Today’s Workout:
Total Mileage: 5.02 miles
Total Time: 00:52:18
Average Pace: Not sure (the hill sprints messed up my pacing and my watch went a little crazy)
Breakdown:
1.1 mile slow run
8 x 10 second hill sprints
3.5 mile slow run
After yesterday’s post I think I was able to finally breathe a huge sigh of relief. Now that I have put it out there, I have given in to the fact that this is happening and it is up to me to make it happen.
I started off my training with some speed work yesterday, and today I continued it with hill sprints.
For those of you who don’t know hill sprints consist of quick (usually about 10 seconds) sprints up a steep hill. They aren’t long but you are supposed to give about 90-95% effort. You are pretty much going to failure on each of these.
I started by jogging to the hill near my house. I ran a total of about 1.1 miles before making it to the hill. A tip for the future, next time I will try to do more of a warm up slow run before hand maybe 2 miles at least. My legs were not quite into it yet and 3.5 mile was a long way to run after doing 8 hill sprints.
I completed 8 x 10 second hill sprints and then jogged back down the hill after they were complete. These are TOUGH but effective!
Here is a great article by Brad Hudson who uses hill sprints for all of the athletes he trains:
http://running.competitor.com/2013/01/training/steep-hill-sprints_9050
When I finished the sprints I jogged and finished out a total of 5 miles. I am really working into the speed work because you don’t want to over do it at first. I am focusing on speed work for the first couple months (starting with 2 speed workouts a week) while still completing semi-long runs on the weekend.
I was a sweaty mess afterwards but I was happy to complete it.
In response to a few questions, no I have not decided yet which marathon I will be attempting to qualify for Boston in. I will decide eventually and as soon as I do I will let you know, the EARLIEST it would be would be is in the spring of 2014.
What is the biggest fitness goal you have ever set for yourself? I would love to hear about some other goals out there!