Weekly Running Log (How fast can I run?)

Hello Runners.

I'm off work this week (yay!)  I have a house full of relatives still staying with us (boo...sort of).  So, again this week finding the right opportunity to get out of the house for a run became the challenge.  I was successful (for the most part) staying close to my normal running schedule.


I'm going to a "street mile" race on Memorial Day (my first).  Since I've never run a race shorter than 5k before, I'm not really sure how fast I can run a mile, or my top speed for that matter.  Whenever I've run 400m repeats, etc., I've always focused on "5k pace" or something like that - never trying to see just how fast I can run.  So, as I approach 50 years old, I'm going to see just what I can go (hopefully without injury).

Side note:  Turns out I'm more disciplined getting my running done under "challenging", not normal routine, circumstances, than I am with an ancillary strength / mobility / stretching stuff.   And - I definitely dropped my normal diet and ate crap all week - feeling a little bloated, should get back to normal next week.

Wednesday's Workout

Wednesday's workout included 5 x 1' "fully throttle" with 1' rest.  Since I was on the roads, and I have no idea what "mile pace" feels like, I decided to just "run really fast" for 1' and take a 1' to recover.  If nothing else, I'm "teaching" myself how to run fast.  Well - this ensured in some hilarity, as I did the first two reps way too fast, so by the 4th rep my "jog" recovery, was turned into "side of the road bent over wheezing".  I took longer as needed so I could finish all 5 reps at a decent speed.  Learning....

Saturday At The Track
I don't do track workouts very often.  I don't race on the track, and in the past I tended to get minor injuries after a hard track workout.  But, trying to figure out my mile potential, I think, requires a track workout.

I found a workout from Jay Johnson (Simple Marathon Training) for a "1600 runner" that sounded pretty good so I thought I'd give it a try.  The workout is two sets of  "5 x (300m @ mile pace / 200m jog recovery), with 5' rest between each set".  (For the first set, the last rep can be a little faster.  for the 2nd set, the last 2 reps can be a little faster).  McMillan says that based on a 18:30 5k time, I should be able to run a mile in 5:20.  That means each 300m repeat should be completed in 1:00 (which makes for easy calculations on the fly: 20 seconds per 100m).

I did a warm up of a little over 3 miles and a couple of strides to get ready.  Put on my NB RC5000's, hit my watch and was off.  The first set went well.   I was able to hit my 1:00 target for each of the 5 reps (5:20 pace) making sure I covered the 200 rest in 1:00 as well, but I wasn't able to significantly speed up the last rep.

The 2nd set started out okay, but after 3 reps I realized I could not hold the pace for the last 2 reps, and I called it quits.  I might have been able to push really hard to get the last 2 reps close to the target 1:00, but it would have been close to race effort and I didn't want to go there with this workout.

Good news - I learned what mile pace feels like, and I "think" I can hold it for a full mile next week with some taper and race "juice"
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Weekly Mileage: 42

Long Run:  N/A

Weight: ?
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  Daily Work:

• Monday:  8 miles easy around house (constant rolling hills).  Rolling and stretching. 
• Tuesday: 5.3 miles AFTER a round of golf, coupla beers, and a big greasy lunch.  Nice.
• Wednesday:  7.8 miles with 5 x 1' @ mile (or faster) pace.
• Thursday: 5 miles easy.  Pretty flat. 
• Friday:  8 miles on rolling hills.   Core work.   Rolling stretching.    
• Saturday:  Track workout: 2 sets of 5 x 300m in 1' / 200m in 1' recovery.  Couldn't finish the 2nd set.   8 miles total incl with and cd.  Strength work.   Rolling stretching.    
• Sunday:  2 mi walk.   Hip mobility

Onward.....