DFW Running Club!!

kmstuart

Lol up at 5:15 am erm i went to bed that time saturday night/sunday morning, 4:30am the next night and 2am last night. Slowly getting it back to a sensible time and getting up at 9 will have helped me as i should be knackered when i get home from work around midnight

chickadee

Last night something dawned on me about my track sessions. At the track I use, the two inside lanes are roped off at the moment. (The inside lane is looking very worn, so I guess they are trying to extend its life and only using lanes 1 & 2 for proper race meets). Of course, this means that my intervals are actually longer than 4x400m as I always run in lane 3. Having checked on t'internet, I find that lane 3 is actually 415m. So last night's intervals at a 8:12min average for 4 laps equates to 7:57min miles.

Hey coach, my intervals start with a 7!!

I feel so much better now.

Think I'll carry on timing them over 4 laps so I have a fair comparator but I'll know what that means 'in miles' if you know what I mean.

Becky - I think your plan to slow down in the longer sessions is a good one. As you've said, it will highlight the difference to your body of 'easy' and 'speed' and it should hopefully mean you are less likely to get injured as the long runs become longer. If you get bored of plodding (although I'm sure you don't plod like me ) you could intersperse them with some informal fartlek sessions.

Idio - go on, have a run. You know you want to...

becky_rtw

Thanks Chick - its just the fast and slow speeds arent supposed to contract like they have done - basically my fast now is as fast as its always been pretty much - its not improving quickly enough which is worrying this close to FLM...anyway just mapped out some lovely hill intervals for Thursday so I'll give that a go...

Good news about your times though

KM that looks about right - there should be about 2 minutes between fast and slow pace I think - but I could be making it up

chickadee

becky_rtw wrote: »

basically my fast now is as fast as its always been pretty much - its not improving quickly enough which is worrying this close to FLM...

Don't forget that your speed improvements will plateau at some point. At first, you will see fast improvements in your pace due to your general fitness improving and your body getting used to running. As you progress, every second of increase in pace will be harder and harder to come by.

You mustn't be disheartened though, Your hill sessions sound great - they will certainly improve your strength, and see how slowing your pace down on longer runs helps your interval times. It isn't an exact science, so you must see what works best for you. It sounds like you are doing great to me though. I think you are being quite hard on yourself. To have improved so much in 6 or 7 months is amazing!

RichOneday_2

becky_rtw wrote: »

Morning,

Argh not a good session - one 7:51 and one 7:28 then had to stop (pulse 160 on stopping eeek)...I'm finding the intervals really hard - I keep butting up against the 7:30 time and my lungs just give out (there's plenty in the legs) - its annoying becuase I can run for 6 or more miles at nearly 8 min/miling and my speeds seem to have squashed into this one minute where fast and slow speed arent very far apart but the effort to break that is massive.

So the plan of action is to stop timing the shorter runs at all and run as slowly as possible, run more slowly on the long runs (i.e. stop trying for a pb every time) and then hopefully give my body the space to push more on the speedwork sessions - I'm also going to formalise my hill runs into hill intervals which should hopefully accelerate progress too...

Does that sound sensible coach??

Oh yes there's plenty in NY I need to see (Becky swoons slighty)

It sounds like a decent plan that, yes!;)

I take it you mean Central Park, The Statue of Liberty and such like?;)

RichOneday_2

chickadee wrote: »

Last night something dawned on me about my track sessions. At the track I use, the two inside lanes are roped off at the moment. (The inside lane is looking very worn, so I guess they are trying to extend its life and only using lanes 1 & 2 for proper race meets). Of course, this means that my intervals are actually longer than 4x400m as I always run in lane 3. Having checked on t'internet, I find that lane 3 is actually 415m. So last night's intervals at a 8:12min average for 4 laps equates to 7:57min miles.

Hey coach, my intervals start with a 7!!

I feel so much better now.

How about that!! Theoretically, they should be 8:00 and you do 7:57, not bad at all!

It only needs a few seconds improvement to push you under the 50 min 10K on a flat course.:D

becky_rtw

RichOneday wrote: »

It sounds like a decent plan that, yes!;)

I take it you mean Central Park, The Statue of Liberty and such like?;)

Seen all of that...:p, there's something there that never gets tired no matter how many times I see it :D:D (of course I mean Macy's!)

Glad you approve of the plan!

Ukevas

I can track a route to work which is 5 miles long.

but starts at like 755ft and ends at 194ft

but deffo dont want to to run home from there yet..:rotfl:

would i get any real benefit from running it, just a case of opening your stride and floating down if you ask me!!

Idiophreak

Ukevas wrote: »

I can track a route to work which is 5 miles long.

but starts at like 755ft and ends at 194ft

but deffo dont want to to run home from there yet..:rotfl:

would i get any real benefit from running it, just a case of opening your stride and floating down if you ask me!!

There's a mile and a half on one of my routes where I lose several hundred feet - it's the hardest mile of the course, running downhill(especially steep hills) really isn't as easy as it ought to be after a while...It's higher impact, it's harder to judge your pace (you wanna get your breath back, but you also wanna make time) and you can get very confused with the length of your stride...

If I had to chose, I'd take running up hills over running down them any day.

Ukevas

Thanks for the advice... will no doubt give it a shot in a good few weeks time mind..:beer: