Tempo + 400s

Goal:
Pre Race workout with tempo + speed

Actual:
3 mile warmup
4x400m in 72, 73, 73, 72 w/ 1:30 rest b/w and 3:00 b/w set
2 mile tempo in 11:09 - 5:36, 5:33 (4:00 rest)
4x400m in 73, 75, 75, 74 with 1:30 rest
3 mile cool down for 10 miles total

Today Garrett left for baseball for the entire season, so it was silly of me to think that I'd actually wake up to do a workout with Laurie.  After a fitful night of sleep because I was undoubtedly thinking about Garrett leaving for 5+ months, I woke up to cancel on Laurie and sleep for an additional 2 hours.  By 8AM, Garrett dropped me off at work before embarking on a ten hour drive to Indiana to begin his baseball season.  Our goodbye went something like this as we left the house:

Garrett (heads for the door):  Alright, let's go.
Caitlin:  Uh...don't I get a hug or something.
Garrett (perplexed):  Oh, right...
Caitlin (gives Garrett a hug):  See you in July, I guess.
Garrett:  Yeah, I'm so excited to start pitching.

...In other words, peace out, wife!!  And Garrett left like giddy kindergartner on the first day of school while I remained the dejected, unpopular kid left behind.

Having said all that, I ran my workout in the evening with Caleb and Eric on the Dilworth Speed Loop.  I was really excited about all the splits I ran and felt really comfortable, but as I cooled down I realized that the times may have been a little too aggressive for a pre-race workout.  I'm hoping to win the 10k on Saturday, so I should have put on the brakes a little bit so I didn't feel so gassed after the workout.  We'll see what happens!

4 mile Tempo + 400s

Goal:
5 mile tempo in GHMP

Actual:
3.1 mile warmup
4 mile tempo in 23:40 5:55 (5:53, 6:00, 5:56, 5:52) + 400m in 79
3 mile cool down  for 11 miles total

The plan was to do whatever tempo Laurie was doing, but she had a rough night of sleep, so I was left to hopefully run with Jay Barringer.  Well, he didn't show up at the Dilworth Speed Loop at 6AM, so I had to find my own intrinsic motivation to get the work done.  While I am very appreciative of the running club and the plethora of group runs it offers, it has made me somewhat of a baby when it comes to working out on my own.  I guess it kind of makes sense because even in college, I rarely ran alone, and even if I did, my coach was there to support me.

To ensure that I got the work done, I decided to run the 800m speed loop four times.  After my garmin clicked off 2 miles, I headed to the standard 2 mile part and stopped after 4 miles.  Then I decided to do 4x400m to give my legs a little bit of a kick since I have an 8k coming up on Saturday.  While I would have liked to had faster splits for the tempo, I was pleased with how I bounced back after a slower 2nd mile.  The 400s didn't feel spectacular, but the point was not necessarily to go fast, but rather to get the legs going at a speed faster than tempo.

My goal for the half in June is to start out at 5:55 pace and then to gradually drop down to 5:50 so that I can be poised for a PR (faster than 1:17:50).  I think that if I continue to get these tempos done with company, I'll prove to myself that my goal is realistic.

13x400m on Speed Loop

Goal:
5 Mile Wave

Actual:
3 mile warmup
13x400m with 1:00 rest at 76-79
2.5 cool down for ~9 miles total

I was going to do a 5 mile wave tempo, but I hadn't done speed in a while and I had the Moe's Burrito Dash coming up on Saturday.  So I switched things up and opted to do a tempo next week.   Phil came out with me for the first 5 intervals, but then the top of his foot began to hurt and so he dropped out.  Later he sent me a snapchat with a picture of him in a boot -- stress reaction.  With him out, I changed my strategy because my motivation was wavering.  I relaxed as much as possible going through the first half and then once I passed the 200m mark, I changed gears to push really hard.  This method seemed to work really well for me because all of my times began to drop.  I was running 1-2 seconds faster than I had with Phil!  After I completed 13 400s, I called it a day and ran home, feeling satisfied with the effort.

Some 400s on the DSL

Goal:
14x400m with 1:00 rest

Actual:
3.7 mile warmup
4x600m (157, 200, 159, 200 w/ 1:45 rest)+ 6x400m (77, 77, 77, 77, 75, 75 w/ 75 sec rest)
3 mile cool down for 10 miles total

I had 14x400m on the schedule for today, but I really want to set myself up for a PR on Saturday, so I decided to switch it up a bit for only 3 miles of quality.  I had the pleasure of working out with Laurie for the first time in 2013 and it was a tremendous help!  All the guys that I typically work out with were all recovering from PRs from the weekend, so it was basically just the two of us on the Dilworth Speed Loop in the dark, early morning hours.

There really isn't much to report here except that I came away feeling like I got some good turnover in the legs without overly taxing myself physically.  I'm looking forward to more workouts with Laurie as we both continue to get into better shape than we are now!

Minuters on the DSL

Goal:
3x2 Mile

Actual:
3 mile warmup
12x Min (@ 4:50-5:15 pace)+ 400m in 74
3 mile cool down for ~ 10 miles total

I felt like I had done 2 mile repeats only a couple weeks ago and I realized that I hadn't done any speedwork lower than 800m in a while, so I decided to keep Billy company on a pre-race workout.  I've also felt a little run down, so I figured this switch would be a good move.  We ran really fast for the first 6 intervals, around 4:50 pace and then slowed up a little bit towards the end.  However, the average for the total run, with rest, came out around 6:06 pace, so it shows that we basically ran a decent tempo for 4 miles.  After we finished 12 minuters, we did a 400m with Caleb and the guys flew past me, making me feel like I was for sure running an 80 sec quarter.  Instead, I came through in a surprising 74, even after slowing up considerably as I neared the finished line.  In all honesty, this workout felt ridiculously hard.  It was nice to get some speed in the legs because I am focusing on some of the shorter distances in the upcoming month.

4xMile Repeats on DSL

Goal:
4-5xmile with 2:30 rest

Actual:
3.4 Mile Warmup
4xmile with 2:30 rest @ 5:31, 5:29, 5:30, 5;31
2 mile cool down for 10 miles total

My trusty sidekick Caleb joined me for probably the fourth week in a row for this early morning workout, yet again on the Dilworth Speed Loop.  Phil and Aaron joined us for the specific mile repeats while Jason and Paul did their own thing.  From the start, I felt great.  My legs felt light and my feet bounced easily off the pavement.  My breathing was definitely heavy, but mentally I didn't let it get to me.  After the third one, I could tell that everyone was feeling a little sluggish and down on the workout, and Phil and Caleb said they were done.  I made a deal with them that we would just do one more 800m and then be done.  Secretly, it was my way to get them to do at least half of the next interval with me so that I could have some company.  At the 800m mark for the 4th interval, they all stopped and I kept on going.  Aaron had been pulling away from us and when he saw that I was still powering on, he slowed up to push me along for the final half.  His company was very helpful because I was finally starting to feel a little tired.  I was very pleased to run all of these at basically the same pace.  Back in October, I ran 6xmile in ~5:47 average and was totally smoked by everyone I was running with.  My fitness continues to get better with each passing week!

Pre-Race Fartlek

Goal:
8-6-4-2-1 with half rest gradually getting faster

Actual:
3 mile warmup
8-6-4-2-1 starting at 545 pace and getting faster to about 5:20 pace
2 mile cool down for 10 miles total

I wanted to get in at least 3 miles of work for my pre-race workout, but still get some turnover, so I drew this workout out from the dust. I hadn't done this since before Twin Cities, so it was nice to pull something out that I hadn't done in quite some time.  Fortunately, Phil was open to doing this workout too, which I was very grateful for since this workout is much harder than it seems.  Of course, I wanted to start out at like 550-600 pace, but I took us off much faster than that and had to maintain that faster pace for the remainder of the workout.  I had worked the night before until 8:00PM, so I believe that this made me feel like the effort was much harder than it should have been.  However, I was still pleased with the splits and the effort.  I've got the Rumba on the Lumber 5k on Saturday, so this was a great tune-up in preparation.

