Pages

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

June 25-30 : Firsts - v

Monday, June 25:
Bike session.  13.9 mi in 55 min.  Went at level 9 for 15 min, then level 10 for the rest.  It was progressively faster.  I sweat and drank lots (lemon+salt+water).  My legs felt like post-marathon legs during the workday.  Yesterday's run in the heat must've taken a lot out of me.  Or maybe it's my body still getting over the Insanity DVD.  Doing the recumbent bike while reading a running magazine is always really enjoyable.

Wednesday, June 27:
Strength session, 55 min.

Thursday, June 28:
I've been wanting to try Yasso 800s for a while.  The idea is that they're a good marathon race performance predictor.  You do 10x[800 meters], with a 400m jog after each one.  The average of your 800 reps in mm:ss is equivalent to your estimated hh:mm performance.  Start w/ 3-5 repeats 4-5 months before the marathon.  Do the full 10 3 and 5 weeks out of marathon to see where you are.  It always seemd so dauting, to do 5 mi of speed, plus 2.5 mi of the jogging, plus warmup.  To simply finish that workout seems like it would require a lot of training.  Based on all of the scales, I should be capable of a 3:23 or so if I train well and build up my endurance.  Everything from my mile time (which would actually predict something a bit faster) to my HM time kind of hits 3:23 dead-on.  But I've been nowhere near that in my 2 marathons so far.  For this workout, I wanted to just see how far I could go in the Yasso reps, so I decided to set the treadmill at 8.5mph, which was 3:32:30, a bit under my goal of 3:35 for the BQ.  It's kind of nice to do it on a treadmill in that you can set the pace of the machine then just keep up.  I figured I could shoot for maybe 6, and I ended up going to 7.  I was pleased.  I felt like I could've eeked out another 3 if I gave it everything.  It wouldn't have been wise to spend it all on a workout, and it's better to build up, so I just went through 7.  The last few got progressively harder, with the need to muster up mental strength coming earlier and earlier into the rep.  It was good, though.  I liked it.  Yassos are not only good as tests, but it's a good workout, too.  I'm used to doing maybe 3 800s  @ 9mph, with 7.5mph rest 400s, so it was a nice change to do the 800s @ 8.5mph with the slower 7mph rest 400s.  I needed it to be slower, and 7 was perfect.  Including the 400 warmup, I went 5.5 in 41:48, 7:36 ave.  First attempt at Yassos ever - check.

Saturday, June 30:
Another First... first long run in a long time (2 months)... long as in anything over 10 mi for marathon purposes.  11.9 in 1:46:19, 8:56 ave.  I started at 6:20, a few minutes after sunrise, which was great for minimizing the heat of the sun.  It was a bit humid, but that feling went away quickly.  I started feeling looser (more warmed up) after 4.5 mi.  It was easier to manage this time, maybe because I dodged teh heat, although I was lagging in the last mile.  Good to finally be back[er], though.  We'll see if I can improve on that next weekend.
It's been motivational to watch the Olympic Trials for various sports.  I was inspired by watching gymnastics to do this...




I hear the recruiters knocking already.

// Aww, it looks like the video doesn't work.  Too bad.  It was a stunning attempt at a cartwheel.

No comments: