April 6, 2012

Project Need for Speed: Progressing Nicely

Last weekend, I won a 3 day vacation at the Diva Dash 5k! And  boy, was it interesting! It absolutely POURED down rain. I had lead female out of the bag; so no pressure there. BUT.... a problem arose when I almost lost my drawers! See, in the "theme" of the race, I had chosen to wear the new pink Brooks PR Skort. It was a tad loose when I tried it on, but I like my shorts a little loose. So I didn't think much of it. Um, I got wet, and it got heavy. VERY HEAVY. Into the first mile I was already tugging at it (to pull it up), muttering under my breath, "Oh sheesh, crack kills." By Mile 2, I was actually HOLDING the back of it up. It wouldn't last more than 4 strides before dropping well below my comfort zone (read: butt crack). During the final mile, I actually just let it go, and KNEW my crack was showing, but I was completely alone in the race, and no volunteers were near. As I approached the final half mile, I purposefully gave myself the biggest wedgie I was capable of, in hopes that it would lodge itself in place. Nope, didn't work. I went back to holding it b/c the road was now lined with volunteers and spectators. A "W" is a "W", though, and this one had some very cute prizes. Along with my vacation, I got a tiara, trophy, AND pink boa!!!!!


 Now back to Project Need for Speed. Last week, I did 6 x 800 in a place we call the Larry Mile, named after an older guy in our running group. He used the bike path by the bay and marked 2 miles worth of 400s. It's my favorite place to do anything longer than a 400. (I hate long stuff on the track.) I expected my times to be pretty snailish, considering I had only done one or two speed workouts so far this season. Well, I pretty much KILLED them. By that, I mean that they were faster than what I projected my times to be, not that the times themselves were actually *that* fast. It was just nice to be ahead of where I *thought* I would be. The 800s looked like this: 2:55, 2:51, 2:52, 2:53, 2:50, 2:53.

This week I've had a GREAT running week. Tuesday, I had planned to my track workout, but had to postpone to Wednesday morning. This was pretty hard core, but I got up at 3:30 and ran to the high school track where I coach. It's not as nice as the track we usually use, but it would do just fine. I don't have keys to the lights, but there's a sensor light out there that I triggered on and it stayed on the whole time. I did 10 x 400. My goal was only to hit 1:30, which is know is a tad slow, but I'm still breaking into these track workouts and didn't want to kill myself. I was worried when I hit the first one in 1:33!?! I think I just wasn't warmed up enough. After that I hit them in a nice range of 1:27 down to 1:24. Being it was so very early, and I was alone, I was pleased with that effort.

Last night (Thursday), I hit the track for a ladder workout. With my previous hard effort being less than my typical 48 hour minimum, I worried that my paces would suffer. Here's how it went:

4 x 200s: All in the 38-40 range (I really stink at these, hello SNAIL.)
2 x 400s: 1:22 & 1:21 (WHAAATTT????) When i saw this, i screamed my time across the track to TP (who was doing a workout, too), I then told him that I think I had overextended myself and would pay badly for that in the next set.
2 x 800s: 2:55 & 2:53
2 x 400s: 1:22 for both
4 x 200s: 38-40 again

Once again, I was pleased, not because of the actual times, but because it shows PROGRESS! I'm also keeping the mileage about 75 per week. I feel that after doing 2 marathons in 7 weeks, and having trained all summer and fall, this season I need a bit of a break from all the miles. This morning Courtney and I went on an easy trail run. We will race a 2 miler tomorrow morning. We'll see how it goes!

Run Happy, friends!

9 comments:

  1. Way to grab the trophy while holding up the skirt :) The boa is cute!

    Nice speed work! It's hard to put in that quality while maintaining such high miles. My hat's off to you.

    Hope you have a wonderful Easter, R.

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  2. What an awesome prize! Totally worth a near-mooning ;)

    Great job at the speed work. You are kicking butt these days! :)

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  3. Anonymous4/06/2012

    Looks like a fun race except for the skort.

    You look so cute in the picture.

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  4. Hilarious, you pulling up your skort the whole way and STILL you win the thing. And that photo is wonderful, very magazine-like. Plus you got a vacation out of it? Super cool.

    And I'm thrilled to see the speedwork and progress. Most especially, that you're excited by it. This is a rare occurrence for the Mayberry runner :) so that's super cool. Sounds like a great plan too, lowering the miles a tad (which are still a wonderful amount of miles but will let you get those speed sessions that much sharper). Good stuff!!

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  5. Funny on the skort :)

    My coach is having me do a TON of Vo2 work for speed. Sounds like we are in the same place. Ugh, not fun, but it will make us faster in the end :)

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  6. Crack kills. So does speed. Keep your boas on tight ladies, cuz here's comes a lady on a mission!

    And yes, you look adorable as usual in the pictures:)

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  7. Anonymous4/09/2012

    Lmao So glad you were able to hold
    That skirt up ;) What a cool ace to win! Congrats!

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  8. Awesome speed...progress is such a great payment for all this hard work. :) And you look beautiful in your pink boa!! ;)

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  9. I so wish we lived closer so I could run with you!

    I did 5x800's just over a week ago in 2:55, 2:56, 2:56, 2:56 and 2:54. I would love to have someone faster to chase after! :) I get so sick of running by myself.

    Thanks for your sweet comments on my blog! I'm proud to call you my Brooks Sister too! :) And thanks for the good thoughts for Boston. Think COOL thoughts too while you are at it. Fast and cool. :) Hugs!

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