it helps me justify throwing money at what seems to be extraordinarly expensive technical clothing - I am a gear junkie.
While the treadmill is a great tool for training and there are many, many benefits of running on the treadmill particulary in regards to threshold intervals - it just doesn't work for me. Unlike the bike trainer, the mental cost for me on the treadmill is higher than running in five degree weather when it is dark out. I also run differently (form/gait) on the treadmill and my 2013 OS goals is not to only to improve my speed and power but to continue to hone/develop my run technique.
Bike VO2 and Tuesdays LRP run done yesterday. I enjoyed both. One of by best training days from a mental stand point this OS. Really liking EN way.
@ Robert -- I'm with you on minimizing the treadmill, heavily weighted to your second reason. Last year I made a similar committment as you and managed to avoid the mill completely -- not a single treadmill workout!! This year on the other hand I have already ended up on the treadmill 5 times. Not due to weather but rather due to my wife's business travel schedule that has let me at home with kids sleeping upstairs...an absolutely perfect situation for treadmill running and sure beats the alternative (skipping the workout!).
Nailed my Wednesday run this week thanks to Mojo from Ironsister Yvette. I am loving Wednesday morning workouts now since I have a partner in crime who has the same paces that I do. On the dreadmills it doesn't matter much, but on the weekends when we take it outside it helps!
This weekend we are switching up our workouts due to our bike store's Charity Lab-a-thon and other commitments - we are running long on Saturday on the treadmill (due to 6am start and the below freezing Michigan weather). Sunday we will be doing the bike/run brick workout. I am doing mine for Charity which means it counts double right?
Just checking in quickly. You guys are all doing great. I almost never run on a treadmill because I don't need to with the nice weather here in California. I sometimes run intervals with my girlfriend on it on Fridays after we swim because it is a better option when you are different paces. Today I rested and did nothing. I did track intervals Tuesday, too hard of a bike Wednesday and a swim, and by Thursdays run I had concrete legs. I met a girlfriend at 5 am for her birthday run and I struggled through a 7 miler with dead legs. Brutal. Was short of breath all day yesterday so I think resting today was really smart. I had planned to do a bike today as my week is all messed up and I have only done one bike BUT I don't believe in squeezing stuff in when I am exhausted.
Hoping tomorrow I will feel fresh for the Sat bike/run.
30' brick run after the 90' FTP session on the bike.
now using Newtons 100% of the time, no pain in the calf, + compression sleeves.
have not pushed any paces, yet. may try a few .5mile intervals next week. Hope to be on a regular schedule soon. But, very encouraged that my land legs are feeling better/stronger after just 3 runs in first week back.
STLTC Frostbite Series Half Marathon is done. Had a good day. Nice negative split. (6:50/6:37) Second AG, 30/304 males. Locked up second place for the 5 race series in 40-44 AG with one race to go. After running at LT, this was not as taxing, just ran a little longer. Sunday bike will be a challenge. VDOT 51.8 is a full point improvement, Entire workout (164 bpm): Duration: 1:29:25 rTSS: 169.7 (1.008) NGP: 6:41 (240.9 Distance: 13.211 mi Elevation Gain: 535 ft Elevation Loss: 535 ft Min Max Avg Heart Rate: 94 178 164 bpm Speed: 0 11.7 8.9 mph Pace 5:07 0:00 6:46 min/mi Altitude: 469 566 512 ft
Ran earlier this morning @ 8:37, 8:15, 8:12, 7:55, 7:51, 7:50. Paces for OUT were to be 8:25, and BACK @ 8:07, so ran by feel and slightly faster. Going to bed for Miami HM tomorrow.
So yesterday was known to have a horrible time crunch so I could not do the brick run yesterday. I promised myself to do a little extra on the run today. Then we had an ice storm which screwed with the schedule today, so my only time to go was firt thing in the morning (during the ice storm...before the delayed day's events, on the treadmill)
I am not a treadmill fan. Nor do I like to do my workouts first thing in the morning in the winter. I'm ok in the summer, but I hate it in the winter. Go figure. Anyway, running first thing in the morning on the treadmill was not a good start
As it turned out, things went ok, except that I forgot to turn on my Garmin until after my warmup and into the first work mile. Oh well.
So, because of the day's events, I still couldn't spend a bunch of time on the treadmill. I took a good long warmup of almost 20 minutes and then started doing the miles. There's not much to look at, but I managed to run 5 x 1 mi at 6:30 pace. (The Garmin says I was going a little faster, but who knows) Time limitations meant more of the work intervals was more practical than just more. Total was 10.5-11 in 75-80 min.
I may add a short run with a few strides Monday just to get the frequency, but nothing hard or long.
PS Replacing the battery on my footpod seems to have fixed the problem that showed up in my last run.
Miami Half Marathon, not exactly what I was shooting for. Thought I could gradually warmup and hit my HMP of 8:07, and go a little quicker and get a few 7:53 miles, then hag on as close to 8:07 the rest of the way. Barely got to 8:07 and then needed to slow down a little at each aid station. It was definitely not the cooler weather wanted to run quicker. Toward the end I had hoped to do the last 3 miles close to 7:53, but had to settle for only mile 13 @ 7:51. The last .27 miles per Garmin was showing 8:40 pace, but I didn't really slow down???
