Speed work - 5 to 7 repeats of 600 m.

We did speed work at Thompson Arena again tonight. Tonight's exercise was repeats of 600 m. with a 200 m. break between in between. Between the long run on Sunday, a hockey game on Monday and then the speed work tonight, my muscles were already fairly tight. By the time we were into our 3rd 600 m. repeat, my right hamstring and hip was very tight and sore. While my intent was to do 7 of the repeats at 2:30 each, I pulled the plug at 5 repeats. Here are my splits:

2:28
2:32
2:31
2:32
2:36

That last repeat took everything I had to make that time. With Cruise to Run coming up on the weekend, I didn't think it was a good time to injure myself, so pulling the plug seemed like the right thing to do.

12.5 Mile Long Run Around London

I did a 12.5 mile long run today around London with the Around the Bay Marathon Training Group. Definitely made a difference being with he group as I don't think I would have finished the long run had I been out there on my own. Here is the route:

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=5245614

Not including breaks, it took me 1:51:48 to do this route. I didn't have my GPS so I don't have splits, but it worked out to 8:57 per mile. Considering that (a) it was a hilly route, (b) it was very windy (45 km/h winds), slippy and cold (-8 C) today and (c) it is still early in the training, I was reasonably happy with this pace.

My right hamstring definitely noticed the uphill segments -- I just didn't have any power. But what I lost in the uphill, I was generally able to make up in the downhill segments.

I gave blood on Friday, and I know that giving blood sorta screws up my running for a few days. So that could have also screwed up my time.

Anyhow, this gives me a benchmark for future long runs during this training session.

9 more weeks until Around the Bay!

4.5 Mile Easy Run

Brian and I did a 4.5 mile easy run today in order to try to get some of the cobwebs out of our systems. Having done speed work the night before, we took it easy and just ran around Lucan. It was windy and cold, but bearable.

Our pace was roughly 8:40 per mile. My legs felt pretty beat-up, though, as I really didn't have a lot more than that pace in me.

Speed Work - 7 x 400 + 2 x 200 m.

Tonight was our first official speed work session of the 2013 Winter season. My goal race is Around the Bay -- 30K. John Ferguson had us doing 7 repeats of 400 m. followed by 2 repeats of 200 m. (with a 200 m. rest break in between each repeat) at the Thompson Arena track at Western.

I was targeting 1:40 per 400 m. and 45 seconds for the 200 m. loops at the end. Here are my splits:

1:30
1:38
1:40
1:39
1:40
1:35
1:31
0:43 (200 m.)
0:42 (200 m.)

As you can see, I started to ramp up the speed for the last few repeats. Compare these times to my times a year ago (2 months after my hamstring injury) and there is no question that I've almost fully recovered. In fact, I wouldn't say that my right hamstring was any more stressed during the last laps than other parts of my legs (right hip, left calf).

So far, training is off to a good start!