Longing for the Track

1/25/11

5 miles speed work

Oh how I miss going to the track to do speed work!  Until the weather gets nicer and it begins to get lighter earlier, I’m resigned to do my speed work on the treadmill.  Boo.  Today’s plan called for a  ladder workout.  Ladder workouts are increasing intervals (400m, 800m, etc.) and decreasing intervals (1200m, 1000m, etc.).  Sometimes you go up the ladder and back down (for example:  400m, 600m, 800m, 1000m, 1200m, 1000m, 800m, you get the idea).  Today I got to go just down the ladder and for that I was very happy.

Scheduled workout:
Warm-up
1200m in 5:25
1000m in 4:28
800m in 3:33
600m in 2:38
400m in 1:44
Cool-down
*with 200m rest interval in between

This workout is hard to do on the treadmill.  On the track I would know “run a lap and a half in 2:38”.  For the treadmill I had to figure out that 600m roughly equals .37 miles and I should aim to run it at 7:00 pace.  So I had to keep an eye on my distance the whole time, meaning no towel to cover up my misery!  My attention to Gossip Girl was seriously interrupted too.

I’m hoping to get in a tempo run tomorrow, depending on the weather.  Yes, that will make for 2 hard days back-to-back but I have a reason.  I have a 20-miler on Saturday that I’m really excited about.  I want to take Thursday as a rest day and do some easy miles on Friday so my legs are well rested come Saturday.

Off to catch up on The Bachelor.  Can wait to hear more about Brad’s opening up and crazy Michelle’s antics.