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October 26, 2005
Fartlek with a Side of Beef
I wanted to do a workout today, but the workout that I had planned (3 x 1 lap at the Brookline Reservoir) would have been pretty miserable with the high winds that we had today. So I decided to do my hill/fartlek workout instead over my Newton Centre loop again. The headwind was still pretty tough--I really thought that I was going to be blown off the path at the Chestnut Hill Reservoir and down onto the street! But since the wind was WNW, I only had the worst of it for the first half of my run. Wind being what it is to a runner, the tailwind on the way home wasn't nearly as strong as the headwind on the way out! I kept thinking about one of my high school coaches as I battled the wind--she used to be really into all this very New Age-y, spiritual kind of stuff in sport psychology. I remember her once encouraging us during a particularly frustrating track workout to "ask the wind permission to pass" on the backstretch. We all thought that was pretty hilarious and blew it off--but I think it's even funnier now that I remember this instruction every time I'm confronted with a strong headwind!
Anyway, since I now have a working watch, I kept track of my splits of hard vs. easy/medium running. I came up with a total of about 14:00 of hard running with 5:10 and 3:12 being the longest splits of hard running uphill. The rest of the splits for hard running ranged from 31 sec to 1:00. I think I felt better during this workout than I had the first time I attempted it two weeks ago, although it's hard to compare. I wrote in my log the last time that my "stride felt a little awkward during the hard running" and I didn't really feel that way this time. I felt a little tired, but my stride has definitely seemed to have smoothed out a bit over the last few weeks. Not, mind you, that this is saying a whole heck of a lot!
But I'm feeling pretty encouraged by my training so far. I think this down week will be good for me and I'm looking forward to continuing to up my mileage. It's looking like my next race will be a Thanksgiving Day turkey trot in my hometown and that could possibly (with the exception of the random Fresh Pond race) be my last race before winter sets in. It's the winter that I'm starting to wonder about. I'm thinking about running maybe 3-4 days a week and trying to phase in some swimming/pool-running. But I was also thinking that I want to get back to doing the drill/plyometric workouts that I used to do in college. So I was thinking maybe doing those 1-2 days a week on the small, elevated track at my gym. I'm also trying to decide whether I'll cut racing out completely from December-February or if I want to try jumping into a race on the indoor track somewhere at some point. There are always a few open meets at BU, Harvard, or Reggie Lewis--it might be fun to get into a 3,000m and see what happens, as long as I stay healthy and my training is consistent. Hmmm...lots of questions for the next few weeks...
In the meantime, I'll stick with building my mileage and inserting hills and tempo runs and decide what to do after Thanksgiving.
I spent the rest of the day going to class (a really interesting guest lecture on health psychology and behavioral medicine), running errands, and doing household chores. Now A. and I have just come back from dinner with one of his friends from college and I'm battling food coma. We went to one of those Brazilian "all-you-can-meat" places where servers bring around different kinds of (generally roasted) beef, as well as chicken, lamb, pork, Italian sausage, and kielbasa, and cut pieces for you. It was absolutely insane and I ate way too much--but it was a great way to boost my iron this week!
Posted by Megan at October 26, 2005 09:49 PM
Comments
I selfishly think you should definitely do some winter track races, so I'll have company at the track. It will be Brad that's racing though. I don't think you could pay me enough to put me in a race on the track. You're brave--good for you!
Posted by: Caitlin at October 27, 2005 06:25 PM