Despite the whining and whimpering before hitting the treadmill this morning, I had a good run. Target paces hit for all: 2 x 1/2 mi @ 1% incline and 2 x 1mi @ .5% incline. BOOM! Ready to rest tomorrow!
There's supposed to be some sort of freezing rain / ice storm later today so luckily I got out on the Chicago Lakefront Path this morning. Actually it was very pleasant and the path was pretty jammed with runners.
I ran the 3x 1-mile intervals as 3x7' and circled back or waited for my buddy Andrew at the end of each one. On the second recovery we both turned around and it took me pretty well the whole 4' recovery to catch up going at faster-than-recovery pace, therefore causing the last interval to be pretty hard! I then added an extra 6' interval to get me back to the lakefront tunnel, and ran reasonably hard the rest of the way home.
Overall 8.89 miles in 1:01:05, 6:52 pace. Current VDOT 48.5 (z4 – 7:01, z3 – 7:10, z2 – 7:26)
I was short on time...well maybe trying to find an excuse to keep the run short. Legs still feeling the after effects of the bike and 5k brick yesterday. I barely hit the first 2 intervals so I went for it on the 3rd one. 5.2 miles total. 3x1 (7:27, 7:29, 7:10).
As we here in the Midwest await the impending ice storm, I started today's run session by being grateful for dry non-slippery roads and balmy 21 degree temps! I usually run first thing in the morning, but decided to shuffle our typical Sunday morning activities around a bit and ended up heading out around noon thinking I felt just a little dragged out. But, as soon as I started, I could feel that my first impressions had been wrong. 10' warmup came in at 7:50/mile, 2 x 1/2 mile were both ~6:30/mile, 2 x 1 mile @ 7:17/mile. I finished up with another 3/4 of a mile at 7:40/mile. Now time to make sure I have enough rock salt...
1 mile wu to include 4x30 sec strides then released the titans.
All at 2% incline.
5 mile repeats starting at 6:44 pace and ending each mile at 9.5-10.0. Each quarter would turn it up till I felt like my form was breaking then would back it up so the form was near perfect. Stuck with my pre plan and recovered at 2 min only.
Sunday run went well. 12 miles @ 9:04 with 2 x 1/2 and 2 x 1 @ < 8:12 in the early part. Funny, after that it is hard to get cranking again (go figure). It sure makes the chocolate milk back in the car taste good. Hmm, don't think the 10 mile walk with the wife or the 36 miles and 1,500 feet of ascent yesterday helped. Loving Mondays. ;-)
Looking at next weeks run work outs. The Tuesday run is outlined as MS: 10' @ EP/Z1/Easy + 5 x uphill 20 strides.
Anyone have some insight on the 5 x uphill 20 strides? I was just going to find a relatively steep hill and run up it 5 times with recovery being the walk down. Not sure if this is what the coaches are getting at or not.
I had a question on the 5 x uphill 20 strides, too, Robert...but mine arises from the fact that getting to any appreciable hill from where I live would involve a bit of a commute. How critical is it to go to a hill to run these or is there a reasonably acceptable substitute?
Comments
Ahh the treadmill, juicy theme for the runs. Well I live in a climate that permits outdoor running year long, not sunny California/Florida, just not typical Canada winter. That said, I choose to run indoors on treadmill Wed specifically for 2 reasons, the first being I do my bike wko in the evening so I run wed in the evening to maximize time between Tue FTP bike and Wed TP run. It is simply safer than outdoors in the dark. The second reason, is running on the TM helps my foot speed. Outdoors I tend to lengthen stride and slow cadence, not so on the TM.
HOWEVER, last night a thought occurred to me that I was also getting in some heat training. It was soooo hot in the gym I felt like I was getting extra benefit of slugging thru the heat both mentally and physically.
Plan Pace = 7.44
1 x .5 (7:47)
1 x 1 (7:41)
1 x .75 (7:41) (pee break)
1 x .5 (7:41)
Had to break up the 2nd 1 x 1 for a nature call but made up for it w/little more distance. Did about 5.75 miles total.
Was happy to get the full speed work in given my sore left calf (but felt okay while running).
Thursday is my day off this week and my body needs it. 2nd day off of month (I try to swim on Mon/Fri).
Will do Thurs bike on Fri AM and then swap the weekend workouts - due to some travelling for family bdays.
Late post - a lot going on at work.
@ Kim
Couple of reasons for no treadmill:
Bike VO2 and Tuesdays LRP run done yesterday. I enjoyed both. One of by best training days from a mental stand point this OS. Really liking EN way.
Bike -> http://tpks.ws/GHtA
Run ->http://tpks.ws/mFvP
This weekend we are switching up our workouts due to our bike store's Charity Lab-a-thon and other commitments - we are running long on Saturday on the treadmill (due to 6am start and the below freezing Michigan weather). Sunday we will be doing the bike/run brick workout. I am doing mine for Charity which means it counts double right?
