The Running Geek

Tired Legs and a Training Twist

Took this weekend off as we had all kinds of social events going on. Going for a run just wasn’t in the cards. This past Friday I did my 6 x 1K workout at 5K pace, but I did it with a twist this time.

I usually do my interval workouts at the track, but the track closest to my house has been closed for some sort of maintenance for more then a week.

Last week I drove a bit further to another track in town to do my 5 x 2K session, however on Friday I decided to mix it up a bit.

I see the value in the 2K and 1K interval sessions, but I’ve always had a question about doing it on the track. After all I don’t race on the track, I race on roads that vary in incline and decline etc. There’s a small pond in the downtown area about a 7-10 minute jog from my house. It’s a loop, although I wasn’t exactly sure how long it was. I figured I could use my Garmin 305 Forerunner to track my distance through that loop, knowing that it wouldn’t be perfect, but it would be a more “true to race” type landscape.

The session turned out great. I’m not going to place complete faith in the numbers since it was a combo of up and down hill for each interval, and no two intervals covered the exact same ground since the full loop was more then 1K. I would jog/walk the 1 minute rest between intervals and then just start from where ever the 1 minute rest ended and do the next interval. I have to say I enjoyed it as much, actually more, then running on the track. I’m going to try my 2K intervals there next time as well.

Here’s the Splits from the 5 x 1K session

1 – 3:49
2 – 3:32
3 – 3:36
4 – 3:33
5 – 3:34
6 – 3:40

Like I mentioned I can’t rely 100% on the distance but I’m pretty confident it is + or – only a slight amount if not right on.

Today I had a 60 minute easy run slotted but my right shin wasn’t feeling well and over all I felt tired. I turned it into a 40 or so minute easy run that as about 8.5KM.

I tend to beat myself up over these sort of changes, but I recognized this morning that it’s better for me to have fresh legs and be in good condition for this coming Sunday’s race then to force more then I should do this week.

I’m hoping for a good finish this weekend. I’ve been told by one other runner that this is a very fast course, and it also measures a bit shorter then 10K. I’ll find out I guess when I race it. I may go and run the loop that we have to do twice on Thursday of this week for my 40 min easy. That will give me an idea of what I’m dealing with and also a plan on how to attack the start.

In past races I’ve recognized I’ve one out FAR too fast. This time I’m going to make an effort to go out at my own pace and not allow the other runners at the start to affect me.

A safe start for me I feel is between 3:47 and 3:52 per KM pace since my goal pace for the race is 3:47 / KM which would lead me to a 37:50 and a new PB.

One other thought that popped into my mind this morning is I may consider doing a 1/2 marathon at the end of this season. I’ve toyed with the idea a lot, and I’d really like to know how my fitness level can perform over that distance. I had two more 10 K’s slotted for this season, but the final one I could do a 1/2 marathon at rather then a 10K. I’ll see how my performance is at this coming race and the following one in September and then make that choice.