Make No Little Plans

Here's the elevation profile from Sunday's 20K pace run. I guess I see why my first 4 were slowish. I probably ran it right with a steady/not drifting upwards effort which resulted in the slow start and fast finish. Running by feel can actually work sometimes. Ok, I'm off to do run #2 of a double today.

Yep, that'll do it!

Stop beating yourself up Chris - it was a well run race and to have the discipline to complete the full 20 - wow, hats off to that.

6 x 1 mile tonight. My preference is to go to the track for this. I'll go to the HS I usually use and if that's not available because of an event, I'll try one other backup place. 3rd option would be to do it on the mill at home but for speed work like this, I really prefer the track over anything else. Goal is 6:10 pace. I need to remember to charge my iPod before I head out tonight...

Well executed race...but it isn't like you to be slower than goal pace out of the shoot, are you sure your watch is ok? This just isn't like you. I am starting to get worried.

Given the HR data and elevation profile, I really think you executed the pace run to perfection. Just look at how in 2010, your HR spikes in the closing miles, whereas this year it didn't move.

Lovin' reading your training and racing here, Chris. Living it through your runs. Keep up the good stuff...and never, ever even LOOK at a NY cap! Bad karma there

Chris M wrote:6 x 1 mile tonight.

6 X 1 Mile? I would make a new rule that you don't do any workout in a training cycle until Dave does the same workout as part of his cycle. This is cruel and unusual.

GregC wrote:

Chris M wrote:6 x 1 mile tonight.

6 X 1 Mile? I would make a new rule that you don't do any workout in a training cycle until Dave does the same workout as part of his cycle. This is cruel and unusual.

He's not giving full disclosure on that.....it's a tempo workout. Dave's not being that mean. I'm doing the same thing next Monday.

He gave disclosure with the 6:10 pace requirement. Until I saw that, yeah, I wondered how the hell that was going to happen.

Paula Sue wrote:Lovin' reading your training and racing here, Chris. Living it through your runs. Keep up the good stuff...and never, ever even LOOK at a NY cap! Bad karma there

That was a scary bet. The Sox were at home so I thought they could take 2 of 3 but the Yanks came into that series red hot and nearly took it. Martin VW was soooo close to having me have to run a race and get photographed in a Yankees hat. It took extra innings in the final game of the series for me to get off the hook on that and now he's the one who has to wear Red Sox gear in a race. Of course, the guy hardly ever races so I'm waiting and waiting and waiting until he finally pays up on the bet!

Mike MacLellan wrote:He gave disclosure with the 6:10 pace requirement. Until I saw that, yeah, I wondered how the hell that was going to happen.

True that its not blasting away at max all out but still 6 x 1 mile at 6:10 has me, uh, wanting to stay at work a long time tonight and miss it due to scheduling problems. That's 10K pace so its not like I'm going to feel that I'm strolling along out there. Plus, you know Dave is just daring me to bring the last one in under 6:00. He didn't say that but I got that vibe just the same...

GregC wrote:

6 X 1 Mile? I would make a new rule that you don't do any workout in a training cycle until Dave does the same workout as part of his cycle. This is cruel and unusual.

Huh? I've done this workout many times. Come one, you know I use myself as a guinea pig.

Its a tempo workout, not a Vo2Max workout. The 6:10 pace is nothing for him, as he's done 3 x mile in 5:50 before. This is merely a transition before he gets back to 800 and 1200m track work.

Definitely wasn't trying to talk down the workout, Chris. Our 10k times are about the same (okay, I would like to go 6:10s, so I'll just say that's my 10k pace...) so I know that this one will still be a kick in the ass. But if we're thinking 5:25-5:30s for 6x1... Eep.

Something to make you smile.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Be77gKd55q4

jimd wrote:Something to make you smile.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Be77gKd55q4

Pure marketing genius.....

How was the 6x1?

6x1 workout went fine. I went to the HS track last night and oddly it was deserted. No activity there and they had the lights fully off which made it tough as it went to full dark during the workout. There was one small street light so I started all my repeats from there and could see my watch at that spot each 400. The rest of the time was running blind and when it got REALLY dark, it was weird heading down to the other end of the track where you could barely even see the ground. It was 90 degrees when I started it which wasn't ideal but cooled off some once the sun was fully down. Didn't bother me once I got going.