10x400m with Meagan!

Goal:
No workout

Actual:
2.5 mile warmup
10x400m with 1:00 rest at 75-78
3 mile cool down for ~8.5 miles

While I had hoped that the sun would make an appearance for Meagan's visit to Charlotte, it didn't quite work out that way.  Instead, the temperature hovered at 37 degrees the entire day, from 5:30AM until 5PM, not budging a smidgen over that.  To make matters worse, it was raining.  I woke up to Meagan peering outside the window, desperately trying to tell if it was raining hard.  Without less than a second thought, we both decided sleep outweighed running. As a side note, when I went to work, both my boss and my co-worker commented that I looked "tired."  So that definitely means that running in the morning makes me look more spritely rather than sleeping in.

We headed out the door later that afternoon for the Dilworth Speed Loop, where we traversed back and forth on the 800m section.  I felt good through about 7 and then I started to feel less energized.  My quads were very cold and much too red, but I powered through, without a single interval slower than my times a couple weeks ago.  Meagan pulled away from me on the last 3-4, but a part of me didn't care because I knew she was running really fast, while I was just running fast.  Indeed, I was already ahead of myself since I hadn't planned to do a workout anyways.

While the quantity was low, the quality was high, the company splendid, and the weather terrible.  But that didn't stop us from getting the work done in miserable conditions and then rewarding ourselves with a smoothie from Carolinas Smoothie.  Nothing is better than working out with one of my besties.  Too bad this is tricking me into thinking Meagan's back for good!

3x2 Mile

Goal:
3x2 Mile with 2:00 Rest at 600-555-550 pace

Actual:
2.7 mile warmup
3x2 mile with 2:00 rest
11:36 (5:50/5:46)
11:31 (5:46/5:45)
11:17 (5:40/5:37)
2.3 mile cool down for 11 miles total

Just like last Tuesday, Caleb, Charlie, Brad and I rolled out of bed to meet at the speed loop for some 2 mile repeats.  We had a guest appearance from Jaskot, which was a appreciated addition to the group, especially for me.  The weather was pleasantly perfect, with temps in the upper 40s and little wind.  We started and the boy immediately took off ahead of me, as I settled into what felt like a comfortable pace with Matt.  After 3/4 of a mile, Matt had fallen off my pace, and I was still 10-15 meters behind Caleb and Charlie.  I finished with a solid time and made it my goal to continue to get closer to Charlie and Caleb. By the second interval, I had closed the gap from 10 meters to 5 meters.  At the start of the third, they weren't too far ahead of me, so I made a move to charge a couple of strides to tuck in directly behind them.  I stayed with both of them through 1.5 miles and then Charlie and I began to pull away from Caleb.  I felt absolutely great the entire workout and was pleased to close in such a solid time.

What I liked most about this workout was that I was basically alone for the first four miles of the workout and still found the motivation within myself to push hard.  Last fall, I really struggled with this mental tenacity and I feel really confident that my mentality is finely tuned again!  This also proves that running 60-65 miles a week is really enabling me to bring my quality back to what it should be.

