Monthly Archives: December 2007

Last for ’07

0, 02mi, meter repeats

Start Time: 12/31/07, 1:45pm
Location: Thomas Jefferson Community Center
Distance: 2 miles & 8x200m

Today was one final run for the year—more 200-meter repeats, oh joy! I did a little better a job of pacing through them this time, I think. (46.01, 43.52, 42.05, 40.40, 38.79, 38.91, 37.79, 38.49) And I am always amused at how much faster the “cool-down” mile is versus my “warm-up” despite the fact that the two feel the same. (9:31 vs 8:26) All a matter of what they’re compared to, I guess!

This year’s grand tally looks to be 688.75 miles; better than last year (650.75), not as strong as 2006 (732), but considering I had an injury that sidelined me for a month, I’m not complaining at all!

The Massacre

0, 05mi

Start Time: 12/29/07, 3:30pm
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 5 miles
Average Pace: 8:30min/mile

My schedule had said to run 4 miles today, but I ended up tacking on an extra mile… so that way I could listen to all of the first two episodes of the 1966 Doctor Who story “The Massacre”. Not a bad run, although that second mile cost me a bit in the third and fourth! (8:37, 8:15, 8:41, 8:42, 8:12)

End-of-Year Catching Up

0, 01mi, 02mi, 06mi, 08mi, explosive, indoor track, meter repeats, speedwork

Oops! Whole bunch of updates here.

Start Time: 12/13/07, 6:30pm
Location: Thomas Jefferson Community Center
Distance: 6 miles
Average Pace: 8:49min/mile

Start Time: 12/15/07, 8:00am
Location: Washington-Lee High School
Distance: 1 mile & 4x200m & 3x400m

Start Time: 12/17/07, 6:30pm
Location: Thomas Jefferson Community Center
Distance: 2 miles & 8x200m

Start Time: 12/22/07, 3:45pm
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 8 miles
Average Pace: 9:16min/mile

Start Time: 12/24/07, 9:30am
Location: Washington-Lee High School
Distance: 2 miles & 8x200m

Start Time: 12/25/07, 4:00pm
Location: Vienna, VA
Distance: 5.8 miles
Average Pace: 9:12min/mile

Continue reading End-of-Year Catching Up →

Encouragement

0, 02mi, explosive, meter repeats, speedwork

Start time: 12/10/07, 6:30pm
Location: Thomas Jefferson Community Center
Distance: 2 miles & 8x200m
Average pace: 43sec

I was originally going to run these Monday morning, but it got postponed to the evening due to some stomach issues the night before. Once again, lap #5 was the slowest, although I was able to at least pick it up a bit at the end. (45.42, 45.64, 43.07, 42.04, 44.17, 42.69, 42.58, 42.06) The one nice thing was when I was done with my last repeat and preparing for my cool-down mile, a woman I see often at my spinning class said to me, “Speed work?” Which for some reason was encouraging and perfectly timed, because I was feeling like I was running slow—it’s nice to know that at least someone else at the gym knew exactly what I was attempting to do.

2, 4, 6, 8 (hundred)

0, 01mi, 02mi, 05mi, explosive, meter repeats, new shoes, speedwork

Start time: 12/2/07, 8:30am
Location: Sidwell Friends School
Distance: 1 mile & 6x100m

Start time: 12/4/07, 6:30pm
Location: Thomas Jefferson Community Center
Distance: 2 miles & 6x200m
Average pace: 43sec

Start time: 12/6/07, 3:00pm
Location: Thomas Jefferson Community Center
Distance: 5 miles
Average pace: 8:34min/mile

Start time: 12/8/07, 8:30am
Location: Washington-Lee High School
Distance: 1 mile & 200/400/600/800m

Oops… haven’t put the last couple of these in here. I’ve been starting a new speed training (“explosive running”) program for the winter, and I’m not entirely sure how to categorize a lot of these. But it’s been fun. Our first session we ran a warm-up mile, then did some running exercises involving “butt-kicks”, “high knees”, and “form runs”. Then we did six 100-meter runs, with the idea that each one got progressively faster. It was really enjoyable, but hard; I could feel it in my quads the next day!

Next up that Tuesday was six 200 meter fast runs, once again, trying to get each one a little faster. My fifth one slowed down a bit but I did recover in the end. I must say, though, having a 200 meter track to run it on is a little less than enjoyable. All those curves! (45.38, 44.57, 43.47, 42.00, 44.00, 42.06)

Thursday was a slower, enjoyable 5-mile run. It snowed out so it was back to the indoor track for me… but after all those speed drills, just having a breather was good.

On Saturday after some warm-ups and running exercises, we ran 200m, then 400m, then 600m, then 800m. The idea was to do them at a faster pace but to also maintain that pace through all four of them. Mine slipped a tiny bit for the third and fourth, but not too drastically so. (0:50, 1:41, 2:38, 3:33.) For the 800m we were supposed to try and speed up for the second half and I did accomplish that, so that was good. It’s been a very different running experience, but I’m actually looking forward to more torture drills ahead!