Here Comes Speed Racer
I ran 2.5 miles tonight. Probably the toughest 2.5 miles of my life.
My rough workouts typically involve one or more of the following 3 things:
1) Double-digit mileage
2) Steep hill climbing
3) Gerald
I had none of that this evening. Leah took us out to the track for some speed work, which was something I had never done before. We had a group of about 12 of us, and we started off by doing a four-lap (1 mile) "Indian Run". Basically we all ran single file at a very slow pace, and the person in the back sprinted up to the front. Repeat. There was a certain organized, systematic feel to the whole thing and I have to say I thought it was kind of cool.
We did some stretching and then Leah told us to run one 1/4-mile lap. Just one. The only catch is that we had to run it as fast as we could. No problem. That's shorter than the distance from the porta-potties to the starting line in some races. How hard could it be?
For the first 150 yards or so (out of 440), I was thinking "hey, running fast is pretty cool!" I never do sprint runs, so this was a new experience. But then the next 150 yards I was thinking "huh.... 1/4 mile is longer than I thought it would be." Then it was "why am I slowing down, and why do I feel like puking?" Having Tri Team Tim on my heels laying down the smack talk probably didn't help. The last 100 yards was basically just a story of survival.
I understand what it's like to feel pain after a run. But typically it happens after a couple of hours. Or at least 30-40 minutes. Not 90 seconds. I have never gone from feeling great to feeling miserable so quickly.
After that we got to do a relay race. We broke up into teams of 2, and had to run 8 laps total (4 laps per person.) I was paired with Sarah, who decided she wanted to get the suffering over with so she went first. All we had to do was run 1 mile, with roughly a 2 minute break after every quarter mile. On paper it sounds SOOO simple. But when you're trying to race your laps, it's awful. When it was all over I went over to the trash can for a minute and waited, just in case. I wasn't sure if I was going to puke or not. I had kind of a half-hiccup/half dry-heave, but that was about it.
MORNING UPDATE: Oh man are my calves sore today. All because of 2.5 miles. Sheesh.
posted by Wedgie @ 11:16 PM
8 Comments:
track work is my favorite. you see benefits after just a few sessions!!!
me ani't a big fan of tracks. I will take hill repeats over tracks repeat any day.
Wow - Tim must be really fast to be able to stay on your heels AND talk smack at the same time.
I have to work on my Slow-work before I start on my Speed-work.
Those hard runs will beat up a fellas calves. I'm the same way.
Sounds like a really, really good way to injure yourself.
And not doing speed work sounds like a really, really good way to keep yourself slow.
speed work 28 weeks before the ironman, show me a newbee plan that thinks that is a great idea. Speed work is anarobic, show me a plan that is anarobic in the build phase for running. get your hills and miles in, build strength then worry about speed. Speed is great, for a 5k or 10k run, but after 112 miles on the bike I'll ask you how much value it was to train 1/4 miles sprints, except if you are Macca and can do the first mile with 5.40 min/m pace. You're wasting time. We need to talk.
Jon
Post a Comment
<< Home