Monday, April 01, 2013

10K on indoor track

Jim told me to do 10K this morning. Gulp. I wondered if that was too much too soon, but I figured 1) Jim is usually right about things, and 2) I could do it on the indoor track where I could stop any time if needed. Plus it was windy and threatening rain (though it was warm, at 55F (12.7C).

I met Kelly at the field house at the U and she did the bike, and I waved down to her from the track. It was warm inside...quite warm. I definitely worked up a sweat in there today. I grabbed a medicine ball and used it to roll out my hip every 10 laps for the duration of the workout. I used the track calculator to figure out that 10K is almost exactly 24 laps in lane 1 and 22 laps in lane 3. So I alternated 10 laps in lane 1 (average pace 1:19.3/lap, which is close to 6:15/km), 10 laps in lane 3 (average pace 1:24.3/lap), 10 laps in lane 1 (average pace 1:19.9/lap), 10 laps in lane 3 (average pace 1:24.5/lap), 4 laps in lane 1 (average pace 1:18.9/lap), and finally 2 laps in lane 3 (average pace 1:23.4/lap). Total time for 10K was a respectable 1:02:41 with average heart rate 143.

My hip got tight with each set but the medicine ball treatment and some leg swings released the tension and each time I started over it felt pretty good. I also did some one-legged squats to activate my glutes, which helped as well. I thought A LOT about my form today, and by the end I think I had some good things happening. I felt I was using my left glutes a lot more, and bringing my right leg through lower to avoid bent knee, all while keeping my lower abs engaged and making sure that my knees came through straight and that I didn't have excessive hip drop. I don't know how successful I was, but it felt like I was working on things a lot and it seemed like I made some progress.

Garmin data here.

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