So yesterday Doug had a great run. He broke 6 minutes on a couple miles! Wow!
As most of you runners know, we seem to pick each other up when we're down, keep each other going, and motivate ourselves to break through walls. That's what happened yesterday. "Man," I thought, "sub 6 minute miles! Way to go! I wonder..."
So today decided to see what I could do. While the conditions weren't perfect for really throttling through a workout (are they ever in February in Wisconsin?), it was above zero (Ha! 4 degrees)and hadn't snowed in a while, so the roads were relatively clear.
I was up this morning and playing basketball at 6 am, and was done at 7. From there, I ran home (about a mile) for a warmup, then started the workout part of the run. I wanted to slowly keep increasing my pace, push it for a mile or two, then cool down. Results:
1: 8:02 (Warmup)
2: 7:13 (Commence speed work...)
3: 6:39 (Not bad. Keep pushing)
4: 6:49 (Okay, that was a decent uphill, I'll let it slide)
5: 6:26 (What the...? Now that was a bit disappointing!)
6: 7:09 (A letdown from mile 5...regroup, let's hit mile 6!)
7: 6:12 (Woo hoo! Wow. Sub 6 is serious speed.)
8: 8:50 (Cool down, both HR wise and Head wise.)
I've been pretty consistent with the workouts. The running workouts. I think this really showed me that I need cross training. Working different sports (swimming, cycling, strength training, yoga) creates a sum that's greater than its parts. The old adage that "in order to run faster, you need to practice running faster" definitely has some holes in it. Duh!
But I'm still happy with the run. That was a good 2 hours of exercise and I was done and showered before 8:30 am, and I was still moving out there! But it's time to get some cycling and yoga into my schedule. I'm not sure where, but I'll work on it.
After all, it's still 3HOB, right, Doug?!
(3 Hours or Bust)
ps...This run put me at 180 miles on the year. I'm 10% of the way to my goal for 2008!
5 comments:
Nice goin'! I don't think I'd have had that speed if I just got done with an hour of basketball.
But you do have a good point about the cross training. It's been helping me a ton. Doing the equivalent of 60 miles per week is really tuning my aerobic system, and the biking is turning my quads into hill eating machines.
Give it a shot if you got the time, the pay offs are huge!
Judging by the burning 7th mile after all the other energy expenditures from the morning, I would guess those sub 6 miles are easily obtainable with the right conditions. Nice workout!
I honestly think that you would've hit 5's if the weather was not so brutal. Once the Spring comes around and the snow and cold clear, I'll be lookin out for the fivers ;-)
Nice work.
My you two are speedy. You're right there, the conditions will improve and you'll be right there. I'll be...watching (and still trying to break 10) :D ha.
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