There is a very large forest fire in Northern Minnesota, almost 400 miles away from where I am. How would this affect me. Well, suddenly in the mid morning, everyone in the area could smell smoke and there was a haze in the air. Seems the smoke from the fires have moved all the way down here. Kind of weird.
After work was a scheduled interval workout at the local track and I was hoping the smoke wouldn't affect me. It was not very heavy at all, just a light hazer and a slight odor, nothing like running in the autumn when neighbors are burning their leaves, but I was still hoping for no issues. Good new, no problems at all. I was able to get in 4 sets of 800's with 1:30 jog rest between intervals. It felt good.
The haze should continue tomorrow but sounds like it will be less. Good thing since it s my daughters first Cross Country race of the season.
Keep on Running!!!
Showing posts with label Intervals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Intervals. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Improvised Intervals
I had planned on running intervals of 6x800 after work today on the track in town. Only problem was that when I got there, a track meet was going on. Time for plan B. I had mapped out a 1/2 mile route next to the track along the road so I could do my intervals. this may have made them better as one way was into the wind and both ways had a downhill portion and an uphill portion. It was like running into a valley and ending back up a hill to finish. It is only about 35 feet of total elevation change per interval but it sure made a difference.
The first, third, and fifth intervals were with the wind and the second, fourth, and sixth were into the wind for an added challenge. All were pretty close in time to each other and I only took between 1:05 and 1:20 rest between each one. I left the watch going the whole time and with warm up, cool down, intervals, and jogs between intervals, I ended up with 5.75 miles for the workout and averaged 7:50 pace. It sure felt good to get some more speed in again. I have another 5K in a little over 2 weeks so the more speed, the better.
Now a change of subject. Did you see the Boston Marathon? I was trying to keep track of it from my desk at work but only could read twitter updates from Runner's World. I sure wish I could have watched in online or maybe heard someone giving a play by play (run by run, step by step) of the race. I was rooting for Desi Devila to pull it off. So close! Ans then the Men's race ending with a World's Best Marathon time and Ryan Hall with an American Best time too! Amazing!
A lot of people are wondering why it isn't a World Record or an American Record. Well, it doesn't qualify for either of those for 2 main reasons and I agree with those. The first reason is that the course drops 3.1 meters per Kilometer. the larges allowable elevation change from start to finish is 1 meter per Kilometer. This is to make sure they don't stage races on big time downhill course with the sole purpose of breaking world records.
The second reason the Boston Marathon course does not qualify for a world record is that the straight line distance from the start line to the finish line is something close to 25 miles. The largest allowable distance is half of the race distance, in this case 13.1 miles. This is to not create a race that predominantly run with the wind, thus giving it a wind aided time. Similar to a 100 meter race where there is a 2.0 meters per second allowable wind. I read that the wind at Boston was at the runner's back at 16 MPH. I think that would qualify as wind aided. So that is the reason, in case you were interested.
This doesn't mean I don't want to run Boston someday. I would love to qualify someday. Time will tell, I still need to drop a ton of time. Close to 25 minutes and maybe even more with the new qualifying rules starting next year. Perhaps I will just have to get older without slowing.
By the way, I did wake up early the other day and ran 4 miles before work.
I hope you all have a very Happy Easter.
Keep on Running!!!
The first, third, and fifth intervals were with the wind and the second, fourth, and sixth were into the wind for an added challenge. All were pretty close in time to each other and I only took between 1:05 and 1:20 rest between each one. I left the watch going the whole time and with warm up, cool down, intervals, and jogs between intervals, I ended up with 5.75 miles for the workout and averaged 7:50 pace. It sure felt good to get some more speed in again. I have another 5K in a little over 2 weeks so the more speed, the better.
Now a change of subject. Did you see the Boston Marathon? I was trying to keep track of it from my desk at work but only could read twitter updates from Runner's World. I sure wish I could have watched in online or maybe heard someone giving a play by play (run by run, step by step) of the race. I was rooting for Desi Devila to pull it off. So close! Ans then the Men's race ending with a World's Best Marathon time and Ryan Hall with an American Best time too! Amazing!
