Cruise Intervals and Memorial Day

I set out to run my cruise interval workout Sunday afternoon after getting home from work and giving my poor wife an hour or so to get herself cleaned up after spending all day at home with Nathan. Apparently Nathan was a little freak who wouldn't let mommy out of his sight all day and cried all the time. Nathan acts differently for mommy than he does for daddy. He is hardly ever fussy for me when I'm with him. I don't get it.

My goal for my 1.5 mile intervals was to run them in 10:15 or 6:50 pace. After a two mile warm-up, completed in 16:42, I started my intervals. I hit the first mile mark in 6:44.71 which happens to not be 6:51 pace. I slowed down the last 800 and hit the finish in 10:07.96, with my last half in 3:23.25. I took two minutes to walk around and started my next interval. I thought I started off slow but I hit the half mile point in 3:12.86 and knew that I was in trouble. I reined myself in the last mile and crossed the line in 10:01.48 with the last mile being covered in 6:48.62.

Aside from running alot faster than I was supposed to I feel good about this practice. The intensity wasn't too bad and I felt like I probably could have run another interval at the same pace. I could tell that I was a little tense and my shoulders were tight but that may have been from the Core Secrets workout I did the night before. All in all, I know that I am more than likely training at a VDOT that is slower than I am capable of and after I see how this race goes I may start training at the more intense VDOT. The only concern I have about that is that I will start running faster than the times called for in that VDOT.

I covered 31 miles last week and I feel like I had a pretty quality week all together. My long run was a bit of a drag but gastrointestinal distress will do that. Last year at this time I imploded because the temps got a little hot. I'm not exactly sure what happened because it looks like I stopped writing in my logbook after Wednesday that week. I ran a four mile tempo run in 30:03.90 with splits of 7:21.53, 7:27.25, 7:42.14 and 7:32.98. I covered eight total miles that day with a two mile warm up and cool down. Tuesday that week I ran an easy four in 37:06 and Wednesday looks like it was an easy eight miles in 1:14:17. Thursday was to have been 6x800 but all I did was 45 minutes of yoga. I covered 20 miles that week.

I have a total of 554.25 miles for the year and am 116.75 miles ahead of last year at this time. I hope I continue to stay injury free and improve this year. Last summer I took about 1:10 off my 5k best from the year before. I doubt I'll take quite that much time off this year but I think I can easily drop 40-45 seconds from my 5k and I think I'm capable of getting my 10k time down into the low 41:00 to high 40:00 range. If I can drop under 41:00 I'll be within a minute or so of my all time best for 10k. I have only run three 10k races in my 28 years and my best one was when I was 19. I probably could have run faster that day but I had a few cervezas the night before and was probably a little dehydrated during the race. I'm pretty sure I didn't run very intelligently the first mile or two but I still managed to run 39:46. I think that time is in reach for me in the near future. If not this season then next.

I ran an easy four this morning in 34:11 with splits of 8:47, 8:31, 8:33 and 8:20. My legs were a little tight the first mile but I loosened up and ran comfortably the rest of the way. Tomorrow is another ladder type workout. I will run my two mile warm-up followed by a 200 in :43, a 200 jog, another 200 in :43, a 400 jog and an 800 in 2:54 followed by another 400 jog. I will do another set like that followed by a mile cool-down and then I'm just going to run easy the rest of the week.