I wrote last week that I’d mix up my speed interval routine this week in order to keep getting better.
This led to… interesting decisions today.
The workout:
- 0.5 mi warmup
- Four sets of 0.5 mi fast and 0.25 mi recovery
- 0.5 mi cool-down
That means I doubled the distance of the speed intervals to a half-mile and kept the recovery distance the same as usual at a quarter-mile. HOLY HELL was this difficult!
You can see that my first 0.25 mi “recovery” period was wayyy too fast at 9:05 pace, so I about died during the next speedy half-mile. I had to straight-up walk for the first little bit of each remaining recovery period, and then jog slowly to regain some energy for each speedy half mile.
This workout pretty much felt impossible, but I never stopped during the speed intervals; I just slowed down a bit when I felt like I had to stop, then tried to speed up again as I neared the end of the interval.
My lungs and legs were wrecked when I finished. I think that’s the sign of a goooood workout!
I loved wearing the SmartWool training headband that Aaron got me for Christmas.
My ears will never be cold again! This thing is so soft and incredibly warm for how thin it is. It also doesn’t budge a bit. Now I don’t even need to wear a hat if it’s not raining! Ohhhh, the freedom!
I also did a quick post-run lifting session: Three sets of 10 reps of bicep curls, hammer curls, and military press with 15 lb. weights.
Rest day tomorrow. 6 miles on Saturday. And on Sunday, we trek up to Vancouver, B.C., for a little getaway to ring in 2013!
Dev on Running 