Speed Work - 5 x 1 mile repeats on a humid night...

Tuesday -- so it must be Speed Work night. Tonight, the Legendary John Ferguson had us continuing to ramp up our mile repeats.

I was still a bit beat up from my 23 mile long run 2 days ago, but felt I could squeeze out 5 x 7 minute miles, separated by at 2:30 walk/jog break. Here are my splits:

6:59
6:55
6:58
6:58
7:12

So, my average was just a hair over 7 minutes per mile -- although that last mile was brutal.

It was warm (25 degrees-ish) and humid -- raining lightly, in fact -- so it wasn't exactly ideal running conditions.

Bernie LeForte did his last mile in 7:05, and he has been running really well as of late, so I was pretty happy with my 7 minute average.

Less than 6 weeks until Corning. And just 4 more speed work sessions!

23 Mile Long Run to Port Stanley -- Not pretty...

Today we did another Runners Choice Port Stanley run from London. I took off at the Saturn/Saab dealer at Wharncliffe and Southdale and fairly quickly caught up to Bernie, Clive, Mark and a bunch of others. We were banging off 8:30s pretty consistently, which is what I was targeting.

At the water stops, John Ferguson suggested that we plan for 3 minute stops. Instead, we started off with 2 minute breaks and eventually as things warmed up, I switched over to waiting until my heart rate monitor was saying it had come down to 110 beats per minute before I'd take off. At the start, that was certainly within 2 minutes, but as the day got warmer and sunnier (a high of 26 C or so, plus the sunshine), and I got more tired, it was taking longer and longer -- 5 or 6 minutes near the end, for sure.

Around the the turn-off at St. Thomas, Bernie and the others kept the pace and I drifted back. By the end, I was well back of my target finish at 11:40ish -- so I'd been out there for roughly 4 hours including breaks. My actual running time was 3:16:25 for 22.64 miles for an average pace of 8:41. So, within range while I was running of my target pace (8:30 to 8:45).

A couple of things I did differently, other than waiting for my heart to recover, was eating dried apricots when I needed food, combined with the occasional Clif Blok (triple-salt Margarita flavoured), plus the eLoad 5x eTabs (salt) pills. Also, because I was taking such a long break, my calves were seizing up on me when I would re-start -- but I focused on keeping them loose and after a minute or two I would be back up to speed.

Anyhow, here are my splits:

8:25
8:31
8:36
8:29
8:37
8:37
8:31
8:26
8:23
8:29
8:30
8:29
8:19
8:44
9:04
9:13
8:53
8:48
8:59
8:57
8:24 (0.59 of a mile for some reason)
9:03
8:54

My goal was to finish without ending up in an ambulance. Jeremy Groves and Jay ___ monitored me for the last 3 water stops to make sure I was okay, and Deb Ripley was keeping a close eye on me as well. Nice to have the support out there!

4 x 1 mile repeats...

I took this past weekend off of doing a long run, so my muscles certainly felt refreshed. Still, my hip was still talking to me, so Coach Brian suggested that I take it easy on the first mile-repeat -- maybe targeting 7:30 for the first mile and then ramping it up from there if it felt good. We were to do a 2:30 rest between repeats.

Well, I couldn't keep that first mile to that slow. I felt like I was taking it easy, but I still did a 7:07 first mile. Here are my four splits:
7:06
6:58
6:58
6:58

So my average pace was exactly 7 minutes per mile. Not as good as April 2 of this year (6:53 average pace), but way better than 2012 when I was still pretty early in the recovery from my hamstring injury. Targeting anywhere from 6:50 to 7:00 per mile is about where I should be.

It was warm out tonight -- roughly 25 degrees C and muggy -- but it didn't seem to affect me, other than the buckets of sweat I shed.

13 Mile Tempo Run

Tonight was the longest tempo run of this session -- a 13 miler. And with my hip still hurting, I really wasn't sure how it would go. So Jenny and I decided that I'd run out slowly for 2 miles and if it was hurting, I'd just turn around. But it didn't hurt very much and, in fact, was feeling fairly good, so I kept running. On the way back, I was targeting something close to 8 minutes per mile. Here are my splits:

8:49
8:34
8:32
8:52
8:29
8:37
9:02 (0.4 miles)
8:03
8:02
8:04
8:04
8:02
8:20
7:49 (0.44 miles)

The average pace was 8:23. So, considering I had no idea how the run would do, I was quite pleased.

Still, I made the decision to not even attempt a long run in the upcoming weekend. A rest would do my muscles a world of good.

5 x 1 km repeats (should have been 7)...

