5x1k repeats

This workout is a staple. And a good benchmark by which I can judge how I am doing. And I kind of like it.

I am writing about it so I can come back to this later and compare when I was and where I am.

But firstly, I did an 80 mile relay race on Saturday. One team lost a runner, somebody saw me by a pool with a bike on a car, they tracked me down and voila, I was doing a race. 8 people, each doing 3 legs, thus each of us ran around 10miles (my legs were 3.8, 2.5, 3.8) It was a great fun BUT once you were done with your leg you had no time to cool down or stretch. You hoped into a van to ride to the next switch point. And this constant hard running, sitting for ~3h, hard running, sitting etc killed my legs. I tried to walk as much as possible during those three hours while waiting till it was my turn again but it didn't help much. I felt my legs getting tighter and tighter. I was super sore on Sunday (and my 3.5h bike ride did not really help things) and I did a harder bike ride yesterday and an easy run and ouch! That run hurt.
I am still sore today but now I can at least walk down the stairs almost normally.

So the workout. At first the warm up was ok but then my legs, mostly right calf and right quad, started protesting to the point that I started contemplating not doing the workout because I might injure myself. But then decided to give it a try, take it easy and if I feel that it is too much I stop. Turns out that my muscles hurt only when I run slowly and I do not feel any pain when I run faster, intetesting.
5x1k at 5k pace with 2' jog. Yes, I jogged, transition period is over, real running beggings.
3:54, 3:54, 3:52, 3:50, 3:48. And it was easy-peasy. Ok, the last 200 was faster because I went through 800 in 3:05 and I wanted to get under 3:50. But the rest was effortless.
If 3:50-55 is my taking it easier, effortless pace on sore legs I will take it, no complains:)

I stopped after the last interval to take a sip of water and as I started running again to cool down those first steps were horrible. Ouch. My poor legs. And I am back to not being able to walk down the stairs normally. So it was probably quite stupid to do the workout but I am just so happy to be able to run that I don't want not to run.

PS: I might or might not have eaten half a cheesecake today. So I was high on sugar and that's probably one of reasons why the workout was ok. I always have a great run when I eat cookies/cake/other junk for lunch.

Weekend smashfest and other ....

I used to be able to run in whatever shoes and not get injured. But it seems like I am not 20 anymore and I need to start paying more attention to what I run in otherwise something starts acting up. I did my first real interval workout 10 days ago and although everything was ok during the run both of my knees started to hurt after the workout. Left knee - just above the knee, right knee- just below the knee. I suspected that it might be because of the shoes I was wearing (I have ran in them for one year exactly, but since my mileage is not that high and I rotate two pairs I kept running in them) so I have done all my runs since then in newer shoes. But just to confirm my "theory" I did an interval workout on Friday again in that older pair and sure enough my right knee was not happy. So ok, theory confirmed, I cannot run in that pair anymore.

I started using hair conditioner on Wednesday. I am one of those people who do not care one bit about what I look like as long as I feel good. But I was in a store and they had "swim something" conditioner that is supposed to help treat chlorine-damaged hair on sale so I bought it and maybe now my hair will not look like wet slaw all the time. My sister would be so proud of me for that.

I usually walk to grocery store on Sat and Sun because it is not too far and I am European and we walk to places. I was never offered a ride but today was high 70s and I was wearing shorts and sure enough I was asked by some guys whether I needed a ride. Men...

I finally did my taxes on Friday. Need to mail it tomorrow. (US taxes that is. I still need to do my German and Slovak ones.) And for the first time I calculated that I owe a few dollars. Wow. That means that I am actually earning real money now not just little peanuts. At least that's what I am telling myself.

So the smashfest. Running smashfest that is. If I can avoid it I do not run two days in a row. But this week things worked out that I had to run three days in a row. And all of them hard. Bliss of having so many coaches as I do:)
So Friday was long intervals on trails (1k, mile, 3k, mile, 1k in 3:52, 6:40ish, 11:53, 6:40, 3:58 w/ 2min jog between) using Garmin. Followed by a swim, of course.
Then Saturday was hard interval swim, followed by a semi-hard 2.5h ride, followed by a 20min run at strong pace. I took off and ran 20min at 6:32 pace, which is 5k in 20:20. (And yes, I stopped at 20min and did not continue for those extra 20sec to get a full 5k in because I am not OCD like that). I felt great and I think that it is because I was super warmed up from the bike. Plus I like running off the bike. Wow, I did my own little triathlon on Saturday.
Today was an easy 90min ride that I cut short at 80min because something is not right with my right thigh (I hope it is nothing serious and goes away by itself), followed by 800s on a track. 7x800 @5k pace with 2min rest (SEVEN 800s! That's a lot. It must be part of my half-marathon training or something like that because I repeat, seven is a lot.). I knew it was going to be ugly but I was also interested to see what my poor legs say to that. Turns out that although I could definitely feel that my legs were not as springy as they normally are, they were not the limiting factor today. Wind was. I was occasionally blown from lane 1 to lane 2 (and I am not light! I weight 140 pounds but I felt like a rag doll. Btw, my resolution of getting down to 130lb is not working that great. Damn you donuts!) and I was tripping over my own feet because one foot was blown into the way of my other foot (makes sense?). So 3:09, 3:10, 3:04, 3:01, 3:06, 3:08, 3:09. My times were all over the place depending on how much I was being blown from side to side by wind gusts. And then the last two were pretty much a crawl to the finish line. I think that I might have start crying a little on the last one as I hit the wall of wind at 300m mark. I also "cheated" and walked 2min rest between those intervals, instead of jogging. Physiologically it probably does not make a huge difference but mentally it does, because I was able to tell myself that I got more rest than I would normally have and my brain bought it.
By the way, those of you who believe that Yasso 800s can predict your marathon time might reconsider what you believe in. Does anyone think that I can run a 3:07 marathon right now???...Yeah, I did not think so.

Ok, off to bed now so I can get up at 5am and take on the world (hm, I mean go to work) once again!

5k prediction workout

I did a real running workout today! With a stop watch! On a track! Woo-hoo!

Real running is starting again. No more dillydallying around. Just the way I like it.

So the workout. I think that the reason for this 5k prediction workout being the first workout in like forever is to give us an idea where I stand so no guessing in the future workouts. (By the way, I think that it was pretty mean to make me do it without any "warning".)
I have decided to do it on a track for accuracy but I will try to do my workouts on trails.
3x1500 with 2min rest. I walked those 2min, didnt jogged. I need to ease into things:)
5:52
5:48
5:48
I felt horribly! My arms hurt. And it felt like I had zero coordination, like my legs were not connected to my brain. It is all that easy slogging I have been doing for the past 3 months. Legs were ok. Except for the last 150m, that was not very enjoyable.

Other than that it was an ok workout. It went better than I expected because I was not even sure whether I would be able to run 6min.

So what 5k time would that predict???