Saturday, September 12, 2009
I set out today to do some 1200 m intervals. After last week’s extreme FAIL where I didn’t even manage to get through the first interval, I was determined to get something positive out of this week’s session. Technically, the plan called for 6×1200, but I was being more realistic by shooting for 4×1200. Here’s how it went:
1 km warmup
1200 m in 4:30
1200 m in 4:38
800 m in 3:04
400 m in 1:30
800 m in 3:06
400 m in 1:26
Finished at Easy pace to total 8 km.
So, I wussed out a little but instead of quitting I just broke the final 2 1200’s into more manageable 800’s and 400’s. I even ran them slightly faster for good measure! So, I spent a total of 3 km at roughly 6:00 min/mile pace. I’m going to be happy with that. I need something to hang my hat on and from which I can gradually improve.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Dear Diary,
Like last week, this week started out well, but soon turned sour. It was another stressful week at work and there were physical manifestations: tightness in my chest, light heartedness during runs, lack of sleep, etc. I ended up taking Friday off out of pure lack of enthusiasm. I tried to come back with a ten km Friday morning, but the shortness of breath held me to 6 km. I did have a pretty solid four km that afternoon so I still got 10 for the day. Not knowing how I was going to deal with the long run, I reluctantly opted for the treadmill Saturday morning. Aaron was nice enough to join me, despite having run on the treadmill all week (he did 20 on the mill Monday morning).
That run went pretty well. I varied my pace between 10 min/km and 8:30 min/km. Around 8km, I started to smell myself. I was wearing shoes I had worn during a rainy run on Tuesday and they smelled really, really bad. I pointed this out to Aaron.
“Oh, that’s you?” he said, “I thought it was that guy over there.” A few seconds later, he was laughing.
“Man, that’s pretty putrid, I might have to call this one at 12 km.”
He did indeed call it at 12 km. Once he had ceased running, he was able to use all his energy to rip on me.
“You know what you’ve got?” he asked. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know. “You’ve got the stanky leg. You ever heard that song?”
I had to confess that I hadn’t. Meanwhile, Aaron tried to recall the beat while stretching. Sadly, he was unable to pull it up on his handphone so he just had to work out the music and lyrics himself. He turned his back to me to stretch his quads.
“Yeah, you got the stanky leg!” he exclaimed, laughing just as a woman walked in front of him with her head phones on. She paused and removed her headphones.
“Excuse me?” She asked. Niiice. I couldn’t wait to see how this would play out.
“Oh, I was talking to him,” Aaron said pointing to me. Somehow, she was satisfied with that.
“So, what do you think they’re doing down there?” she asked, pointing to a group of people downstairs doing jumping jacks.
“Looks like some kind of exercise class, ” replied Aaron. I’m flabbergasted at this point. He tells her she’s got the “stanky leg” and now she’s trying to flirt with him? That’s bunk.
I polished my run off at 12.5 km (a new personal treadmill distance record) and stretched. For those who are curious, this is the stanky leg:
Monday (after work): Threshold intervals totalling 7 km
Monday PM(10PM): 3 km at 8:06 pace
Tuesday PM(10PM): 6km at 8:49 pace
Tuesday PM: 4km in the pouring rain at 7:53 pace
Wednesday AM/PM: 1200 and 800 m intervals at 9:20 pace ( Got chance for HLS)
Wednesday PM: 3 km at 8:31 pace
Friday AM: 6 km at 9:59 pace ( Got chance for HLS)
Friday PM: 4 km at 8:13 pace
Saturday: 13km at 9:36 pace
Total: 53km (somewhere there)
Hey, another 2 days off and I still got 53 km!
