Ran at the gym tonight. Per my schedule, I did speed-building; specifically, one mile warmup and cooldown on the treadmill, and then 30 minutes on the elliptical trainer, with 8 sets of 30-second “sprints” followed by minute-and-a-half normal strides.
The warmup and cooldown were both fairly fast – the first was at about a 9:30 pace, and the cooldown was at a 9:40 pace, but I felt I could have gone faster. The training instructions I’ve been following, though, say that you should leave something on the track, so to speak; you should finish a workout thinking you could go a bit longer (races are a different story…)
And my time on the elliptical trainer is a bit more difficult to judge, but I did go slightly further than my last such workout, so there was a small increase from last time. Specifically, according to the built-in distance gauge, I did 2.68 miles in 30 minutes last week, compared to 2.73 miles this week. Those work out to a 11:11 pace and a 10:59 pace, respectively. If that seems slower than my running pace, keep in mind that I have no idea how the machine is judging distance-per-stride, and I’ve got short legs. Also, I’m basically doing a run/walk, so it seems about right. The benefit is that my overall turnover feels much faster than when I’m actually running, but because of the low-impact nature of the elliptical, I’m stressing my body much less. And the cardio benefit is the same.
Tomorrow, rest day, and Thursday is optional.