A lot of people are wondering why it isn't a World Record or an American Record. Well, it doesn't qualify for either of those for 2 main reasons and I agree with those. The first reason is that the course drops 3.1 meters per Kilometer. the larges allowable elevation change from start to finish is 1 meter per Kilometer. This is to make sure they don't stage races on big time downhill course with the sole purpose of breaking world records.
The second reason the Boston Marathon course does not qualify for a world record is that the straight line distance from the start line to the finish line is something close to 25 miles. The largest allowable distance is half of the race distance, in this case 13.1 miles. This is to not create a race that predominantly run with the wind, thus giving it a wind aided time. Similar to a 100 meter race where there is a 2.0 meters per second allowable wind. I read that the wind at Boston was at the runner's back at 16 MPH. I think that would qualify as wind aided. So that is the reason, in case you were interested.
This doesn't mean I don't want to run Boston someday. I would love to qualify someday. Time will tell, I still need to drop a ton of time. Close to 25 minutes and maybe even more with the new qualifying rules starting next year. Perhaps I will just have to get older without slowing.
By the way, I did wake up early the other day and ran 4 miles before work.
I hope you all have a very Happy Easter.
Keep on Running!!!
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Good Run then Slacked Off
I have been taking it easy his week and not running that often. I was going to wake up early this morning and do 10 miles but after the alarm went off and 2 snoozes later, I turned it off and had some more shut eye. I slacked off! I know that is not good, but I don't do it too often.
I did have a good run on Friday afternoon. Since I am planning on running a 5K next Saturday and I haven't had much (if any) speed work recently, I wanted to do a little track workout. So off to Waterford High School I went and climbed the fence for a good track workout. The plan was to run 6 intervals of 800 meters each. That adds up to 3 miles, just under a 5K and I wanted to run them at 5K pace. I also decided not to run them like a Yasso 800, but take as much rest as my body wanted. I ended up taking a 1/2 lap job followed by a 1/2 lap walk as a rest.
My 5K goal next Saturday is to break 20:00 so that equated to about 3:13 for 800 meters. It was quite windy so I was unsure how it would go. the wind was straight down the front stretch so I would most likely struggle in the middle and right at the end of each 800 and that is exactly the way it went. The first 800 was a but slow at 3:20 but I usually run the first one slower. The second was 3:12 followed by a 3:10, 3:04 and a 3:03. the last one I usually put some extra effort into. I pushed hard but felt my legs feeling quite tired. to my surprise, I finished in 2:54 and this made me very happy. 6 miles in and off to home where I slacked on Saturday. Good and Bad I guess.
I did have a good run on Friday afternoon. Since I am planning on running a 5K next Saturday and I haven't had much (if any) speed work recently, I wanted to do a little track workout. So off to Waterford High School I went and climbed the fence for a good track workout. The plan was to run 6 intervals of 800 meters each. That adds up to 3 miles, just under a 5K and I wanted to run them at 5K pace. I also decided not to run them like a Yasso 800, but take as much rest as my body wanted. I ended up taking a 1/2 lap job followed by a 1/2 lap walk as a rest.
My 5K goal next Saturday is to break 20:00 so that equated to about 3:13 for 800 meters. It was quite windy so I was unsure how it would go. the wind was straight down the front stretch so I would most likely struggle in the middle and right at the end of each 800 and that is exactly the way it went. The first 800 was a but slow at 3:20 but I usually run the first one slower. The second was 3:12 followed by a 3:10, 3:04 and a 3:03. the last one I usually put some extra effort into. I pushed hard but felt my legs feeling quite tired. to my surprise, I finished in 2:54 and this made me very happy. 6 miles in and off to home where I slacked on Saturday. Good and Bad I guess.
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