Something I've Been Needing To Do
Last January my running partner, Brian K., and I ran the Spectacle Spectacular in Angleton. After the race he visited with Carlo Deason and they discussed speedwork and getting faster for the 5K distance. Carlo told Brian that mile intervals were the answer. That 400 and 800 repeats were fine, but it was mile repeats that really made the difference for him. Brian absorbed that and not long after that began doing them - a fast one then a full slow one for recovery, times three.
Today I joined Brian for his Tuesday mile repeats in the next subdivision over. Well, not exactly a mile. It's just beyond .9 mile. At the pace we were running, if you add 30 seconds you'll approximate your mile time. Having done 400 repeats and my .4 mile oval repeats for years, along with some tough as nails training runs, I felt I was ready for anything. Was I wrong. These kicked my rear so bad that I was ready to quit during the first one, after the first one, after the second one, and again during the third one. The first one was especially embarrassing. Brian took off and I was sucking wind 100 feet into the damned thing. We really didn't warm up, other than a jog of about a tenth of a mile, and I paid for it. It seemed like Brian pulled farther away with every step and I was just trying not to get completely left. Eventually we rounded the last turn that indicated we were on the home stretch. I posted a 5:25 and Brian was at least 5 seconds ahead of me, probably more like 10. I had to walk for about 25 feet into the recovery run just to get my breath and I still wasn't sure I was going to do another one but onward we went. As we finished the recovery lap I began feeling a little better and started thinking I'd fire off another one and might be able to handle it a little better. I was right. Brian didn't pull away nearly so much this time and I posted a 5:10, just a few seconds behind Brian. We did our second recovery lap then went into our final rep. I thought I might be able to better the 5:10 with a good kick, but it turned out to be 5:10 again, about the same distance behind Brian as I was on the second lap (2 or 3 seconds).
If you've never done mile repeats (or something close to a mile) they're a whole new ballgame. I'm still wiped out from these, but that's good, right? They say that what doesn't kill you will make you stronger, but today I was worried I might not get to find out!
Total distance : about 5.6 miles.
Today I joined Brian for his Tuesday mile repeats in the next subdivision over. Well, not exactly a mile. It's just beyond .9 mile. At the pace we were running, if you add 30 seconds you'll approximate your mile time. Having done 400 repeats and my .4 mile oval repeats for years, along with some tough as nails training runs, I felt I was ready for anything. Was I wrong. These kicked my rear so bad that I was ready to quit during the first one, after the first one, after the second one, and again during the third one. The first one was especially embarrassing. Brian took off and I was sucking wind 100 feet into the damned thing. We really didn't warm up, other than a jog of about a tenth of a mile, and I paid for it. It seemed like Brian pulled farther away with every step and I was just trying not to get completely left. Eventually we rounded the last turn that indicated we were on the home stretch. I posted a 5:25 and Brian was at least 5 seconds ahead of me, probably more like 10. I had to walk for about 25 feet into the recovery run just to get my breath and I still wasn't sure I was going to do another one but onward we went. As we finished the recovery lap I began feeling a little better and started thinking I'd fire off another one and might be able to handle it a little better. I was right. Brian didn't pull away nearly so much this time and I posted a 5:10, just a few seconds behind Brian. We did our second recovery lap then went into our final rep. I thought I might be able to better the 5:10 with a good kick, but it turned out to be 5:10 again, about the same distance behind Brian as I was on the second lap (2 or 3 seconds).
If you've never done mile repeats (or something close to a mile) they're a whole new ballgame. I'm still wiped out from these, but that's good, right? They say that what doesn't kill you will make you stronger, but today I was worried I might not get to find out!
Total distance : about 5.6 miles.
posted by Lance Collins at 7:02 PM
2 Comments:
I love/hate mile repeats. They hurt, but they're such a great workout. Looks like you're running pretty hard these days--that's good to see...
Hope to catch up with you on Saturday.
Erin
I can feel my lungs burning just thinking about it. Good luck on Saturday.
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