Today's run:
Half Marathon Training Week Four, Day One
Half Marathon Training Week Four, Day One
4.20 miles/55:00
Today was supposed to be more speedwork... and I guess, technically, that's what I did. Did I follow the prescribed plan of 6x400s? Absolutely not. Did I follow my own plan to do 40:00 of fartlek intervals? Not quite. But did I run some hills and do some fast intervals? Why, yes... yes, I did! So that counts, right?
I started by doing eight cadence drills as recommended by the only man who makes me think running faster is possible: Mr. Jeff Galloway. I followed the 30 second format that he talked about in this video, but it seemed awfully short - I didn't feel like I could make much progress in 30 seconds. Next time I am going to try the one minute format and see if that feels better. Galloway's website says to complete the cadence drills at least twice a week, so I'll try again on Thursday as a little warmup for my tempo run.
After the cadence drills, I did about 5 minutes of fartlek intervals, but honestly, I completely wasn't feeling it today. I'm completely torn because I really didn't like the structured 400s, 800s, and 1600s, but the freedom of creating my own intervals seems a little overwhelming. I knew I was in a bad place mentally for it today because I thought to myself, "I could really just walk home right now instead of doing more intervals." Um. Wrong answer.
So I decided freedom wasn't going to work. But I knew track intervals weren't going to work, since I wasn't on a track and I didn't feel like beating my head against a wall. I went with an impromptu running pyramid, based on something that I'd read when I was first looking for information on speedwork: "Coach Jack Daniels suggests the following workout when feeling lethargic: Run 10 steps (counting one foot, not both) then jog 10, run 20 and jog 20, run 30 and jog 30, and so on up to running 100 and jogging 100 (or more if you wish)." I chose to walk instead of jog, and I turned it into a pyramid... so I got to 100, and then went back to 90, then to 80, and so on and so forth.
I actually really liked this exercise... it felt completely doable, and it forced me to focus on both short and long bursts of running. And though my overall pace for this run was slow (about 13:00), I was running quickly during the intervals. My best pace was 7:14, which was probably for one of the shorter bursts, but I was trying to keep my running pace around 9:00 or less. I didn't feel like this run was as hard as last week's fartlek run, and it certainly wasn't as hard as the 400s and 800s, but I'm hoping it will still make a difference in my speed!
In other news... I finished seven whole days of flossing and did not cry!
And I painted my nails sparkly green as my first Christmas manicure of the week!
And yes, I meant first Christmas manicure because there will be at least one more, and I'm really excited about it. It's the little things, really.
What was your workout or run today? Tell me all about it!
