How Seebo Gets His Mojo Working
Yesterday was the low point of the year, running-wise, for me. Just felt bad about things.
But it helps to write things down, and after yesterday's entry I realized I needed to get back to where I feel like I'm training - hard. I need to get my mojo back, so to speak.
The best way I know how to do that is to head to the track. So as an appetizer I ran a 4 mile Franklin Field loop this morning - easy in 33:50. I didn't even change out of my shorts and worked from home (my email at work is screwed up; so its almost pointless going into the office) in the morning. Then I headed back down to Franklin Field, this time in earnest, for a track workout at lunch.
I wanted to do something different (although I've been on the track so little this year that anything would be different), so I decided to do reps of 400 meters with 200m recovery. I don't remember the last time I did those, and had no idea what to shoot for. But competitiveness took care of that, Kevin F. on his 3/14 blog entry writes about doing 10 400's, hitting 8 of them in under 70 seconds. That seemed about right, and I'd do at least ten and, to show him up, shoot for up to 20 of them.
I had no idea how fast I was going for the first rep, and hit it in 71 seconds. Second time around was 73 seconds and I was sucking air. No way I was going to get these pups under 70. So when the going gets tough, the tough lower their standards. I decided to shoot for hitting them in under 75 seconds. This proved much more realistic, as reps 3-10 went in: 74; 75; 73; 73; 75; 75; 75 & 76. I wanted to do 20, but didn't see myself hitting them under 75. So I decided to go up to 800s (w/ 400m recovery), shooting for a 2:40 goal time. Couldn't quite get there, did 2:41; 2:41; 2:41 and 2:45. Some time over the course of this last rep I felt done. But to make things hard on myself I went back down to 400s (200m rec) for the last two laps. 76 for the first one and 79 for the second. This made it 20 laps, but now I was really done.
If you skipped over that last paragraph, suffice to say that this was an important workout. From a performance perspective it was so-so, but from the push myself to the brink of my fitness perspective it was, well it was good to be back. I'm now thinking again like I was a few weeks ago. Plan is to do easy miles in double sessions tomorrow; more double sessions, with one of them the Adrenaline 5k on Saturday; and then a long run with some marathon pace miles on Sunday. I'll then train hard for another week and shorten my taper, thinking that I borrowed a taper week last week.
If all that goes as planned, I should have me a good head of steam going into Paris.
And as for Kevin, well, suffice to say I couldn't see getting 10 400s in under 70, or even 8 of 10. So, by that token, Kevin (and I don't say this tauntingly), you should be able to whoop on me in a 5k.
Just a goal that you may want to set. But don't think it will come easy.
But it helps to write things down, and after yesterday's entry I realized I needed to get back to where I feel like I'm training - hard. I need to get my mojo back, so to speak.
The best way I know how to do that is to head to the track. So as an appetizer I ran a 4 mile Franklin Field loop this morning - easy in 33:50. I didn't even change out of my shorts and worked from home (my email at work is screwed up; so its almost pointless going into the office) in the morning. Then I headed back down to Franklin Field, this time in earnest, for a track workout at lunch.
I wanted to do something different (although I've been on the track so little this year that anything would be different), so I decided to do reps of 400 meters with 200m recovery. I don't remember the last time I did those, and had no idea what to shoot for. But competitiveness took care of that, Kevin F. on his 3/14 blog entry writes about doing 10 400's, hitting 8 of them in under 70 seconds. That seemed about right, and I'd do at least ten and, to show him up, shoot for up to 20 of them.
I had no idea how fast I was going for the first rep, and hit it in 71 seconds. Second time around was 73 seconds and I was sucking air. No way I was going to get these pups under 70. So when the going gets tough, the tough lower their standards. I decided to shoot for hitting them in under 75 seconds. This proved much more realistic, as reps 3-10 went in: 74; 75; 73; 73; 75; 75; 75 & 76. I wanted to do 20, but didn't see myself hitting them under 75. So I decided to go up to 800s (w/ 400m recovery), shooting for a 2:40 goal time. Couldn't quite get there, did 2:41; 2:41; 2:41 and 2:45. Some time over the course of this last rep I felt done. But to make things hard on myself I went back down to 400s (200m rec) for the last two laps. 76 for the first one and 79 for the second. This made it 20 laps, but now I was really done.
If you skipped over that last paragraph, suffice to say that this was an important workout. From a performance perspective it was so-so, but from the push myself to the brink of my fitness perspective it was, well it was good to be back. I'm now thinking again like I was a few weeks ago. Plan is to do easy miles in double sessions tomorrow; more double sessions, with one of them the Adrenaline 5k on Saturday; and then a long run with some marathon pace miles on Sunday. I'll then train hard for another week and shorten my taper, thinking that I borrowed a taper week last week.
If all that goes as planned, I should have me a good head of steam going into Paris.
And as for Kevin, well, suffice to say I couldn't see getting 10 400s in under 70, or even 8 of 10. So, by that token, Kevin (and I don't say this tauntingly), you should be able to whoop on me in a 5k.
Just a goal that you may want to set. But don't think it will come easy.
posted by seebo | 3:48 PM
2 Comments:
Seebo glad to see you bounced right back. This entry has me motivated to hit the track, I usually just run by it and stare at the people walking around.
That's more like the ol' Seebo I know--tough enough to run that workout, crazy enough to make "borrowing a taper week" seem like good sense. I'm with John, glad to see you back.
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