10 Out Of 12 Ain't Bad

Sunday after the NYRR race, I went home, showered, ate breakfast and then Drew got home from his weekend in Florida. We ended up going together to drop my bike off, so it's on its way to California as we speak! I really can't believe that I'll be without my bike for such a long time, but it is what it is and there's nothing I can do about it now. After dropping off the bike, we ran a couple errands and then headed home. We ended up taking a nap and I decided I was too tired to go to the Terrier swim on Sunday.

I know that I probably should have gone, but I think that the triathlon I did for myself on Saturday tired me out a little bit more than I thought it would and it didn't seem like the end of the world to skip a swim. I also took yesterday as a rest day, which is usual. That meant that this morning I was ready and raring to go to the Terrier run!

I ran there and we did our normal strides, although we did a few less than normal, so the total distance was about 0.40 miles for the strides. At some point I really will time them, mainly because I'm interested about my heart rate while we're doing them, but for now I'm content to just run forward, backward and sideways on my own.

After the strides, we all ran around to the "S". I had looked at the workout yesterday, so I knew that it was going to be speed work. I have to tell you, being in the half-Ironman group isn't quite as much fun as I wanted it to be. Our workout today was to do 12 x 440 yards (0.25 miles) with a 440 yard recovery jog. I noticed on the very first one that we were starting the main portion of our workout a bit on the later side and I was probably not going to be able to do all 12 and get home in order to get to work on time.

I have to say that I really tried my best and ran as hard as I could on the first 440s. The problem was that my recovery jogs just kept getting slower and slower as time went on. Last night when I was talking to Drew about today's workout, he accused me of being a cheater on the recovery portion, so let me just say right now that there were a couple of times (three, I think?) where after running the 440 hard, I did count to 5 and walked a couple steps before starting my recovery jog back to the start. So, I jogged 99% of the time during the recoveries.

I managed to get 10 out of the 12 done before I was pushing it on getting home and being able to eat breakfast, shower, make lunch, get ready for work and get there on time. I don't feel bad about skipping out on that last mile since it was still quite a good workout!

It turns out that it doesn't get any easier to do this speed work. I was pretty beat by the end, but I still managed a nice slow jog home. Didn't hurt that I got caught at a couple of lights and was forced to stand there for a minute! Coach Spencer said that we're done with the "build" phase of the season and we're going to be doing more and more speed work in the coming weeks, which I'm not sure that I'm 100% excited about, but I don't hate it either. I think what I actually do like about it is the fact that the whole group sort-of stays together in the same area so we're constantly passing each other, which is a little bit nicer than watching everyone else sprint off into the distance with me bringing up the rear!

I've been thinking a lot about my plan for this week and next week leading up to Alcatraz. As of right now, my plan for this week is to stick with the half-Ironman plan. I'll take my usual rest day next Monday, hopefully get in some good workouts Tuesday-Thursday of next week and then take next Friday (travel day) and Saturday (SF tourist day/Giants baseball game) as rest days in order to be all ready for next Sunday's triathlon. Not your typical taper, but then again, this hasn't been the typical training nor is it really a typical triathlon!

Run To Meeting Point
Time: 12:40
Distance: 1.30 miles
Pace: 9:44/mile
Calories: 132
Maximum HR: 176
Average HR: 162

Run To S
Time: 9:03
Distance: 1.00 mile
Pace: 9:03/mile
Calories: 114
Maximum HR: 189
Average HR: 180

Running 10 x 440
Time: 49:11
Distance: 5.00 miles
Pace: 9:50/mile
Calories: 653
Maximum HR: 225 (What? Can this be right? It was hard, but not sure it was that hard!)
Average HR: 185

Run Home
Time: 7:38
Distance: 0.70 miles
Pace: 10:54/mile
Calories: 83
Maximum HR: 184
Average HR: 168

Total running mileage, including strides: 8.40 miles