12x400m with 1:00 Rest

Goal:
12x400m with 1:00 rest

Actual:
3 mile warmup
12x400m with 50-60 sec rest at 78-80 depending on uphill/downhill
3.5 mile cool down for 10 miles total

Was supposed to do this workout on Tuesday, but a tight left calf made me push the workout back a day.  I did this in the late afternoon with Billy after work while he did 6x800m on the Dilworth Speed Loop.  We started at the start line and ran back and forth between there and the 800m mark.  As always, 1/3 were downhill-ish and 2/4 were uphill-ish.  I got to run the first half of Billy's workout with him as he continued to finish out his interval.  It worked out quite perfectly for my first legit workout back.  While I didn't feel amazing and felt like I was actually running 75s instead of 78s, I was very happy with this workout.  I didn't feel my calf and I was able to sustain the effort the entire way.  It may not have been pretty, but I've got to be consistent to bring my fitness back to where I want it to be.  Garrett biking alongside me helped tremendously and forced me to push up the inclines when I really didn't want to.   Looking forward to a long run with a tempo this weekend with the Cupid's Revenge group.

A Glimmer of Light (6x800m)

Goal:
8x800m with 1:30 rest at 2:43-2:37

Actual:
3 mile warmup
6x800m with 1:55 jog rest at 2:42/2:45
3.7 mile cool down for 10 miles total

PM:  1.5 hours of dance!

I might be back!  Just maybe.  Caleb and I started a bit later this morning--at 6:30--to get some extra hours of much needed sleep.  We did just 6 repeats, two shy of my goal, but I felt positive about how I stayed mentally in the game.  I didn't look at my splits and even asked Caleb to not share the splits with me as we finished. I did cheat a little though by asking him what he ran, since he was a little ahead of me, I could still gauge how fast I was going.

I have to start somewhere, and I feel like this a great start!  I enjoyed the workout and felt very positive in my thoughts during each interval.  Positivity at this point is very important and definitely a step in the right direction. I'm finally beginning to believe that I'll start feeling like a new person--meaning, a person with normal iron levels--in just a short period of time.

I'm going to do a 10 mile progression run with the intent of putting in the full effort, even if it means the pace may be a bit slower than I would like to see right now.  Like Laurie told me on our Sunday long run, at least when my iron is back, I'll feel fantastic!

16x400m Repeats

Goal:
16x400m with 1 min rest at 78-83

Actual:
3 mile warmup
16x400m at 78-83 with 1:00 rest
2.5 mile cool down for 9.5 miles total

pm:  4.5 miles for 14 miles total

After learning that I've got low iron and that I'm trying to do too much at this point in my life, I decided to do 400s.  Why 400s? Because they are easy to handle mentally and I didn't have to even look at my splits on the speed loop.  I was fortunate to have the company of Spada and Caleb for this workout in the early morning hours on the Dilworth Speed Loop.  We started off and I felt okay, not too winded but not a walk in the park, either.  I let Caleb and Spada speed ahead in front of me, and felt no worry. I didn't look at my splits, which helped a lot.  Towards intervals 10, 11, and 12, I felt terrible, and when I looked at my splits after the workout, my times reflected this (81-83 splits here), but then I was able to pull it back together by the last set.  In fact, I really wanted to quit after 12 intervals, but I vowed to myself prior to the workout that if things started getting tough that I would just slow it down.  I didn't even have to slow it down once I reached what I thought was my breaking point; I just needed to get my mind focused and in the right spot and I was able to fight through my own mental shortcomings.  All in all, the focus of this workout was to run fast time.  Instead, it was to come out of it feeling mentally stronger than when I went into it, and I achieved just that.

8x800m Fail (Sort of)

Goal:
8x800m with 1:30 rest at 2:38-2:43

Actual:
3.5 mile warmup
8x800m at 2:43-2:46 with 1:15-1:20 rest
3 mile cool down

4.3 miles in the pm for 15 miles total

This was a sort of fail because I didn't hit my target goal times.  Since I was pissed off at my own efforts, I decided to make the rest even shorter than it was supposed to be to try to make up for my lack of speed today.  I'm not sure what's going on, but it was just hard to find that second gear today to dig deep.  Unlike how I felt last Tuesday, when I did 400s on the Speed Loop, my legs felt heavy and lethargic as I rounded the turn into Dilworth Road East.  I made an extra effort to finish out the workout entirely even though I wasn't feeling great at all.  Definitely wasn't what I was looking for as the confidence booster going into the Greek Fest 5k, but it will do.  In the end, I got in the effort for the day and was able to post some solid miles for the day.  The big goal is Philly, and I'm working towards that.

