#35 of 52 - Soaring Eagle Half and SPEED WORK OUTS

I've run several half marathons at Soaring Eagle Park now. The trails are good there. The terrain is challenging--undulating with a few rocks and roots. My ankles are sore today! I've done only road races lately so it was nice to get back on the trail but I can tell my ankles were a little disgruntled about it.

I met up with my new running friend, Tina, before the race and then chatted with her for the first couple of miles on the trail. But then we got separated. I ran the rest of the race behind a guy. Actually, I felt like I was chasing him and that made me go faster. About 1/4 mile from the finish, his shoe came untied. He pulled over to tie it and I slung shot passed him. I felt a little bit bad about that after he pulled me along the whole way. It made me thankful that I have little compression thingies on laces. My shoes can't come untied!

Tina and me before the race

 

Here are the compression thingies on my shoe laces. I love them because it's really quick to adjust the tightness of your shoes. There's no untying and retying. I started using them when I did triathlons to save time in the transition area. You can buy them at a fabric store.

 



SPEED WORK: So, last week I was feeling like I'm ready to try running faster. Up until now, I've been cautious about overdoing it and getting injured. I used to do speed work and it was very effective. There are all kinds of things you can do to pick up your pace. Click here for an article that I love from Runner's World about speed work.

My speed work out of choice is intervals at the track. Equipment needed: a stop watch (I use a Timex Ironman watch; I've owned several over the last 20 years). First, I do a slow mile to warm up. Next, I do a quarter mile at a faster pace (one lap). Then, do a quarter mile at a slow pace to recover. I run the recovery lap instead of walking because I want to train myself to recover while running. Right after I finish the recover lap, I go into the next fast interval lap and so on. Last week, I did 2 intervals (one fast lap and then a slow lap is an interval). I will do only one interval workout a week. I will work my way up to doing 4 intervals in a workout over the next couple of weeks. My goal is always to make my last fast lap faster than the preceding fast laps--called a negative split. Negative splits can be hard to do but they really get you in tune with your body and your pace. I'll incorporate a heart rate monitor sometimes to make sure I am doing my fast laps at 90% of maximum. Finally, I cool down with a slow mile or more. I like to only run for about 30 minutes when I do interval work. It is suggested that for longer distance training, like for half marathons, the intervals should be longer than a quarter mile. I will try to progress to half mile (two laps) for my "fast lap" and quarter mile (one lap) for my "recover lap."

Speed work has worked for me in the past. Let's see if I can break 2 hours on a half marathon this summer. In fact, my goal is to do a 1:45 half marathon. It's a lofty goal, but why not!

My Timex Ironman watch