Hoping tomorrow I will feel fresh for the Sat bike/run.
now using Newtons 100% of the time, no pain in the calf, + compression sleeves.
have not pushed any paces, yet. may try a few .5mile intervals next week. Hope to be on a regular schedule soon. But, very encouraged that my land legs are feeling better/stronger after just 3 runs in first week back.
Entire workout (164 bpm):
Duration: 1:29:25
rTSS: 169.7 (1.008)
NGP: 6:41 (240.9
Distance: 13.211 mi
Elevation Gain: 535 ft
Elevation Loss: 535 ft
Min Max Avg
Heart Rate: 94 178 164 bpm
Speed: 0 11.7 8.9 mph
Pace 5:07 0:00 6:46 min/mi
Altitude: 469 566 512 ft
Great run late this afternoon.
I felt really good and was able to hit my targets (and then some). Now to eat dinner..... with raw turnips
Ran earlier this morning @ 8:37, 8:15, 8:12, 7:55, 7:51, 7:50. Paces for OUT were to be 8:25, and BACK @ 8:07, so ran by feel and slightly faster. Going to bed for Miami HM tomorrow.
http://connect.garmin.com/splits/26...rnE.mailto
Carl, AVP - Sounds like fun.
@ Fred, Good luck in Miami. Race smart!
So yesterday was known to have a horrible time crunch so I could not do the brick run yesterday. I promised myself to do a little extra on the run today. Then we had an ice storm which screwed with the schedule today, so my only time to go was firt thing in the morning (during the ice storm...before the delayed day's events, on the treadmill)
I am not a treadmill fan. Nor do I like to do my workouts first thing in the morning in the winter. I'm ok in the summer, but I hate it in the winter. Go figure. Anyway, running first thing in the morning on the treadmill was not a good start
As it turned out, things went ok, except that I forgot to turn on my Garmin until after my warmup and into the first work mile. Oh well.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/266465785
So, because of the day's events, I still couldn't spend a bunch of time on the treadmill. I took a good long warmup of almost 20 minutes and then started doing the miles. There's not much to look at, but I managed to run 5 x 1 mi at 6:30 pace. (The Garmin says I was going a little faster, but who knows) Time limitations meant more of the work intervals was more practical than just more. Total was 10.5-11 in 75-80 min.
I may add a short run with a few strides Monday just to get the frequency, but nothing hard or long.
PS Replacing the battery on my footpod seems to have fixed the problem that showed up in my last run.
Miami Half Marathon, not exactly what I was shooting for. Thought I could gradually warmup and hit my HMP of 8:07, and go a little quicker and get a few 7:53 miles, then hag on as close to 8:07 the rest of the way. Barely got to 8:07 and then needed to slow down a little at each aid station. It was definitely not the cooler weather wanted to run quicker. Toward the end I had hoped to do the last 3 miles close to 7:53, but had to settle for only mile 13 @ 7:51. The last .27 miles per Garmin was showing 8:40 pace, but I didn't really slow down???
Miles= 9:02, 8:15, 8:13, 8:11, 8:08, 8:31, 8:42, 8:52, 8:43, 8:38, 10:13, 9:08, 7:51, plus 2:20 to finish. Avg pace 8:39, HR Avg 162, max 178. Total time 1:54:47. I was hoping for a 1:47-1:50. Quads were very tired for sure and may not have hydrated properly yesterday.
Hope everyone has a great Sunday!
I ran the 3x 1-mile intervals as 3x7' and circled back or waited for my buddy Andrew at the end of each one. On the second recovery we both turned around and it took me pretty well the whole 4' recovery to catch up going at faster-than-recovery pace, therefore causing the last interval to be pretty hard! I then added an extra 6' interval to get me back to the lakefront tunnel, and ran reasonably hard the rest of the way home.
Overall 8.89 miles in 1:01:05, 6:52 pace. Current VDOT 48.5 (z4 – 7:01, z3 – 7:10, z2 – 7:26)
Warmup: 12' as ~10' @ 6:41, ~2' @ 7: 56
3x 7'(4') – 6:42, 6:25, 6:21, 6:32
1x 6'(3') – 6:33
(3x ~4' recoveries 8:17, 7:35, 7:41, 1x3' recovery 7:45)
Remainder time 6' @6:46
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/266536799
1 mile wu to include 4x30 sec strides then released the titans.
All at 2% incline.
5 mile repeats starting at 6:44 pace and ending each mile at 9.5-10.0. Each quarter would turn it up till I felt like my form was breaking then would back it up so the form was near perfect. Stuck with my pre plan and recovered at 2 min only.
Felt awesome!!!
Looking at next weeks run work outs. The Tuesday run is outlined as MS: 10' @ EP/Z1/Easy + 5 x uphill 20 strides.
Anyone have some insight on the 5 x uphill 20 strides? I was just going to find a relatively steep hill and run up it 5 times with recovery being the walk down. Not sure if this is what the coaches are getting at or not.