After a fun weekend with company (and still doing my fitness things), it was time tonight to get back to running. Week 4 of the Freeway to 10K series involves a 5-minute warm-up walk, six 6-minute jogs followed by 60-second walks, wrapped up with a 3-minute cooldown, all for a total of 50 minutes. By the end of the warm-up walk, I was a bit sore in the shins and expected the first couple of jogs would be tough, which they were. And a couple of times throughout I started thinking how nice it would be to just quit for the night and try again some other time. Thankfully I squelched that line of reasoning and powered through.
The end result kinda speaks for itself. I racked up 4.24 miles. That's still a far-cry from 13.1, but it's definitely progress. It's also encouraging to know that for the first few weeks of the half-marathon training my Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday runs will all take less than 50 minutes to complete.
I did a little research tonight on speed work and found a couple of interesting programs. I will try to remember to find the links again and share them here at some point, but here are the basics.
The first program has you figure out your 5K pace, then knock off 20 seconds. After an easy 5-minute warm-up jog you run 3 minutes at 20 seconds faster than your current race pace and then take it easy for a minute. Do that five times, then have an easy 5-minute cooldown, and do the routine twice a week.
The second is a pyramid plan. After the warm-up, run 1 minute at your race pace, then 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 4 minutes, 5 minutes, 4 minutes, 3 minutes, 2 minutes, and 1 minute (all with an easy 1-minute interval afterward).
I'm not sure when or how I will get speed work into my life, but I know I'm going to want and need it if I make plans to run faster.
Have a great day today, and be sure to find time to be a little active.
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