Tuesday track time! I was to do 5x1K at 90-95% with 3 min recovery.
It was threatening rain at the track at 6:30 am when I arrived, but it never did much. The weather was actually not bad - about 60F, fairly windy, with the occasional drizzle but no real rain. The wind was somewhat annoying, but not too much to seriously affect my workout.
I warmed up with 1600m in 10:15, ave HR 144. I sped up at the end to get the legs going. Then I did a bunch of dynamic flexibility drills and stretched out my right calf really well.
The first 4 intervals were at about 95% effort, and the last one was all-out. I felt OK after the first two, but after the 3rd I knew I was hurting a bit, and after the 4th I really just wanted to hold on for the 5th. But I also really wanted to keep my times fast, so what the heck...I gave it my all for that last one.
Here are my times; about like last week, maybe slightly faster, but with higher HR too, so probably comparable. Times are followed by HR ave/max.
5:41, 160/169
5:43 161/170
5:46 160/170
5:49 160/171
5:45 163/171
I did pretty much exactly 3 min rest in between each.
What's interesting is that my times are not really that much faster for these than for the last few 1Ks on my kickdowns. I'm not sure why but I have a few hypotheses:
1) My GPS is off by a little (this is likely)
2) When working out on the track I slow too much on the curves (I have a feeling I do this but no way to know for sure)
3) Fast-twitch muscles are not up to speed after my long layoff; need more speed work on the short stuff (which is coming up in my schedule, never fear...).
OK, I'm no exercise physiologist so maybe I should stop there. My coach will probably have some more ideas.
Speaking of my coach, he got back to me about my racewalking video, and thought it was basically pretty good. He says that I sit back on my hips too much - i.e. posture not all the way there yet. I need to straighten a little more, tucking the butt under and thinking of pulling up the pubic bone a bit. He thinks this is a leftover bad habit from the days when I walked with that horrible forward lean. In any case, this is going to take a little time to correct; it is probably mostly bad habit but also has to do possibly with weak lower abs. I'll throw a few more lower ab exercises into my routine and that should help - can't hurt anyway.
Injury update: Left foot is 100%. Have not had nary a twinge from it. Yay!!!!!!! That is fabulous news after so many months. Right foot is doing better but is still bothering me a little. I stretched it after each 1K today, but now that I've been at work for a while it's a bit achy. Still, that's not a big deal, just something to be aware of. It's not getting worse, anyway. Will keep doing additional calf exercises at home and the gym and continue to use the stick, and hopefully it will improve with time.
2 comments:
I have been told I walk like the 1940's walkers....very military like in style...lol...oh well it works for me. You can tell the difference between an runner turned r/w compared to someone who just r/w. The runners are much more fluid and use their shoulders more. (like as if they are still running)
A suggestion (run it past your coach first though) how I found out where i was speeding up or slowing down - I gave my GPS/stopwatch to someone on the inside of the track and they took note of my times at each 100m mark...we did this over 1km. Then we repeated every 50m (they were running beside me to do this) What we found from this was I was speeding up each time I passed the 200m mark by about 5 secs but slowed on the back straights. So now I go out and do pace work. I have to hit the 100m mark at a time and continue that they whole way round. It too ages to get the hang of but now I can enter a race and know my pace and not need to rely on my GPS. :0)
So you are racing the 5km and 10km at the Sacramento Masters? I am thinking of doing the 5km and 20km.
Nyle - good suggestion on the straights & curves. Will do that...but I think my problem right now is most likely just lack of fast-twitch muscles from the long layoff I had.
Also - I am referring to Sacramento THIS year not next year. We have our nationals there this year, and there is a 5K and 10K, no 20K. I have no idea which races I will do next summer; have not even thought about it yet!!! I just know I am going!
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