Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Not Really Reaching The Goal

Week 1 Day 3 (Tuesday) was a cross training day. Nothing really went in my favor as far as getting this cross training done. 1st, at 4:45 a.m. when my alarm went off, J.T. looked over and asked "Can go on to work right now, I really need to." Since this could be a matter of how much money he may or may not make that day, I oblidged. And then I had to break my lunch date with my bike due to a "department luncheon" (lovely). So I hit the pool after work and decided a swim session would have to do. I swam 500 yds warmup, 1000 yards tempo in 20:44 (how slow can I get?!), and 500 yds cool down while really focusing on my stroke technique.

Today was Day 4, and my first tempo run. "FIRST" said I was supposed to run 2 miles easy, then 2 miles at short tempo pace, then 2 miles easy for a total of 6 miles. I looked up my short tempo pace and found that it was 7:51 (YIKES!). I played with the snooze button for a while this morning before actually getting up, but I finally got up and ready around 5:45 a.m. It was not hot!!! I opened my garage door and heard the Hallelujah Chorus ring in my ears as I felt the temperature and experienced the beautiful sky lit up with the sunrise. I even wondered for a split second if I would need sleeves (amusing, I know), and wanted to take a picture of the sky but realized that my camera was broken.

So I set out on the tempo run. The garmin beeped in the exact location of mile marker 1, and said 10:00. That's pretty typical for my first mile pretty early in the morning. Mile 2 finished at the base of jail hill, and was 9:50. That meant the beginning of my fast miles was going to be going up jail hill. UGH!! So I picked up the pace, but never really picked it up as much as I wanted to - the 3rd mile was 8:21, and the 4th mile was 8:17. A far cry from 7:51! But oh well...I finished the run back to my house with mile 5 in 10:10 and mile 6 in 9:36 for a total time of 56:15, 9:22/mile. Papa Louie said that sometimes he hits the target and sometimes he doesn't...so I'll just try to get closer the next time. Either way, I can so see how this program could make you faster. Since I am a slow runner craving some speed, that is exciting to me.

The good news is that Garmin was right on with the distance today. I think it must be something about running around in circles on the track that caused the discrepancy Monday. I noticed on the map it plotted that several of the points around the curves were off. It is soooo nice to have a Garmin again!!!! How did I go this long without it?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm envious that you got to run this morning. When I went to get the paper at 5:30, I thought to myself, this would be a perfect morning to run!

Rice said...

yeah winter is coming.. we got a couple months of nice cool air before it gets dam cold again...

Cheers.

Rice.

MNFirefly said...

Nice running this morning.

Papa Louie said...

If you run hard very early in the morning you should give yourself an extra credit of 10-20 seconds per mile, lol. I'm afraid to run so early because I know how off my pace times will be. It takes me at least half the day to psyche myself up to run hard. This is going to be an exciting training adventure for you.

Lance Notstrong said...

Tempo 7:51....I would say "yikes" too!!! Have you ever trained using HR? My tempo runs using HR are 165-172. I stay in that range for the duration of the tempo interval and then go back down to my endurance pace. The HR stays constant between 165-172 but as your fitness gets better your speed increases given the same HR.

Don't take my word for this as a "very novice" runner. This comes from CTS online coaching.

qcmier said...

I haven't really broken down the FIRST marathon training method, but I know it is a tough one. You will do just fine.

LeahC said...

nice job getting speedier for those two miles even if it was slightly off your goal. i think the tempo runs, although my least favorite workout, are the most helpful...gets those legs moving!

Brooke said...

Sleeves!! Oh I miss sleeves.