Running Log 2011: Week #14

So last week was my first 3 workout week of the season, and surprise, this past week was my 2nd! It was a fun week, with yet another track workout in which I surprised myself.

Saturday Workout: 1500m Goal Pace Effort

The Saturday workout was a series of 300m repeats at 1500m goal pace.  I haven't run a 1500m race in forever, and I'm pretty sure my current goal pace isn't close to my personal best of 4:06, but I also don't know how fast or slow my current goal pace should be.  So during the warmup, the boys were awfully quiet, either because it was 8:30 in the morning on a Saturday or because like me, they were busy calculating their 300m times for their goal pace.

I mulled over it and decided that my debut 1500m race would be my goal pace for the time being, and I figured a 4:45 for 1500m would be a time I am satisfied with to debut with.  A 4:45 translates to 300m repeats of 56 seconds. And so that is what I planned on doing.

Well, that didn't exactly go to plan.  The boys I run with are all well under 4:30 for 1500m, and I let them drag me along for my 8 repeats.  Our first 300m repeat was a 53 second repeat and I felt great.  I proceeded to knock out 51s and 50s, topping out at 48s for my 7th repeat.

So it turns out I have more speed than I thought. I was tying up a bit in the last repeat, but I held strong and capped off the set with a 51s repeat.  I averaged 51s per repeat, a far cry from 56s, and if I were to use this workout as an indicator, I could possibly crank out a 4:30 as my opener, so I've now revised my goal to be sub 4:40, hopefully close to 4:35.

Other Workouts

Tuesday saw us join forces with the marathon training group at Runner's Choice to do some mile repeats.  They were fun and it was great to be surrounded by so many runners, all working towards the same goal.  Thursday was a 20min tempo effort after a 10 hill repeat segment. I split 5km in that workout at 18:20, merely 20 seconds off my personal best from last season. I am clearly fit and getting fast.

Recap

This week was my highest mileage week ever, yet again, and I topped the scales at 96km. The coming weeks sees me chop some mileage off the top and increase the quality of my miles as I prepare for a fast 5km race in London on Easter Weekend.