Posts Tagged ‘speedwork’

Next Stop: Olympic Glory!

This came out of nowhere but I just don’t see how I can pass it up: the first annual “Battle of the Ages” Pacific Association Summer All Comers Series. It’s a track and field meet for the hoi polloi – or maybe the equivalent of the old carnival sideshow where they get the rubes to try to go one round with the Midway Mangler. It’s also age-graded. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be equally graded for slowness.

I can’t believe it has free admission, since events include the turbo javelin and the pole vault. What kind of liability waiver is required before you let any schmo off the street enter the pole vault or throw an assegai? It has to be comedy gold.

I’m sure to embarrass myself no matter which event I enter, so I might as well go for the 3000 meters so I get the most spotlight time for my $5. If I’m very lucky, all the other old men will be watching the NBA draft in air-conditioned comfort while I’m all alone out there running laps in 85 degree heat. I’ll give you the race report tomorrow.

Speaking of 85 degree heat, I did my speedwork in just such temperature yesterday morning, but it went pretty well.

Intervals: 8 x 400 meters
Goal pace: sub 1:41
Lap 1: 1:39.53
Lap 2: 1:37.16
Lap 3: 1:36.14
Lap 4: 1:40.00
Lap 5: 1:39.60
Lap 6: 1:43.62  FAIL
Lap 7: 1:42.14  FAIL
Lap 8: 1:40.72
Average: 1:39.86
Total distance: 5 miles

Yasso I’m Out of Gasso

Yesterday I went for my second track workout, this time going 4 x 800 with 400 meter recoveries. And since I have only one running goal – a BQ – I can have only one goal for my 800 meter intervals: the corresponding Yasso 800 time.

I’m sure most of you are familiar with Yasso 800s, but for the uninitiated, the concept is that to reach a marathon goal expressed in hours and minutes, you should be able to run 800 meter intervals in that same time expressed in minutes and seconds. For example, if you want to run a 4:05 marathon, you should be able to consistently run 800 meters in 4 minutes, 5 seconds.

As with any predictor of marathon finishing times, Yasso 800s have severe limitations. But the goal is easily determined, easily remembered, and any other computation would be just as arbitrary.

To qualify for Boston, I need to go sub-3:36. So my aim is to work my way up to 10 x 800 at sub-3:36 pace. After my 8 x 400s last week, I knew I would fall short, but I still needed a benchmark. A one-mile warm-up and off I went.

Intervals: 4 x 800 meters
Goal pace: sub-3:36
Lap 1: 3:36.02  FAIL
Lap 2: 3:31.37
Lap 3: 3:37.87  FAIL
Lap 4: 3:47.29  FAIL
Average: 3:38.14
Total distance: 4 miles

Though the last one was worst, I’m proudest of it because I had absolutely nothing left before I started it. As I was completing my recovery lap, I was staring at that starting line with dread. As I puttered around the track, I was glad that people can’t read your mind while you’re running, because my brain was whimpering “waaaaaaahhh!” I was thrilled to come in under 4 minutes.

Anyway, I’ve got a long way to go, and this morning’s crummy six-miler in the heat didn’t build much confidence. But I have to say charging around those turns at the track makes me feel more like a real athlete than just trundling through the neighborhood. It was cool.

Red Fails Never Felt So Successful

Bright and early this morning I went for my first track workout in 27 years. As you might suspect, today was meant for getting my feet wet and establishing a benchmark.

With no real sense of what would be a good pace, I used the Viper model, setting out for a mile warmup, 6 x 400 intervals with 400 meter recoveries, and a mile cooldown. Everything went according to plan except that I still felt good after six intervals, so I did eight instead.

Viper shoots for a minimum of a 6:42 mile pace, but I didn’t want to screw with rounding, so I aimed for anything below 1:41. Anything above is a big red FAIL.

Intervals: 8 x 400 meters
Goal pace: sub 1:41
Lap 1: 1:40.28
Lap 2: 1:42.79  FAIL
Lap 3: 1:47.03  EPIC FAIL
Lap 4: 1:41.49  FAIL
Lap 5: 1:41.90  FAIL
Lap 6: 1:40.27
Lap 7: 1:41.69  FAIL
Lap 8: 1:38.46
Average: 1:41.74
Total distance: 6 miles

After the third interval I realized I was running my recovery laps way too fast. I slowed considerably in-between and the effect was magical. Even with five fails out of eight, it was an extremely positive workout.

I had a lot of fun. My only adjustment will be to move my track workout to Wednesdays, as I’m pretty sure doing intervals the day before my long run will make both suffer.

As I get used to this, I’ll progress first by shortening the recoveries, then by going to 800s. Right on track.

Speedwork Works Speedily

I realize I’m not the first to discover this, but speedwork actually makes you run faster.

Yes, yes, stop the presses.

