Rebuilding

I tried to run a tempo on Friday, but that wasn’t much better than the sprints I did a few days before: it felt like I was trying, but I ran the 8.6km (5 1/3 mile) at a slower pace than this week’s steady run (but there wasn’t any hamstring pain).

Finally, on Sunday morning, it was another long run – and first time out in my new Reebok Floatride Energy shoes – I hadn’t been intending to buy any more but since they were $35 US online, I thought I would give them a try as my alternate long distance shoe. I did 24km (15 miles) in 2:20:22, which is 5:51/km (9:23/mile) when I should have been on 5:30/km and that should have been easy. The shoes were fine, but I just couldn’t get any kind of a pace. I didn’t feel bad, just like this was as fast as I was going.

Getting out while it’s cooler

On Monday, I did some exercises targeting my posterior chain (the interlinked muscles that run all the way from your neck down you your back to your ankles) in order to help strengthen and support my hamstrings and ward of off Runner’s Knee. I should have been doing these far more often. I will from now on.

It was raining off and on on Tuesday, and when it was ‘on’ it was hard. When it eased off in the afternoon I went out. Although it was humid, the residual cool of the rain and the cloud cover meant it wasn’t hot. I decided to do my steady run of the week: 13.2km (8 1/4 miles) to the head of the island and back.

My new steady pace aim for this distance is 4:40/km (7:30/mile). These new paces are not supposed to be easy, they are supposed to be targets. They are a bit of a jump from what I was aiming at before for a steady run (5:00/km or 8:03/mile) – and hitting too easily (I was generally running just over 4:50/km or 7:47/mile). Today, still being cautious after coming back from injury I was somewhere inbetween that and my new target. I got to the turn in 31:34 (4:47/km or 7:42/mile) and for the next 4 or 5 km I was feeling really good and running on pace. But I seemed to lose some energy in the last couple of kilometres, and I finished the second half on 31:00 exactly (4:42/km or 7:34/mile) for a total time of 1:02:34, which averages out at 4:44/km (7:37/mile).

I’ll get there.

I just can’t sprint right now…

What the title says… I really can’t seem to sprint right now. I went out on a nice warm afternoon yesterday to do some sprint intervals, and I just couldn’t do them. I did eventually feel my left hamstring giving up (and I will have to watch that over the next week) but the main problem was that even before this, I just felt like I couldn’t do it.

I had been intending to do 3 pairs of 1000m + 400m, with a short break in the middle and a longer one between each pair, but I guess it all started to go wrong when I felt like I couldn’t even be bothered to jog the full 1.3 kilometres to the stretch of road I had planned to use (because it is relatively flat, has km markers and has relatively little traffic). For some reason, despite all my knowledge and preparation, I decided the long slightly uphill stretch of road near me was good enough. But as soon as I started, I felt slighly sick. Instead of running a 1000m leg, I stopped at 400m. After a quick break, I ran half way back for a 200m, and then jogged slowly to the start again. I then repeated, but I knew in the middle of the second 200m that my leg wasn’t going to take it. I still did one more 400m before quitting for a pathetic total of 1600m (approximately a mile), plus the warm-up, cool-down and in-betweens.

I had a vague idea of the times I was running (somewhere under 1:30 for 400m) but I wasn’t really paying attention. And that was the problem. I know my distances and what it feels like to running at particular paces on the section of road I had been planning to use, almost like a track. But not on this section. So I ran much faster than I should have been at first. Looking at my intervals, I ran the first 400m in 1:22 (3:23/km or 5:28/mile) pace, and kept that up for the 200m and was only slightly slower on the next 400m at 3:27/km (5:23/mile). The second 200m was still up there and only and final and unecessary extra 400m brought the average down to just under 3:30/km (5:38/mile).

Last month, I did a series of nine 400m intervals in an average of 1:31, which is over 10 seconds slower /km pace. So I was definitely running too fast today, certainly I wasn’t going to get to 1000m at that pace three or more times. I have to work on this because it’s dangerous as it’s liable to get me injured.