Work in progress is progressing. Yes it is!

I did a 5x1k workout yesterday and I looked up my past 1k workouts to compare (this blog is a good thing since I treat it as my running blog, therefore it is so boring, and am able to go back and see what I did training wise before).

August 2: 3:56, 3:55, 3:53, 3:52, 3:50 w/ 2min jog

Sept 13: 3:53, 3:50, 3:50, 3:50, 3:50, 3:50 w/ 3 min jog (because 6 of them)

Oct 31: 3:59, 3:58, 3:54, 3:48, 3:49 w/ 2 min jog

Can you tell when I finally warmed up yesterday? (Yes, you win! “After the first 2” is the correct answer.) It was cold and I know that 20min jog is not enough for me to warm up even in 100 degree weather so 20min, stretching and one lousy stride yesterday did not help but I just wanted to be done with it and go sit in a hot tub for a few minutes. I wore shorts and a t-shirt but brought 2 jackets with me. I left one at a 200m mark and the other at a start/finish line so I can put them on for recovery jogs (jogged 1min out, 1min back and started the interval where I ended the previous one).

My splits are again all over the place because it was dark and I could not see my watch and check my pace at 400m/800m. I think that I need to start doing one hard workout on weekends so I can do it during the daylight.

Anyway, workout was ok, first two felt too easy (well, I ran 3:59 so it would a bummer if it felt hard) but I somehow could not go faster. The third one was a surprise because it still felt easy and I ran faster. Last two were little harder but still nicely controlled.

Now about my progress. I am not sure whether you can really call it an improvement over what I did in August and September. I think that it is an improvement over August but not over September. However, I think that it was to be expected because October was a disaster running-wise.

By the way, I looked at my training this time around in 2010 (there is no point in looking at 2011. Although I was in a better shape than in 2010 my ITB was on and off and I did not race) and my paces were faster back then of course (well, maybe not faster but I did run the same 1k pace as yesterday but that was after doing a 4k sub-tempo run before the intervals) because I was in awesome sunny California! training more consistently. But that’s not that important. I looked at my workouts over several weeks and what I find important and encouraging is that I was able to improve quite a lot in one month. Thus I am optimistic about the month of November.

I still have one month until my 5k race on Dec 1^st. And one month is a long way. I might not be able to squeeze under 19min but I should be able to get close to 19. Right?!?

Today marks the beginning of working with the best tri coach ever!

And it is also my b-day:) No plans except for a b-day bike workout and a swim test. Thank you very much.