Yesterday's run should not have been a good run. After a hard race and a long hike, my legs should have been dead.
It certainly shouldn't have been the kind of run that would leave me smiling and loving the whole running thing.
And yet, there I was, 6 miles and five 400m sprints under the belt, and feeling great.
400m:
91s
90s
90s
87s
88s
Okay, maybe you guys can help me out on this.
So, the 400ms. How awful should I feel afterward? I mean, I was gasping, right? And I was with my brother, so we took a full 400m walk/jog between them. And by the time it was time to start another 400m sprint, I was totally ready for it. And during the final cool down I kind of wanted to do more of them.
Should I finish a track workout totally dead? Part of me thinks that if I feel awesome, I didn't push hard enough. But that also seems like stupid logic.
I know I could have pushed harder on the 400ms. Not much harder, but harder. Should I be killing myself on track work? Will that make me better, or drain me too much? Does that vary person to person? Or is there a universal "this is how you do this speed work shit"?
Enough questions.
Meow.
It certainly shouldn't have been the kind of run that would leave me smiling and loving the whole running thing.
And yet, there I was, 6 miles and five 400m sprints under the belt, and feeling great.
400m:
91s
90s
90s
87s
88s
Okay, maybe you guys can help me out on this.
So, the 400ms. How awful should I feel afterward? I mean, I was gasping, right? And I was with my brother, so we took a full 400m walk/jog between them. And by the time it was time to start another 400m sprint, I was totally ready for it. And during the final cool down I kind of wanted to do more of them.
Should I finish a track workout totally dead? Part of me thinks that if I feel awesome, I didn't push hard enough. But that also seems like stupid logic.
I know I could have pushed harder on the 400ms. Not much harder, but harder. Should I be killing myself on track work? Will that make me better, or drain me too much? Does that vary person to person? Or is there a universal "this is how you do this speed work shit"?
Enough questions.
Meow.
Well that last picture made my day.
ReplyDeleteHahah, love the pic at the end :). Totally you!
ReplyDeleteTry using McMillian's running calculator. He'll spit you out your target paces if you pop in a time you are aiming for in a race. It's fun!
http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/calculator
400s should all be done at an even pace, so although the last few intervals will be tough it shouldn't be too difficult to finish them at the same pace you ran the first few. (The exception, I think is if you're doing ladder style intervals.) If you're struggling too much, the pace is too fast; on the other hand, if you have enough energy to speed up at the end, you need a faster pace. To determine your pace, use the calculator Jill linked to.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you were doing alright. The intervals were tough, but you recovered well enough to run another good interval.
Ha. that cat is weird.
ReplyDeleteMy basic rule of thumb, and I kind of made this up, but it seems to work, is that easy runs should be conversational pace. Tempo's should let you speak in short sentences. Speed you should be able to say a word, maybe. And at the end of each interval, you should feel like you could have gone a tiny bit further, but not too much.
Normally, my rest intervals are half the distance of my speed interval... which leaves you less recovered, but I think that's kind of the idea? but I'm not a coach, and still slow as fuck, so maybe take that with a grain of salt.
I remember reading somewhere that you should be able to run ONE more interval at the same pace. If you can't, you worked too hard. If you could do more than one, you didn't work hard enough.
ReplyDeleteSo THAT'S how they came up with the P word for women and their.....
ReplyDeleteYou should that cat face actually tattooed on your ass. Your husband would love it, I'm sure.
ReplyDeleteLOL @ that picture... holy shit that's funny..
ReplyDeleteI don't even pretend to know what's the right and wrong ways to run.
It depends if you're training for speed or endurance. If speed you'll have more rest and feel close to fully recovered when you start your next one. Endurance, shorten the rest time, you may feel more spent afterwards since you're still running hard.
ReplyDeleteI say go for it on the track. You have to mix some long repeats in with those shorter repeats, but go until failure. Speedwork rules!
ReplyDelete