My warmup for these is usally a couple miles, and I'll throw in about three 100 meter runs at goal pace (round 6:00). Things felt fine and I lined up for rep #1. 4:30 makes the numbers easy, as it's 45 seconds for every 200 meters, or 1:30 per lap - easy to remember even when you feel like throwing up. Here's how it went....
- 4:27 - went out fast as usual - first 200 in 41, settled down and ran on pace for the next 2 1/2 laps feeling pretty good - 87/90/90 laps
- 4:29 - fast start again at 42 seconds - 88/90/91 laps
- 4:29 - better start at 43 - laps of 88/90/91 - stomach started to go in last 100 m (checked to see if the bathroom was unlocked for future reference - it wasn't...)
- 4:30 - 44 for first 200 - laps of 89/91/90 - second lap I was hurting - last lap a definite push - very glad these weren't 1,600s
- 4:30 - 89/92/89 - last lap was a struggle after a very sloppy lap #2. considered bagging rep 6 but somehow convinced myself to run it.
- 4:30 - 91 first lap, 93 second lap and feeling bad. managed to pull an 86 out of my ass for lap 3 to make the time. last 200 was in 42 - it was definitely race effort for last 75 meters
Average was 4:29 which I was happy with. I have never hit more than 4 at 4:30 pace before, even when I was running 100+ miles per week. Best I ever did before was 4:26, 4:29, 4:29, 4:30, 4:39 and the last one was ugly. This chart shows the pace, and you can see the dip at the end of rep #6.
Between now and Ottawa (12 1/2 weeks) I need to get the time for these down another 8 seconds to 4:21, which is 5:50 pace. So next week it will be aiming for 4:29 again - hopefully I'll be able to hold it together thru at least lap 4 and only have to push hard for 5 and 6. Then I get a week off speedwork due to the Shamrock Half Marathon.
No comments:
Post a Comment