Speed Training

Goood morning! Ok it’s not that good, it’s Monday and I wish I were still in bed, but that’s life, right?

I had a decent weekend, with 2 days of running with an old friend from high school who’s helping me work on my speed so that I can improve my 5k time.

Saturday we met up at our high school track (talk about reliving the past!) and did intervals for about 30 minutes.  She tells me this will help me get my legs more used to running at a faster speed.

Our workout went like this:

2 laps, easy run to warm up (about 11 min mile).

Walk half lap, then do the following:

Sprint for 1 full lap: the goal is to complete the lap in (or under) 2:10 (this would equal an 8:40 per mile pace).  Most of our laps were 1:57.

Walk for ½ lap to recover.  About 10 yards or so before hitting the half lap mark, jog at “grandma pace” (super slow) to get your body ready to sprint again.  When you hit the half lap mark, sprint for 1 full lap again.

Repeat this sequence for as many times as you’d like; since this was my first go, we did 6 sprint intervals.  Next weekend, we’ll do 8, and then eventually the goal is to do 10, with the last 2 intervals SUPER fast (we’re talking 1:45 or less per lap).

I have honestly never done a track workout before, so this was pretty new to me, and I thought I would hate it since I don’t do well when I can see how far I have to go still.  But really, with all the recovery time built in, the time went by pretty fast, and before I knew it, we had finished our 6^th lap and were done for the day!

I have no experience with speed training or anything of the sort, since I’m fairly new to running, but my friend assures me this will help shave minutes off my 5k time (she recently dropped from a 30 minute 5k time to 28, and now she’s training to drop under 25!) T25 has done wonders for my running since there are so many speed and agility drills that work your calf muscles, but hopefully these track workouts will help make even more of a dent in my time.  I still haven’t “officially” broken the 30 minute mark on a 5k yet (coming in faster than 30 minutes), so I’m hoping that these workouts will help me blow that goal out of the water.

Yesterday we did an easy run, which should be at least 30 minutes, but no more than 40 minutes, at a pace where you can talk in broken sentences.  We met up at a local trail that loops around a reservoir for this, and I found myself running faster than I thought I could for an easy pace.

 

Later in the day yesterday, I went for a quick hike with my husband since he had a very rare afternoon off; it was nice to walk through the foliage, but man was it cold!

My friend runs 6 days a week; she does arms on 2 of her easy run days, but other than that, she ONLY runs for exercise.  I’m on my last week of T25 this week, so I’m thinking about focusing on running for the remainder of the month before starting my next program, but I don’t think I’ll care for running only…I need variety in my life, so I’ll probably still throw in some Turbo Fire or T25 workouts here and there.

How was your weekend? Did you try anything new with your workouts?