Thursday 17 March 2011

Nice Surprise

The way the weather has been the last few days its difficult to believe that Monday's sunshine was in the same week.

No idea what the weather has been like in your part of the world but in Leeds yesterday and Nottingham the day before it was drizzle and very thick fog all day. Today looks to be heading the same way.

As the weather wasn't so good I opted to do yesterday's intervals in the gym. The odd dreadmill run has the added benefit of meaning I run in a warm atmosphere (a bit of preparation for Paris?) and reduces the impact a bit, though that doesn't seem to cause me a problem generally. I can only do intervals though as I find it incredibly tedious.

The plan called for a mixed intervals session of:
  • 1 mile @ 9:00 pace
  • 3k @ 7:30 pace
  • 2k @ 7:08 pace
  • 1k @ 6:53 pace
  • 0.5m @ 6:40 pace
  • 1 mile @ 9:00 pace

Whether inside or out that needs a bit of converting from metric to imperial to get the distances right as they're mixed up. In the gym getting the pace right is easier as the treadmill does it for me but it does mean I need to convert minutes per mile to kilometres per hour.

That was OK though as I'd done the same thing last week and could remember that the faster intervals were conveniently memorable at 13.5, 14.0, 14.5 and 15.0 km per hour.

Yesterday the first interval felt a bit of a drag and they all got me working but overall it felt relatively easy: I was able to get straight off and walk to the drinks fountain without being out of breath or anything between each interval.

When I got in I logged them all on WLR but for some reason double checked them on this useful speed/distance conversion site...

...it seems (to use a Bush-ism) I'd mis-remembered the figures so they were all 0.5kmph faster than they should have been: starting at 7:08 and finishing at 6:25 per mile. In fact the last one was a bit faster still as I upped it to what would have been 6:00 pace for the last 200m.

If nothing else it looks like the training has got my pace up for shorter distance runs! I wonder what I could run a 10k, 5k or even a mile in now?

Diet wise all was well again.

Legs feel fine today, and whilst RH side groin felt a bit sore yesterday evening it seems fine again now - slowly getting better I should think. Today is cross training and tomorrow 12.0 mile tempo run, which, after yesterday's intervals, I'm looking forward to more than I was before.

4 comments:

Alison said...

I'm not surprised your speed has improved over shorter distances with that plan! Good luck with the tempo run today. And if it helps, the wether is just as dreary here in Londres....

Jessica said...

Perhaps after the marathon you could look into running some of those shorter distances post-recovery? You're so diligent with your training that it's obvious why your times have improved so much, and I'm sure you'd have no trouble with, say, a sub-40 10K or a sub-20 5K (apologies if you're already that fast, but those are cracking times for me!)

Yeah, the weather is crappy up in Durham too: freezing fog and drizzle all the way.

Maria said...

Dreary weather here too!
Those intervals are fast- you should look for a shorter race post marathon just to see what you could manage :)

Running Rob said...

Thanks for the vote of confidence...though my 10k pb is 45:03! Mind you that was on a hilly course where someone I know was 40s slower but ran sub 43 on a flat course.

I'm sure I could nose under 43. Not sure how much under though. Would be good to see post marathon though.