Tonight, we were to do 6 or, ideally, 7 repeats of 1 km, with a 2 minute jogging rest between repeats. I felt that my right hamstring was talking to me a bit, so I targeted 4:05 to 4:10 per km. Here are my splits:

4:08
4:08
4:08
4:08
4:06

I then attempted to do a 6th repeat and my right butt-hamstring-glute -- whatever you want to call it -- was really starting to hurt -- so I pulled the plug 400 m. into the repeat.

I felt crappy about wimping out -- but then 2 days later, I felt that it was the right decision. My butt was still hurting.

8.73 mile Tempo Run Targeting 8:20's out and 7:25's back...

We did a repeat of our tempo run 2 weeks ago (which went extraordinarily well for me) and so Bernie and I decide to step it up a bit for this one -- 8:20's out and 7:25's back. Here are our splits:

8:17
8:13
8:10
8:21
8:17 (pace, 0.37 miles)
7:21
7:21
7:19
7:30
7:34 (pace, 0.36 miles)

Average pace for 4.36 miles back was: 7:23 (4:35 per kilometre), which is just a bit better than what we were targeting. But I was really struggling for that last 0.36 miles (after barely getting through the Harris Park hill!

Total time: 1:08:19 for 8:73 miles (7:50/mile pace)

Speed Work - Harris Park Hill and 800 m. Sprint Repeats

Tonight, the Legendary John Ferguson had us at Harris Park at the centre of London Ontario to do hill repeats from the park up to Ridout St. From there, we'd cool down across the Queens Ave. bridge to the west side of the Thames River, where we'd sprint 750 m. to Blackfriars Bridge. A cool-out jog to the base of the hill at the south end of Harris Park and we'd do it all again.

Once again, Bernie and I stayed together for the whole work out. Here are our splits:

1:25 up hill
3:01 750 m. sprint

1:26 up hill
3:09 750 m. sprint

1:24 up hill
3:03 750 m. sprint

1:21 up hill
3:00 750 m. sprint

So, my average up the hill was 1:24, and our average for the sprint was 3:03. Comparing this to Tuesday February 28 2013, my average up the hill was 1:36 and my average for the sprint was 3:15. Now, that was injured and at the end of February -- plus we did 5 repeats, not 4 as we did tonight. But clearly there is progress here!

16 Mile Long Run...

Today, Bernie LeForte and I headed out to do our 16 mile long run with the Runner's Choice group. Just out to the corner of Boler and Southdale (up that very long hill) and back -- something we'd done lots of times before.

The weather was unseasonably cool -- roughly 13 degrees C. which is amazing running weather for early August. We were aiming for 8:30 per mile. Here are our splits:

8:53
8:26
8:22
8:27
8:21
8:22
8:40 (uphill)
8:31 (uphill)
8:03 (downhill)
8:07 (downhill)
8:20
8:29
8:20
8:23 (up Terry Fox Parkway)
8:22
8:17

Average pace for the 16 miles was 8:24.

I was wearing my heart rate monitor. Typically, my heart rate was in the mid-140's on the way out and then the mid-150's on the way back -- possibly due to the warmer weather and that I was more tired. At the breaks (2 out, 4 back), I started to wait until my heart rate dipped down to the 90's before we'd start up again -- just to make sure it wasn't racing on me.

I was definitely tired by the end, but was still able to keep the pace, so not a terrible run.

Lousy Pace Run - 4.4 miles...

Today I was to do a 5 or 6 mile pace run. I typically do this run from the office to home -- 4.4 miles away. Okay, so not quite 5 miles. But in today's case, it was quite the workout.

As soon as I got out onto William Street, I was hit with a very strong headwind. I couldn't make "easy run" pace, let along marathon pace. Here are my splits:

8:10
8:26
9:04
8:59
7:57 (0.43 miles)

As soon as I hit Neil Road and headed North, my pace easily picked up. Not quite to marathon pace (7:48/mi.) but not bad either.

11 Mile Tempo Run

We did an 11 mile tempo run from Gibbons Park to Springbank Park (past the Merry-Go-Round) and back. Aiming for 8:30s on the way out and 7:30s on the way back. Here are my splits:

8:21
8:26
8:25
8:30
8:23
8:20 (pace - 1/2 mile)
7:29
7:20
7:31
7:29
7:33 (includes going up Harris Park hill)
7:22 (pace - 1/2 mile)

So my average pace was roughly 7:28 on the way back. Note, however, that we stopped for about 2 minutes each at Wonderland Gardens and the Forks for some water. The temp was about 24 degrees C. so water (and carb chews) was a good idea.

Looking back through my Blog, the only run that I could find that was close was a 10 mile tempo run back on September 16 2010. Similar distance, identical route and roughly 7:26's on the way back. A bit cooler though.

So, this run was my only 11 mile tempo run -- but right up there with one of my best long tempo runs ever!