Soreness update:  my left hamstring is still bothering me some, and on my double in the evening it felt the worst it has in the past two weeks.  I'm stretching but trying not to do too much so as to not aggravate it any more than it already is.

12x400m

Goal:
5 Mile Tempo

Actual:
4 mile warmup
12x400m with 1:00 rest
3 mile cool down for 10 miles total, 6 miles in the pm

Well, I was just 12 hours off the plane when I did this workout in the early morning hours.  I couldn't resist the temptation of working out with a huge group, so I jumped into Dalena's workout to join her, Jason, Charlie, Spada, Matt and several others.  I actually completed one of the best 400m workouts that I've ever done on the speed loop and I think most of this was fueled by the lingering excitement from my Olympic Trip.  All of my splits were between 74-76 on a rolling course in Dilworth.  I've never rolled this fast on this course before, and I felt pretty good doing it, until the ninth interval, where my body finally realized that I had been on a plane for 9 hours the day before and that my sleep schedule was entirely out of whack.  I will admit though that coming back from London is 10x easier than flying TO London.  In the end, I'm glad I did this workout because I was able to catch some great company.

Pre-Race Workout

Goal:
3 Mile tempo at 5:50-6:00 + 3x400m

Actual:
6-5-4-3 with half rest + 2x400m
Gradually got faster 5:48, 5:45, 5:41, and 5:37 + 77 and 77 for the 400s
10 miles total

Pre race workouts are typically a lot of fun because they are low pressure and super short compared to the typical workouts in a week.  I really enjoyed the one because I had the great company of Eric and Caleb.  We are all planning to race Beat the Heat 5k together in hopes of breaking 17, so it was nice to get into the groove with both of these guys.  I didn't want to push too hard because I've done that before and paid for it during the race.  Instead, I just pressed the pace faster purely on feel, allowing my body to dictate the pace.  I felt good throughout until the 400s and then I just felt tired. I'm accounting this feeling to the heat and humidity, which seemed to be at an all-time high this morning.  I'm sure that it won't be going away anytime soon, so may as well just get used to it now!

3x2 Mile

Goal:
3x2 mile with 2:00 rest at 5:50-5:55 pace

Actual:
3.4 mile warmup
3x2 mile with 2:00 rest at 5:47 pace
11:36 (5:48, 5:48), 11:35 (5:47, 5:45), 11:36 (5:47, 5:48)
2 mile cool down

This was an early morning run at the Dilworth Speed Loop with Chad, Mike, Spada, Caleb and Danielle.  In the past, I've approached this workout with the goal to run faster than I ever have on this course.  However, now that I've received my new training plan from Coach Mark Hadley, I knew that this wasn't the goal.  My new focus is to make 5:50-6:05 pace feel as controlled, relaxed and easy as possible.  This means that I really won't be going "all out" in workouts so much any more as I prepare for Philly.

With this goal nestled into my mind, I set off behind the boys for the first interval.  I could tell that everyone else was trying not to just leave me in the dust in the first 800m, but they held back just enough.  Caleb was a trusty sidekick the entire way as we ran side-by-side for all intervals.  Just like clockwork, I ticked off 5:47s like it was no big deal.  I was surprised at how perfectly I could hit those splits and make it feel relatively easy.  For the third interval, I felt a little bit more fatigued, but I could account that to the humid weather that has finally made its way to North Carolina.

In the end, I definitely achieved the goals of this workout. I really do think that Mark would be proud of how I executed the workout strategy to perfection, even if the splits were a little faster than the original goal pace he had outlined. I'm looking forward to working on my pacing throughout the next six months.