With 3 weeks to go before my next race I figured I couldn't put off getting some speedwork in any longer so I hit the track this weekend for the second time this year.
Wasn't quite sure what I was going to do but knew I wanted to start with 3200m. I warmed up with 2.5 miles and then after a brief pause to center myself, lineup and started the workout.
I don't know what it is but 6 minute pace is what my legs naturally want to do on the track for the most part. I started off a bit fast with a 43 second 200m but then found my rhythm and started knocking off 90 second laps. As the laps progressed, my HR never really took off but I could feel the lactic acid accumulating in my lags. As the laps progressed I kept pace but it was hard not to tense up; I focused on staying smooth and relaxed. I hit the 3200 mark at about 12 minutes on the dot. I walked for about 100 meters and then jogged at 400m at something around 8 minute pace.
By the time I got to the start I was ready to go again, this time running 1600 at 6 minute pace. Again I hit the splits without too much trouble. After another 400m I decided on an 800m. Hitting that in 2:59... I this point, I still felt okay and considered doing one more 800m but ultimately decided not to over do it, figuring there's a couple more weeks to nail workouts so I'd do a little less and recover quicker.
Ultimately, the workout didn't take too much out of me, but it did aggravate my IT band a bit. Seems like the sub 6 minute pace is what really triggers it, as even my tempo work didn't really bother it... after jogging home I wound up with 7.5 miles total. 2.5 mile warm up at 7:46 pace, followed by 5 miles in 32 minutes (6:23 average pace).
I did bring some fatigue into Sunday's long run... it was raining and cold with 17 MPH winds but it was Mother's day and I didn't want to wait out the rain so after feeding the kids I hit the road at about 8:30 am. It was really just sprinkling but with the wind it was pretty gnarly. I work my Goretex running jacket and that took care of most of the issues. Luckily the wind was blowing out of the South so while I had to face the wind early, it wasn't too bad since I was running into the wind in the forested, hilly section of the run, which blocked some of the wind. By the time I hit the flats, the wind was at my back and it actually tangibly helped my pace, my jacket acting as a sail. Wound up running a half marathon at 7:49 pace, which was a solid effort in bad conditions and tired legs.
Today, I ran a recovery run; 5.44 miles at 8:24 pace. The first couple miles were in the 8:40s and my legs were just plain dead but they came around after mile 3 and the pace picked up to around 8:15. Finished up feeling fresher than when I started which is more or less the point.
After the run, I hit the bench and got some weight work in to stay on my yearly target. I hit a set of 10 at 155 and then 4 sets of 10 at 165. Followed that up with 2 sets of 60 pushups. 60 pushups are pretty damn easy these days even after benching which I assumed would fatigue me.
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