Speed and Strength

I've had a couple good workouts yesterday and today!

Yesterday was my first speed workout outdoors. Coach Brennan has encouraged me to get outside to run more often, as time and weather permit. So I headed for the American Tobacco Trail yesterday to do this week's speed workout, and that was tough! My outdoor times were a good bit slower than my treadmill times, I had to stop to retie my shoelaces and make a couple of pit stops, and that threw me off course a little bit too. Part of it, though, will be getting used to dealing with outdoor running AND speed at the same time. I think I've kinda gotten used to running slowly outdoors, and I need to change my way of thinking as well as my legs!

Running intervals were 1 mile and four half miles (sometimes referred to as Yassos, though the distance may vary a little--I think official Yassos are 800m), with some walking before and after, plus a little in between. I was experimenting with resting for three minutes in between, vs. walking for about three minutes in between. Splites are below:

Walked 0.53 mi in 10:10
Ran 1 mi in 14:42
Walked 0.12 mi in 3:00
Ran 0.50 mi in 7:30
Ran 0.50 mi in 7:26
Ran 0.50 mi in 7:22
Walked 0.10 mi in 2:30
Ran 0.50 mi in 7:27
Walked 0.58 mi in 11:01

This course isn't as flat as I would've liked for doing speedwork, but I think it's good to practice on it anyway. And it's probably the flattest running trail I know at the moment. It does cross over several streets, so I was a little tentative at the crosswalks. I was pretty tired when I got done, but not as tired as I've been after a treadmill speed workout. Having a little gas in the tank afterwards tells me something. The thing is, I did have to go work a full day afterward.

By the way, my best race pace of the year so far is around around 15:00 m/m of run/walking, so I'm glad I got to practice that pace a little bit, and even better it on some of the running.

Now, TODAY'S workout was a little more speedwork, but this time it was interval training on the bike at the gym. (Ahhh, air conditioning!) Unfortunately, I only got about 4 hours of sleep last night, so I had some trouble counting the intervals this morning. But, I managed to finish the workout anyway, logging 8.35 miles on the bike in 45:06 minutes. Nice cardio for me.

Afterwards, I stretched, then worked on core and strength training again. One of the core exercises I did was 80 ab crunches on the stability ball--yay! No abs of steel yet--there's still plenty of padding! Working on it, though. I also returned to the dumbbells and did some upper body work with the 5lb and 10lb weights. Yes, I'm a wimp, but I'm working on that as well! :)