6:10 goal
1. 6:04 (I was still getting a feel for the pace - I was at like 2:55 through 800...oops)
2. 6:09
3. 6:11
4. 6:09
5. 6:10
6. 5:52 - ok, that one hurt a great deal. I was dying at the end and slowing down badly. I don't have the actual 400 splits recorded but that one was something like 1:25/1:25/1:27/1:35. I was out of gas at the end.



Butminus the tough finish, I eased through this workout OK. Very in control. "Tempo" feels about right for it as a description of the workout. I was comfortable but running decently hard. But smooth and controlled like a good tempo. Oh and I definitely skimped big time on the c/d mileage. No excuse other than just laziness. Dave won't like that. Cool down is important too. I need the mileage.



For all the repeats, I fell into a steady groove. On one of them (maybe #3 or #4) I blanked out so badly that as I came around what was the final lap, I simply could not remember whether I was finishing a lap to make it 1200 or 1600. I decided I was stopping either way but that if it was only 1200, I would have to do an additional 1600 at the end. That would have sucked. But once I got under the street light, I was relieved to see that I had done 4 laps. Still, shows you how tuned out I was and just kind of rolling along carelessly.



Tunes of the night for me were "Get Away" by Yuck and "Never Listen To Me" by The Thermals


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Don't know if I'm more impressed by the running in the dark, the last mile, or the fact that you could get pumped up enough to do this workout with those 2 songs

Nicely done! Good to know what I have in store for me next Monday. I think I'll refrain from blasting the last one though since I'll be shooting for an all time weekly mileage high next week. And you need to find a track with lights! You'll kill yourself!

Mike MacLellan wrote:Don't know if I'm more impressed by the running in the dark, the last mile, or the fact that you could get pumped up enough to do this workout with those 2 songs

This was more of a rolling along tempo-style workout, not rip your face off true speed work. AFI, Rise Against, Alkaline Trio and others become the songs of the day for the 400s and really fast stuff.



The track WAS really dark! Spooky even. I guess no moon was out last night? It had been so long since I hit the track that they had completely resurfaced it since the last time I was there. Really nice rubberized red surface. My property tax dollars hard at work, I guess.



By the way, Alex posted about doing the Falmouth Road Race over in the race reports section. I had forgotten but I did actually run that race while in college. I always refer to the Parks Half Marathon in 2008 as my first race but on a whim and lark, my buddies and I did run that while living on the Cape one Summer. Unfortunately, it looks like results only go back to 1996 so I can't find out how I did. I remember it being an awful experience for me in that soccer did NOT have me anywhere near ready to run 7.1 straight miles hard. I would guess that my time was very bad. Although i did do 5 miles on a track in 30:30 back then - we had to run a 5 mile test every August for soccer tryouts. You couldn't practice unless you got under 35 mins. Anyone who missed had to run it again the next day so I ALWAYS made sure I got it. My senior year (getting fatter and slower), I think my time was 34:59! So maybe I was faster than I thought way back in the day.

What was the rest between each repeat mile? Inquiring minds want to know...

GregC wrote:What was the rest between each repeat mile? Inquiring minds want to know...

Jogged 400. Ranged from 1:45 (too fired up to jog, I guess) to one that was, uh, longer (bathroom break). The others were all between 2:00 and 2:30.

Nice repeats, Chris!

When I return to Atlanta, I always end up doing my mile repeats in the dark of the local high school track. There is also a street light at one end and a light by the school building, so it isn't too bad. As you said, once you get going you forget about the darkness and focus on the running which is kind of neat IMHO. I actually forget about how much it hurts when its dark. The only spooky thing is when you get passed by a fast runner who seems to have come out of nowhere (which is why I don't use my iPod). I used to love when the local BootCamp used the field as they had "lights" and music.

Nice 6X1 Chris!

Great workout in the dark. I like both of those of those songs a lot. Identical tempos...perfect for a speed session. Were those really the only two songs you listened to?