Earlier this week I wrote about a need for a return to my regular eating and exercise habits. I'm back to getting in all the produce I usually get, I've been running, and getting back into my groove really. Taking some time off last week was good and I enjoyed myself but I did come home feeling slow and bogged down.
However, maybe a break was just what I needed....
This week I've been faster. I went to Lake Ella on Tuesday to do some intervals (jog 2 minutes, run 1) with an average of 11:46 per mile. 12 days before, on October 6th, on the same interval workout, I did a 12:06 mile. That's a real, measurable improvement.
Today I went out for four miles. The first two miles average an 11:50 pace. The third mile was 12:49 with the fourth mile at 13:07. Normal for me to have the last two miles be slower as they are uphill almost the entire way. This is an average pace of 12:25 per mile. The same four miles on October 8th took my 51:28 minutes with an average pace of 12:52 per mile. The fourth split was 14:20 because the hill required me to walk a lot of portions.
These are real shifts in my speed. That is awesome, I am awesome.
On Saturday I am starting a new type of speed work called Yasso's 800s. These workouts require me to go to a track warm-up, then do 800 meters (roughly a half mile, or two laps of a standard track), not in a sprint exactly but in a real push for speed. What the Yasso's 800s are supposed to do is a) elp you get faster but primarily b) predict your marathon time (or in my case, a half-marathon time). If you can run the 800 in 4:00 then the argument is that you can run a marathon in 4 hours. If you can do 800 in 4:25 then you should be able to run a marathon in 4 hours and 25 minutes, etc. I'm hoping to run the 800s somewhere between 5 and 6 minutes. FYI- if I ran a marathon in 6 hours that would be an average of 13:45 per mile and this may seem arrogant of me but I think I can already do that.
I look foward to getting faster. I want to be more efficient as a runner, to burn more calories, to be able to go farther with less effort.
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1 comment:
congrats on the improvement!!
it takes time but you are getting there!!
race timing is a tricky thing, there are so many factors that go into it, i would advise not to disqualify anything. I would hate for you to be disappointed the way I was for my first Half. It really ruined the magicalness of it.
Keep up the good work!
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