Today was a new type of workout, and I was excited to do it even though I figured it would be hard. Well, it was hard, but I did well and am quite happy with it. I felt really strong when I finished!
I was to do 12K with 2 sections of 12 minutes each fast, followed by 10 min recovery, and then the rest normal. Jim said I should shoot for about 6:05ish/km on the fast ones, 6:50ish for recovery, and then 6:30 for normal.
I started out downhill for a couple km to Liberty Park. I didn't go that hard (ave HR 142) but I got to 2 km in 12:15! That downhill is nice but it's pretty gradual; still, it obviously helps.
Then I started in on the first fast segment. I pressed lap every km on the fast segments, so this is laps 2-4 on my data. I did the first one in 5:49 (ummm, that was a little fast!) and thought maybe I should slow down, but remembered that it's hard to pick it back up so I just kept going and did the next km in 6:02, and continued 9 more seconds to finish the 12 minutes. I felt good about this except that I worried that I'd pushed too hard and wouldn't be able to stay strong until the end of the workout. Well, not much to be done about that, so I just continued on. I did the 10 min recovery (lap 5) at a pretty slow 7:05 pace; it was slower than Jim suggested, but it just felt right and so I went with it.
I decided to give myself 1K at 6:30 pace before going on to the next fast segment. I tried to get it right on the nose, but was a little fast (lap 6) doing it in 6:25. Then I just wanted to get the second fast segment over with, so I started on it and did pretty well, surprising myself a little! I did 1K in 6:00 (lap 7) and just shy of 1K (about 987m, so my Garmin says, lap 8) in 6:00 for my second 12 minutes fast. I had to work pretty hard for that speed; my HR was 169 ave for the 2nd 1K of the fast segment. Then another 10 min recovery, but I did 11 min by accident (bad math due to exertion!). I did the recovery at a 7:06 pace - almost the same as the 7:05 for the first one (lap 9).
Finally, the home stretch. I knew it would be hard to manage 6:30/k for the last 2k, as it was uphill (back the same way I started), but I figured I'd shoot for it anyway. Again, I surprised myself and did 6:27/k for the first one (lap 10) and 6:29/k for the second one (lap 11). I was very pleased with that effort! Yeah, the HR was an ave 161 for the last km, but I figure after that workout and with the hill, that's probably about right.
Total distance was actually 12.05 km (I wanted to have a 1K split for the last one, so went the extra 0.05) and total time was 1:17:04 for 6:23/km. However, it was a LOT more effort than merely doing 12K at a 6:23/km pace! Still, a very good workout.
Form notes: I tried to work hard on using my glutes, and I think I was successful for the most part. My hamstrings will still probably be a bit sore because it's not yet second nature to do it all the time, and when I get tired it reverts of course. But I feel like I must have used my glutes and calves more, because after the workout I actually biked uphill to work (!) and my rear end was really feeling it. And now, at lunch time, my calves are a bit stiff too. Unfortunately, at work this morning I sat in front of a microscope for several hours screening fish embryos, and so I'm sure I'll be more stiff because of that.
Garmin data here.
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