Running goals

Last week's Running Room workout was not what I had expected. We were suppose to start our second round of 1,000 meter intervals on 60 seconds rest. The workout would be 4x1,000 meters with 60 second rest between each interval. We have been getting some much rain in Ottawa recently that our 1,000 meter loop in the arboretum has become water logged.

On paper, we would be doing a simpler workout 1 minute hard, 1 minute easy, 2 minutes hard, 1 minute easy and 1 minute hard. We would do six of these sets. Over the course of 45 minutes we ran just over five miles at close to 85% of my maximum heart rate. I was suffering when I got home on Wednesday night. As we were running back to the store the coach mentioned why the change of plan. We would be starting our training next week to peak for fall marathons and half-marathons. I wanted to blog that my fall goal is to race the Army Run half-marathon run in the September, and either the Baltimore half-marathon or Philadelphia half-marathon later in the fall. So, next week it is back to intervals but with a long rest period (90 seconds) which is fine with me as I won't be grasping for air between the intervals.

Long run and El

Tonight, I did my weekly long run which was challenging for two reasons, the heat and the wind. For most of the 16km/10miles I was facing a strong headwind that sapped most of my energy. When I had the wind behind me my legs felt like dead batteries. The wind on the way back was so strong that the sand and road grit started to sandpaper my ankles. When I was back at the university it was good to check off along long run.

Last Wednesday, I did a 12km/7m fartlek run with the folks I train with at the Running Room and it ended with a bit of a jolt. The final mile of the looped course is uphill and I could hear footstep approaching and then backing off. Out of the corner of my eye appears "El" whose mantra is "El loves hills." At this moment, I said a strong expletive and with a surge of adrenaline pulled away. The dose of adrenaline was stronger than needed as I was able to hold her off for half a mile. At the finish line, we had a good chuckle as she thought I was an easy target and I had overestimated the strength of her long legs. In four weeks time, we will do the fartlek workout again but we'll have three weeks of intense kilometer intervals before then.