Over the last few weeks my training group has had us running two-minute intervals, then 880s the next week, then one-mile intervals, then 880s again. I hate speedwork because it hurts and makes you feel lousy. But just like taking your foul-tasting medicine, eventually it will make you better. In fact, if your speedwork doesn’t get you to that lung-burning, feel-like-I’m-gonna-die point, you’re wasting your time. Be sensible, but get out of your comfort zone.

It doesn’t matter if you run 12-minute miles or 5-minute miles. It’s the relative increase that matters. Push till it feels really bad, then hold it until you can’t hold it anymore, then hold it for another 10 seconds. Then recover. Going on feel may work better for you than using arbitrary time or distance goals.

It’s like getting into that scalding hot (or icy cold) bath. Dip a toe in. Then a whole foot. Then slowly sink your butt into it. There, that wasn’t so bad.

You’ll see results. After 4 x 880s on Tuesday night I went out on Wednesday morning and ran 4 miles in 31 minutes, which was far faster than I had been running the same distance for weeks. I was thrilled, but I still hate speedwork.

Pour Some Sugar on Me

It could be psychosomatic, but I don’t think I need any more evidence.

Tuesday night I did speedwork with the Fleet Feet training group. We did 4 x 880s, with 90 seconds in between. My four splits were 3:43, 3:37, 3:30 and 3:54. Not awesome, but not bad.

Wednesday morning I did a 4-miler in 32:32.

Today I plodded through 6 miles in 55:04.

OK, I wasn’t expecting this morning’s run to be great, after two speed days, but it was terrible. There was one big difference. This morning I ate a bowl of Special K with 1% milk and fresh blueberries, plus black coffee.

Notice anything missing? Right! No sugar! I stink of ketones.

Over the past few months I’ve experimented with every kind of breakfast before my run, and I get the best results from the worst breakfasts. So enough is enough. I’ll eat healthy after running and on my off-days. Before a run, I have to satisfy my sugar jones.

How to Run Faster

Type that phrase into Google and you get 43,000 hits (plus 48 videos). But who wants to go through all those agonizing drills? Here are 10 surefire ways to improve your speed.

Switch to the metric system. You’re running 5k and 10k races. Why are you telling people your mile splits? “Dude, I ran 6:12s the whole way!”

Join the Keystone Kops.

Change your apparel. While pasting wings on your heels will only make you look faster, stitching together a pair of bacon shorts and running past a pack of stray dogs will increase your pace significantly.

Try the Marion Jones program. The downside to this approach is that it could take you from the Fastest Woman on Earth to the Fastest Woman in the federal prison in Fort Worth, Texas.

Attach JATO bottles.

Use the Six Million Dollar Method. If running in slow motion made Steve Austin super-fast, why not you?

Suffer a freak accident. Unintentionally inhale “heavy water vapors” or stand too close to chemical beakers struck by lightning.

Buy the fine products of the Acme Corporation. You can try the Super Speed Vitamins or the Hi-Speed Tonic with vitamins R, P and M.

Chase a celebrity runner. Running just behind Anna Kournikova will get you down to the 7:15 range while hanging with Lance Armstrong will improve you to 6:30 or better.

Run faster by, uh, running faster. That is to say, you increase speed the same way you increase distance. When you first got off the couch, you didn’t go out and do a steady six miles, did you? If you’re like me, you ran about 200 yards and stopped to put your lungs back into your chest. The basis of all speedwork is to run short—even tiny—distances at a faster pace than you can currently manage over longer distances.

Just as your body got used to running further, it will get used to running faster. With patience and determination, you’ll eventually marry the two together, hopefully on race day.

If all else fails, just claim you are a victim of time dilation.

I Run Through the Valley of the Shadow of Death

First published October 12, 2007

After a long deep sleep and a substantial breakfast I headed out for a morning run with exercise physiologist Mike Siemens. He’s an experienced triathlete and in 2006 he ran Boston, which is my ultimate goal. His plan is to observe my gait and give me an interval workout to improve the efficiency of my stride.

But as it turned out, I had a few problems with this plan: It was 9 a.m. In Tucson. In August.

The temperature was already 90 degrees F (I checked) and we set out on a trail that runs along the property. There’s a photo of it accompanying this column.

OK, I added the cattle skull.

Something I wasn’t immediately aware of was the elevation. Canyon Ranch sits about 3,000 feet above sea level. I live in Sacramento, California, which is – believe me – a hot weather town, but only 25 feet above sea level. So my two-mile “warmup” was more like the last 300 meters of a grueling 10K.

Mike was patient and took me through each of the drills in turn. We began with a few sets of walking lunges. We followed with some high knees, then some butt kicks, and finished off with some strides.

As you can see from the videos, these drills are not designed to make you look particularly cool, but should help put some more boost in my stride. Mike advised me to add these drills to my weekly speedwork, for which he also provided some suggestions.

Now that we knew my max heart rate was 185, he suggested an interval workout that would gradually increase sets of 2-minute runs at around 85 percent max. I would start with five repeats and work my way up to 12.

After 45 minutes I was melting, but I was still able to jog… slowly… back to the facility. Having had my body examined from all different angles, inside and out, it was time to have my head examined.