Did my speed work tonight at the gym. Same drill as before: one mile warmup, then alternating sets of 4:00 at a fast pace (8:40 tonight) and 2:00 of slow pace (10:00 – 10:30 tonight), then one mile of cool down.
Going into it, my legs were a bit sore and tight. I haven’t been doing any hydrotherapy or temperature therapy (I know! I’m bad) and haven’t been moving much at work. Also, lots of sleeping (with really really odd dreams – another post). So I was afraid that I’d have a bad run, which is practically a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Wore the Adidas, shorts and a long-sleeved shirt, because when I do speed work, sakes alive I sweat. The longer sleeves help keep me from flinging sweat everywhere while I pound out the miles. Music was Harvey Danger’s “King James Version”, followed by the Decemberists’ “Castaways and Cutouts”. Yay for PNW bands!
Tonight, though… there were interruptions. First, why in hell is the gym so busy this week? See, here’s the thing; there’s only six good treadmills at my gym. There’s probably another 15 treadmills, but those 15 are crap. They speed up and slow down too slow, they’re not as quiet as the good ones, and they don’t report the basics in as readable a format as the good ones. So I eschew them.
Tonight, though, one of the six good ones was off, and the other 5 were in use and a quick walk-by showed that those using the good treadmills had just started their runs. Dammit.
So, I did a quarter-mile of brisk walking on one of the bad machines, then stretched out, then took a look. Yes! One of the good ones was empty. So I hopped on and started my mile warmup. Things were going well, so I got some water then started the speed work.
But I messed up and slowed down at 19:00 total instead of 20:00 (that total includes my 10:00 of warmup, so it was my second set of fast/slow) – argh. I did a minute of the slow speed, then a minute of the fast speed, then a minute of slow, but my timing was all off by now.
And by my third fast set, my digestive system made its presence known. I made it through my slow section, then had to go back to the bathroom. The break was annoying because I had been doing pretty good. Also, it meant that I lost track of how far I had gone and therefore my average pace. I’m pretty sure the total miles at that point were 2.87. My heart rate slowed down, and the sweat poured off my body like Multnomah Falls (I sweat during exertion, but once I stop, it seems to double or even triple in, um, flow) but I knew that I was going to go back and finish one more set of fast/slow.
But, of course, all the good treadmills were taken when I came back. What is it? Is the start of November the time everyone realizes that the holidays are coming so they’d better start working out to burn off all the delicious calories they’re going to partake of in the next couple of months? I’m going to have to find another time to go to the gym if that’s the case. I thought that getting there by 4:30 was enough time but apparently not.
…I had to do my last set on one of the bad machines, and it threw off my pace calculations because it didn’t get up to my fast pace until 55 seconds had elapsed. So I counted my first set from 1:00 – 5:00. Then it didn’t slow to my recovery pace for another 25 seconds, so I counted my recovery set from 5:30 – 7:30. But I had no way of eliminating the distance I covered in the extra time. I’m pretty sure my total distance, including warm up running and cool down running, was 4.77. My best guess is that, averaged over all four sets of speedwork (minus the 2 miles before and after), I managed about a 9:13 pace, which sounds right. It’s a good time – but of course I had a break in there, which allowed me to catch my breath, so it doesn’t really count, at least in my mind.
But, what I plan on doing to test myself, is this: during my long run, probably Saturday, which will more than likely be at the gym (the rainy seasons are upon us Oregonians), after I’m warmed up, I’m going to go for broke and see just how far I can go. If I can make 2.5 miles at a 9:00 pace that would show me that I am, in fact, improving. It would also be pretty freakin’ fast for me. I’m not sure if I want to do the alternating fast/slow like my speedwork, or just set a fast pace and try to maintain it. Probably the latter. We shall see.
I may also run on Friday, but will just focus on running for a specific length of time, say, 40:00 and not worry about distance. Or I might not run again ’til Saturday and then have an easy run on Sunday. I’ll decide tomorrow.