Speedwork: 5 x 1K Repeats

Tonight, coach John Ferguson, the Legend, had us doing 1 km repeats, with a 2 minute break between repeats. I went out hoping to get 6 repeats in, but I knew it would be tough. Here are my splits:

4:11
4:10
4:11
4:11
4:15

It took everything I had to get these 5 in at this pace. The last repeat I could see things were falling apart. I was aiming for 4:10 per km, so I was quite happy with the results. And all but the last lap were 4:10:nn -- but rounding up put 3 of them to 4:11. My average pace was 4:11.54, which compares to 4:20.4 a year ago, and 4:05 on August 16 2011, 3 months before I set my personal best marathon time.

So, again, there is progress in the recovery from my hamstring injury in November 2011. I'm not there yet, but I'm definitely getting closer to being fully recovered.

10K Tempo Run - A bit better this time...

This afternoon I went out for another 10K tempo run. This one went much better than last week's, so I'm ready to ramp it up to 12K next time.

I was looking for 5:15's out, and then 4:35's back. But there was quite a headwind coming back, so I didn't quite make my target times. Here are my splits:

5:05
5:08
5:03
5:08
5:13 (uphill)
4:33 (downhill)
4:41
4:49
4:55 (strong headwind)
4:54 (strong wind from side)

Total time was 49:27 with an average pace of 4:57 per kilometre. So, not awful -- and 6 seconds per kilometre faster than last week. Would definitely be good if I could get it down to an average of 4:50 per k. 3 weeks to go until the race!

10K Tempo Run...

While I've been pretty good at getting in my speed work and my long runs, I haven't done a single "tempo" run up until today. I went out from home thinking I'd do 5:15's per kilometre on the way out (generally uphill, towards Lucan on William Street) and 4:40s on the way back (generally downhill). Here are my splits:

5:12
5:16
5:11
5:17
5:22
4:34
4:52
4:44
4:47
5:59

So my average out was 5:16 (close enough) and my average back (4km) was 4:44. I should have been better coming back, as it was mostly downhill.

The last kilometre I used as a cool down run. There was a very strong wind coming from the north as I turned to do that last kilometre and there was no way I was going to hit anything close to my target time. My average over those first 9 kilometres was 5:03. If you include that last kilometre, it was 5:08.

No question that I have more work to do here.

3 mile easy run on the treadmill

The weather has been really crappy the past few days, so I did an easy run on the "dreadmill" today. It actually wasn't that bad. I turned on a cassette tape of classic rock from the 70's and told myself I'd run for 30 minutes. I started at a pace of 6.0, then bumped it up to 7.0 and finished at 7.5 for the last half mile or so. I know the distance and speed needs to be calibrated, but I did 3.05 "miles" in the 30 minutes or 3 miles in 29:37. I was drenched in sweat and working hard, so it was a good workout even if the speeds/distances were off a bit.

Long run in Michigan - 16.6 miles

The girls and I went to Michigan this weekend, so I was going to miss my Sunday run with the Runner's Choice marathon training group. The schedule called for 18 miles, but my &^%$&*ing Garmin wouldn't pick up a satellite signal again. Very frustrating. So, instead, I went based on doing a 2 hour 30 minute run. I ran out from the Days Inn Hotel on Plymouth Road and (eventually) got onto the E.N. Hines Parkway.

The Parkway had only light traffic and wide shoulders, which was good because the trail that ran along beside the road was snow-covered in most places. Overall, I did 8:30 per mile to the turn-around point, and then somewhat slower on the way back, giving me an average pace of 8:49 per mile.

Here is the route:

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=5828952

So, not the distance or pace I would have liked, but considering I was running alone in a new place, it wasn't terrible.

Speed Work - Parloff Relay at Thompson Arena

Tonight we did a Parloff Relay at the track. This is where you team up with a partner and you each do 400 m. laps, passing the 'baton' (a pencil) to your team member after each 400 m. lap. My team member tonight was Glen and he was going to target 1:40 per 400 m. lap, but he ended up blowing that time out of the water. I was targeting 1:30 per lap and was very close to that time. Here are our splits:

1:30 (me)
1:33 (Glen)
1:31 (me)
1:31 (Glen)
1:29 (me)
1:32 (Glen)
1:29 (me)
1:31 (Glen)
1:29 (me)
1:30 (Glen)
1:29 (me)
1:31 (Glen)
1:31 (me)
1:32 (Glen)
1:31 (me)
1:31 (Glen)
1:28 (me)

My average was 1:29.53 which I was very happy with. It compares very well to last February (1:32.62) and last July (1:32.88) -- so I'm 3 seconds faster than a year ago. In July 2011 (before the hamstring injury), my times averaged (1:30:62) and after a summer of training I averaged 1:23 per lap on September 6 2011 -- two months before my personal best marathon. So I have quite a ways to go before I hit my personal best lap times, but I've definitely made progress over the past year.

16 Mile Long Run from Ilderton to Goodlife...

While the rest of the Runners Choice group was running the Really Chilly 5K and 10K, Coach Brian and I decided to join the "fast guys" to run from Steve and Lisa Hill's place in Ilderton down to Goodlife -- but taking the "scenic route. Actually, Doug Roswell, Mike and Steve took off from the house, and then Lisa dropped Brian, Ryan Nutbrown and me at Denfield Road and Nine Mile Road. Here is the route:

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=5822566

Steve had gone out ahead of time and dropped off Gatorade, water and snacks along the route, which was great. I was running with Ryan Nutbrown and Coach Brian who are both much faster runners than I am, so they generally kept with me for the first 2/3's of the run until we got into Springbank Park and I told them to go on ahead. But even still, Steve, Doug, Ryan and Brian came back to get me as I was crossing the walkbridge to head up King Street, which was quite nice of them. I tried to step it up (a tiny bit) at the end.

My GPS wasn't getting a signal for some reason, so I could not track my pace. But I did track the times (to the nearest minute) when we stopped for hydration. Here are those times, distance (based on Gmap-Pedometer) and the calculated pace at the time:

45 minutes, 5.58 miles: 8:04 per mile
77 minutes, 9.62 miles: 8:00 per mile (and that is after about a 2 mile uphill segment after the Kilworth bridge)
132 minutes, 16.0 miles: 8:15 per mile

So I slowed down considerably through the park, unfortunately. Looks like my pace during that segment was 8:37.

It definitely helped having Ryan and Brian in my sights, so I must have lost that focus when they took off through the park. But overall, I am reasonably happy with the run today. It wasn't a race, so I wasn't trying that hard. And, in fact, I was somewhat surprised when I saw my pace overall in writing ths blog post. I was still able to breath well and talk in short sentences right up until the end of the run, so I think my cardio is there for Around the Bay. Its just my leg strength and leg endurance while running with an efficient running style that needs work.

With 5 more weeks to go until the race, I'm cautiously optimistic that I'm starting to get 'in the zone' to set a PB on this one. Just need to dig out 8 minute miles for 18.75 miles.