Another tough workout
This morning was a scheduled run, but different than any workout I’ve ever done. The plan was to warm-up, then do some Strides (more below), then run 5 x 1 mile at 6:30, with rest in between, then a cool down. As I understand it so far, Strides are short (20 seconds or so) sprints where you try to maintain perfect form throughout. As I found out this morning, they’re tougher than I expected and definitely affect the rest of the workout.
Anyway, the meat of the workout, the 5 x 1 mile, were TOUGH! I did my warm-up and went to Washington Square Park to run the perimeter, which is supposedly a half-mile around. I did my Strides there and then started the miles. 6:30 is a faster pace than I normally run and I’m not sure what it feels like, so the first mile felt a little awkward, speeding up when I thought I was behind pace and slowing down when I thought I was going too fast. Anyway, I did the first three at 6:42, 6:33 and 6:43. I felt good for the first two, but during the third I could feel my legs getting heavy and my breathing getting labored. The fourth was 6:56 and during the fifth one, I totally lost it. About half way through the fifth one, I decided that instead of killing myself to try to get close to 6:30, I would just start the cool-down process, so the fifth one was around 7:35. I am mostly surprised at how much faster 6:30 is than 7:00, which is what I think I ran comfortably on Tuesday. Thankfully, I won’t be trying to do 6:30’s very often, except in drills like these.
Gearing up for Alcatraz and getting pretty excited about it.
Run – October 12
Time: 1:00
Distance: ~7 miles (in intervals)
Average heart rate: 151
Course: Washington Square Park
Conditions: cool, humid, party cloudy