Thursday’s Run
On Thursday I met the JSRC track group at 6pm at Vanderbilt to complete my weekly “speed” workout. I did the week 3 “speed” workout prescribed in the Hansons Advanced Training Plan. This was 6 x 800m with 400m recovery in-between each interval. This equates to 3-miles of intervals and 1.5-miles of recovery. Based on my goal marathon time of 3:15, the target splits for this workout are 3:15. While, this is the goal, the Hanson brothers really emphasize not exceeding your target pace, and even make their athletes do sets of push-ups for every second they exceed their goal.
However, “exceeding” this goal was not gonna happen on Thursday due to the nasty heat and humidity. It was 94º in full sun, with a “feels like” of 98º at the beginning of my warmup:
My original plan was to break this workout into 3 sets of 2 x 800m, and do each set continuously, without breaks. However, after the first set I knew I would need to take a fluid break after every recovery lap. I could feel the heat pulsating from my face, and was fairly convinced that I would not be able to run all six 800m repeats. My first four splits got progressively slower, and then I was right on the verge of calling it a night. At that point, my good friend Paxton offered to run one with me (he had been doing the normal workout with the rest of the group). So, I agreed to try one more, and with Paxton in the lead I actually improved my time just a bit from the fourth interval. After the recovery, Paxton said he would run the last one with me, and I decided to give it a shot. This one actually felt better than number five, and ended up being my third fastest split of the night. Here’s a breakdown of the workout:
Warmup
- 1.65-miles easy
- 6 x 100m Stride Outs
Workout
- 800m fresh (3:19) / 400m recovery
- 800m fresh (3:25) / 400m recovery
- 800m fresh (3:39) / 400m recovery
- 800m fresh (3:44) / 400m recovery
- 800m fresh (3:38) / 400m recovery
- 800m fresh (3:33) / 400m recovery
Cool Down
- .37-miles easy
So, all told I got just over 7-miles of work. As a testament to how hot it was Thursday night, I ended up drinking 64-ounces of fluid during the workout. There is NO WAY I would have made it through this workout without Paxton running the last two with me. It was very nice of him to jump in there and pull me through. My splits were quite a bit behind the goal, but the heat and humidity were bad enough to make at least a 20 second difference (if not more). I obviously still have a ways to go to acclimate to the heat.
Thursday’s track workout marked 7 consecutive days of running, which is the first time that has happened in a LONG time. This was not previously planned, but ended up happening due to a change in my schedule last week. My plan is to run 6 consecutive days, with an off-day every Friday.
Today’s Run
After an off-day on Friday, today was my second “tempo” run of the Hansons Advanced Plan. The objective was to complete 6-miles at goal marathon pace (7:26). My friend John joined me for this workout at the Edwin Warner Park picnic area. Unfortunately, we didn’t great a break in the weather like I did the previous Saturday. It was actually 20º warmer than last weekend’s workout and the humidity felt like it was off-the-chart!
After a 2.2-mile warmup, with 3 stride outs, we ran all 6 “tempo” miles out-and-back on the Harpeth River Greenway. This part was a struggle! I just melted in the heat and humidity, and my pace suffered. Of course, I also ended up taking a couple of short breaks during the workout to try and get my heart rate back down. Like my track workout on Thursday, I probably would not have finished this run had it not been for John. He is WAY FASTER than me, so it was very generous of him to run at my pace and help pull me through.
As has been the trend recently, my Garmin could not keep up so it was hard to tell if we were on pace or not. According to John’s watch, we averaged 7:45 pace for the 6 miles. This was skewed a bit by an 8:18 mile that was really a dud. Whatever the case, the overall average is 20-seconds per mile slower than my target. It is so hard to know what pace is reasonable for these workouts when the heat and humidity are so high. I know from experience that target paces have to be adjusted based on the conditions, but it is still frustrating to not know what my target needs to be.
Oh well, with a 1.35-mile cool down, we still got in just over 9.5-miles for the morning. Obviously not my best runs on Thursday and Today, but I’m still getting the work done, and I know that good results will follow.
Tomorrow is 6-miles at easy pace to close out week 4.
In addition to the two running workouts, I also got in the following cross-training exercises today (Kate and Sara did a bunch of these with me):
Ab-Ripper X
- In & Out (20)
- Bicycle (20 each direction)
- Crunchy Frog (20)
- Wide Leg Sit-ups (15)
- Hip Rock & Raise (15)
- Pulse-Ups (15)
- V-Up Roll-Ups (15)
- Oblique V-Up (20 each side)
- Leg Climb (10 each leg)
- Mason Twist (40)
Legs and Back
- Three-Way Lunge (5 x 3 reps each leg)
- Chair Salutations (30 sec x 2)
- Reverse-Grip Chin-up (10 reps)
- Toe-Roll Iso Lunges (20 each leg)
- Groucho Walk (45 sec)
- Wide-Front Pull-Up (10 reps)
- Calf Raises (3 x 25 – 20lb dumbbells)
- Monster Walk (25 each leg)
- Switch-Grip Pull-Ups (8 reps)
- Wall Squat w Ball (1 min 32 seconds)
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Today’s Workout VINYL: Lazaretto (ULTRA LP) by Jack White |
“I dare you to train for a marathon, and not have it change your life.”
-Susan Sidoriak