Forget anticipation of 20 milers...Wednesday's for me are my "oh god will I be able to do this?" day of the week.
We are now in week 4 and here is a recap of what has been done thus far (not inclusive of warm up and cool down which is usually adding an additional 4-5 miles):
Week 1 - 6 x 800 with 400 jog recovery between
Week 2 - 16 x 400 with 60 seconds rest between and 400 jog after first set of 8
Week 3 - 5 x 1 mile repeats
Which brings us to this week:
Week 4 - 8 x 800 with 3 minutes rest (stop, walk jog whatever needed) between
Work has been absolute insanity for me. I work in operations for a global TV station that is launching it's American news channel in about 5 1/2 weeks. Shit. Is. Cray. But, I absolutely love it.
But that also meant I got home late last night. I started running at 8 something and promptly turned around. There was no way a quality workout (and this would hit double digit mileage) was happening that late into the night.
I tabled it in favor of a 4:30 wake up. Holla!
I hated my alarm a tad bit this morning but once started was in the zone.
10.5 miles total for this lady this morning!
My goal paces today were 4 - 4:15 for the 800's. I decided to start conservatively and it felt more of a cruise pace than an interval pace. I jogged the 3 minutes after and that seemed like too much as I set off a little faster for the next. Again felt too easy. I then cut down recovery time and progressively made them faster. All in all it wasn't until the last couple that I felt like I was really running intervals. My legs felt great and breathing was great.
And, can I just say, I like 800's! 400's make me want to cry and mile repeats make me want to punch someone in the face. *I am not dramatic at all* But it is a perfect distance. Over quick enough but not too quick a pace where I feel like I want to kill someone by the end.
I can also say that after looking back at week 1 of 800's - although a slightly different workout - from my log I saw that the paces 4:10-4:15 felt hard by the end. PROGRESS!!! Success. This is why I have my oh so smart coach! (Whom I still need to tell you all about).
It also felt good to sweat it all out. And sweat it out I did. My shoes were squishy by the end. (TMI? running is sexy) And my braid was a frizzy fro. Lovely.
The true test to speed will be the 5K I am running as my speed work next week in Hoboken. I am trying to not psych myself out (I seriously loath 5K's with a passion) but I really want to kill it. Regardless of what happens, I am just happy to see that things are really falling together. I WANT TO BE SPEEDY!
Happy Happy Thursday! No better start to the day than knocking a prescribed workout out of the park!
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