i chose, on an impulse, to do something fast thursday night. after having such a great trail run the night before, i wanted a good, fast road run, and 400s are my favorite -i love um!
i don't feel that ultra- or trail marathon- runners have any reason to do conventional, track-style intervals (with a set period of non-active rest between them). since the ultra running motto is 'relentless forward movement,' why would you ever stop moving in a workout? -repeats for any runner who's event lasts longer than four hours should never stop or walk during workouts, period.
so the workout went down like this:
>800 meter WU(warm up)
>12X 400 meters slow: 400 meters at sub-5:20 pace
>2 mile CD (cool down)
-since I'm going to race a 1.4 mile halloween run at Clement Park Lake on the 28th, i did the workout entirely on the 1.4 mile loop that the race is going to be run on. breaking 8 minutes would be great in a costume...
-my Garmin 405 made this workout possible for me: its relentless beaps told me when to sprint and when to jog. i feel way better knowing that there isn't any human error in my workout.
i felt great with the effort and remembered fully why i love the short-lived pain that comes with fast running. looking forward to Moab, i should have the aerobic capacity to do very well, but that still seems far off
Thanks for this! I found it via Bart Yasso's tweet, and it is exactly what I needed. Number one, it is confirmation that the Garmin does exactly what I need it for. Now I know what to ask Santa to bring this year. ; ) Secondly, it was great to read that "relentless forward movement" isn't just in my head.
ReplyDeleteI am a new runner, and so clueless. Posts like this help me out a lot. thanks.
thanks for the response, its great to hear from new runners! and im glad to have helped you.
ReplyDeleteif you ever try some speedwork hit me back to tell me how it went!
Thanks for stopping by!
ReplyDeleteMy speedwork to this point is all Fartleks. I know I need to get more comfortable with the clock, so learning how to do trackwork is definitely on my list.
when i did the workout above i used exclusively my Garmin and my desire to get me 400 hard meters: i wasn't on a track and i didn't know exactly how close/far i was from being done with each interval.
ReplyDeletei love doing speedwork this way because, while it might be mentally harder to go all-out, it really gets down to the basics of why i run. while i was pushing hard i asked myself two questions:
how bad do i want to be fast? -more than i wana breath
and do i have enough to make it through the next 400 meters? -the answer is always yes, just dont let yourself think about the next 10 intervals after it.
just my 2 cents about effort and the clock.
good luck