Tuesday, November 24, 2015

3x1000 = 1x1170m, 2x878m (indoor track)

Yesterday: rest day! Ahhhh...but I was very busy with the usual: work, violin lessons, cooking dinner, getting shoes for Grace, continuing to unpack/organize new house, laundry, dishes. Still, it was nice to have a day off training.

Today: I was to do 3x1km at the track. I opted for the indoor track. It wasn't *that* cold outside this morning, but it was dark, and the indoor track is both light and warm. Not a tough choice :). 

I did a 5-lap warmup with strides on the last lap, and felt really good. After some dynamic stretching and bridges to activate my glutes, I got started on the workout. I decided that as 3000m is about 10 laps of the track that I'd do 4 laps, rest 2 min, 3 laps, rest 2 min, 3 laps; that way I'd still be doing about 3km of intervals. Close enough!

The workout went very well. My 1170m was 6:31.6 (adjusted 1km time 5:34.6), and my 878m were 4:50.9 and 4:48.8 (adjusted 1km times 5:31.4 and 5:29.0!). HA! Got under 5:30 :). OK, so it wasn't quite 1km, but I am sure I could've done it that fast. My speed is coming back. And my HR recovered into the upper 100s after each set - very nice. 

It's hard to stay motivated in the winter, so I'm glad things are going well with my training, and grateful for the indoor track. I have been feeling pretty guilty about not doing the last 5km of my workout on Sunday, and have been thinking a lot about how to make the long, cold days better...but there are not any easy answers. Dress warmly, maybe stop more often at the car for hot water, something? I know my water bottles froze solid on Saturday, and we had to stop at the one open restroom with running water (Winchester Park) to thaw them out and get more to drink. That's pretty demoralizing. Now I remember how hard winter training is and I am just going to have to figure out how to toughen up a bit and also how to make it easier on myself for the small things, like water. 

2 comments:

Harriet said...

Ah yes, good old winter training. I come in with dreams, and then struggle just to get through the &^%$!!! workout.

Tammy said...

Yeah...it's unexpectedly tough, perhaps because I'd forgotten what it's like to go long in the winter. Thanks for the sympathy Ollie.