Mile repeats

Mile repeats are a staple of competitive runners in races ranging from the 5K all the way up to the marathon. I've found that it's one workout where you can't fake your fitness. It's not that hard to run faster than race pace with ample recovery when you're doing 400s on the track, but when you crank the distance up to one mile with minimal recovery, you're in a whole new world. Today I drove to Lakewood Park to do 4 x mile on the marked bike path with 440 recovery jogs (I allowed myself 3:00 between reps) and I had my best workout of the fall. After an easy 3 mile warm up I ran the first one in 5:55 (trying to be pretty conservative) and it felt super easy. After that I got into a perfect groove and hit the next three in 5:46, 5:46, 5:45. The effort was @ 8K race pace give or take (I wasn't redlining like I would in a 5K race but it was definitely more aggressive than a threshold run). The last two weeks have really rejuvenated me. I wasn't 100% happy with my Youngstown race but I felt like I've turned a corner since then. My stomach issues have completely vanished -- I think it's a combination of finally finding the proper intensity/recovery ratio in my training and improved diet (gluten-free plus probiotics). Next up is the Twinsburg Turkey Trot 5 miler a week from today. Later this week I'll post the PDF of the course map, which includes an elevation chart. Basically a huge climb in the first two miles followed by some rollercoaster rolling hills the rest of the way!

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11 miles nice 'n' easy

Had a really nice run in the metro park this morning before work. Ran on my usual out and back segment along the river and through the woods and felt a lot better than I did on Monday. I feel fully recovered from Saturday's tempo as evidenced by the quicker pace (not too much quicker though -- just north of 7:50ish -- trying hard to keep the easy days easy). My next hard workout will be on Saturday, most likely 4 x mile with 400 meter jogs for recovery. I'll do this on the marked path in Lakewood Park. Depending on how I feel, I may spike up and run them on the grass perimeter.

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4 miles followed by 8 x 200

Today was an easy maintenance workout at Rocky River HS before Sunday's race. Did an easy 4 mile warm up on the track -- boring I know but the new surface feels really good -- followed by 8 x 200 with 200 jogs. I did the reps cut down style, starting at 5K effort and gradually working my way down. Splits were 43, 42, 41, 40, 40, 39, 39, 38. Felt good and the reps felt easy. My body's feeling good on every other day training at the moment and I don't feel like I'm losing any fitness. Once my stomach is back to 100% I may make some adjustments but weirdly enough with less volume and more intensity in my training right now, I'm feeling more athletic. I've also been doing push ups 3 days a week on the hundredpushups.com program. I finished Week 3 today and managed to get in 88 in 5 sets with 2:00 rest breaks between sets. Not too bad for a scrawny distance runner!

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20 x 400

This is one of my favorite workouts. Tough but a great confidence builder. Yesterday I went to the Rocky River track and after an easy two mile warm up, I ran twenty 400s at 10K race effort with 100 meter jogs for recovery trying not to take more than 40 seconds in between each rep. I managed to hit 87/88 for almost all of the reps with one or two at 86 or 89 depending on how the wind was. One half of the track was extremely windy, more so than usual at Rocky River. Someone needs to build a dome over that track! Anyway what I like about this workout is that it mimics a race, feeling easy early on because 400s aren't that long, but after a while the short recoveries catch up to you. My old coach, Pete Magill, likens this workout to putting your hand on a stove and just as it gets hot, pulling it away. If you can hold pace all the way and not slow down on your recoveries, it's a good indicator that you can hold this pace in a 8K/10K race. The entire workout adds up to 10K on the nose (25 laps). Based on the fact that I averaged 5:50ish pace for the reps I'm thinking that I should be able to run somewhere between 36:00 and 37:00 for 10K at the Peace Race on Sunday depending on the weather.

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