With four weeks to go until the 10K, it seemed like a good time to at least start doing some kind of speed work. Now, if you don't remember, I was really, REALLY struggling with speed work last summer and fall, both from a staying-healthy standpoint and also just a getting-faster-and-feeling-not-like-ass-everyday standpoint. On 9/23, two days before Wharf-to-Wharf three miler, I pulled my hamstring at the track running 200m's after months of that hip joint feeling off and doing a ton of strength and PT work that just didn't seem to be helping. Things have really been going much, MUCH better after taking 3.5 months almost completely off, but I was still feeling a bit nervous about going to the track for the first time since pulling that hamstring.
Oh and did I mention I pulled that hamstring on 200m rep #6 of 12? And this past Tuesday's workout was 8 x 200m? I did! And it was! I could tell you I wasn't perseverating on this a little as I jogged to the track but that would be a big, fat lie.
The nice thing was, I didn't expect to run fast 200ms after doing basically nothing for 3.5 months and then jogging for another 6-7 weeks. I had no intention of trying to hammer 200m's and was thinking of them more as strides, just dipping my baby toe into the speedwork pool and reminding my legs what it felt like to turn over at something faster than a jog.
For context, I've often started out a training cycle running 200ms in the 0:44-0:45 range, not an all-out sprint but fairly hard. Then as I got a bit fitter I'd sometimes see them in the 0:42-0:43 range, and when I felt very fit I'd see 0:40-0:41 and VERRRRY occasionally just sneak under 40 seconds.
Last summer and fall, for comparison, I was often running 200m's in 0:46-0:47-0:48 and it felt HARD. And after months of training and feeling exhausted (but also never really feeling totally healthy), on that last workout day in September before I pulled my hamstring, I was running them in 0:45 and STRUGGLING. So like, not fast.
This past Tuesday, I thought, "Ok, let's start out easy, just cruise through this one and see how it feels to move the legs a bit faster." No specific time in mind. And that very very first 200m where I felt like I was not pushing too hard *at all* was 44 seconds. 😱 🤯 Not what I expected but I'll take it!
The next three were a bit slower (0:46), but then with what felt like the same level of effort, I ran the last three at 0:43, 0:43, 0:43, & 0:41. Definitely didn't see that coming! I was very much prepared on this first track day in FIVE MONTHS for my legs to feel heavy and slow and to leave knowing I had some work to do with the ol' fast twitch fibers--instead, my legs felt light and snappy and each 200m felt like flying down the track. Friends, I can't even *remember* the last time I felt like that on the track!
I basically floated the 3.5 miles home. I know I am very far from as fit as I'd like to be for distances in the 10K/half marathon range, but this workout left me feeling like maybe all the time off and all the many MANY (!MANY) months of focused strength training for my hip plus regular chiro and massage *may* have accomplished something. 8 x 200m/200m is definitely the kiddie pool of speed work but I have to say I am quite happy with how it felt for a first workout of the season.
Grand Total: 41.4 miles
- * 22 easy
- * 2 speed
- * 3.4 tempo
- * 14 long
Monday 2/21: 1 hour strength. Did I deadlift 175 lb. and do 3 unassisted neutral grip pull-ups? Yes I frickin' did.
Tuesday 2/22: 3.5 warm up, 8 x 200m/200m, 3.5 cool down = 9 total
Wednesday 2/23: 6 easy, celebrate birthday! 🎉🎈🎊
- My actual birthday was pretty tame this year, what with it being a Wednesday and omicron numbers still a bit high in SF for us to feel comfortable eating out juuuust yet. Instead I had a nice easy jog & some tasty CSA home-cooked halibut. :)
Thursday 2/24: 3 easy to the gym & back + 1 hour strength.
- My gym is only about 1.3 miles from my house so I try to jog it on Thursdays. (On Mondays, post-long run or race, I have no shame in walking or driving.) I usually leave a bit early so I can get ~1.7-1.8 on the way there, then jog back home after on semi-trashed legs.
Friday 2/25: 3 warm up, 3 x 1 mile/2:00 jog, 3 cool down = 9.4 total
- When I started trying to do tempo/threshold work last year, it was sooo painfully hard. Like, I'd super struggle just to run one sub-8:00 mile and trying to run a sub-7:30 mile made me feel like I wanted to die. And it just seemed to get worse every week. But Tuesday's speed workout was encouraging, and all I had to do was run 3 x a mile at somewhere between 10K and half marathon effort, with 2:00 jogs in between. I didn't have much of an idea what that meant in terms of numbers but figured I'd just feel it out.
- And, like at the track, I was really stunned to finish that first mile at what felt like a very reasonable effort and see 7:25 on my watch?? That was my tempo pace like six years ago but it's been a LONG time since it didn't feel nightmarish. This did not feel nightmarish. On the second interval, I definitely knew I was running too hard, but what the hell, I was enjoying it and it felt so great to just push and push and feel like, "You know, I could keep going for a while!" Even so, if you had told me that mile would be 7:12, I would not have believed you had I not seen it on my watch.
- On the third mile my lack of training (er, and probably that 7:12 second mile) finally caught up with me -- still ran a 7:23, but those last couple minutes were ROUGH! 🤣 So, check; maybe we shoot for more like ~7:30ish for tempo pace & see how that goes. (See: Things I did not expect to be typing a week ago but will *happily* roll with.)
Saturday 2/26: Rest + celebrate birthday again, this time with cupcakes!
Sunday 2/27: 14 long
So, uhhhh....this is not where I expected to be after 3.5 months of nothing and a few fairly low mileage weeks of jogging. Friends, I could not run like this last year. Not even close. Not before I started for-real training and not during or after for-real training (such as it was). I have a few theories about why this might be, but that's a different blog post.
As a reward for reading all the way to the end, please enjoy this photo of our fire-lizard kitties sprawled in their new favorite spot. (And if you cheated and just looked at the pictures without reading, SHAME!)
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