Today, I ran a TERRIBLE workout. I haven't had this bad of a workout in a long, long time, so I guess I was due. I have the day off of work, so I set out to do 3 miles @ tempo on a hilly road loop followed by 400, 800, 1200, 800, 400 on the track at around 5 minute pace.
1. I got up too late: With temperatures in the high 70s to low 80s during the workout, I think my 9:15 wakeup and 10:00 start to the workout was way too late, especially when I haven't done a workout in temperatures over 60 or 65 degrees in over six months.
2. Tempo runs are not beneficial for my training: I don't think I'll ever do a formal "tempo run" ever again. I get caught up in the pace, I always start too fast, and I always feel crappy whether or not I'm having a good workout. The way I do my long runs is the way to do it--ease into the pace rather than trying to run 5:40s right off the bat. Especially in the morning, my body can't just go from 7:30 pace to 5:40 pace comfortably. A better way to approach this would have been to do a continuous 6 miles with two miles easy, the next mile cutting down, and the next three at tempo.
3. I designed an all-around bad workout: Trying to get out on the track and run longer intervals is not a great idea after having done a tempo run. My legs were a bit zapped from the tempo (and from the heat, I'm sure), and they were stuck in tempo mode. When I got out on the track for my intervals, I couldn't go 5:20 pace to save my life, much less 5:00 pace. The tempo run had taken all of my zip and left me heavy and slow. If I were ever to do a workout like this again (which is unlikely), I would probably get on the track first and finish with the tempo run.
Based on my Garmin, I hit 17:36 for the 3 miles, and according to my map on Google Pedometer it was around 17:06. Garmin is usually long and Google is usually short, so my guess is that the actual time was somewhere in between. I ended up skipping the 1200 because what I was doing was so ineffective and hit 81, 2:43, 2:44, 79. I went ALL OUT on the last 200 of the last 400 and only hit 38. In fact, all of the intervals felt very difficult and strained. Today was not my day.
The good news: I think I understand what went wrong and am not too worried about today. I'm going to be doing my first true speed workout on Friday night and will be ready to rock it then.
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Yo broski. Sorry to read about your bad workout. I've had a couple of those since coming back from injury and its def not fun. Some things that have helped me not get down about it:
ReplyDelete1. I don't worry about the times. It is easy to get down about a workout (or to push too hard) if you're not hitting the times you want. It might be helpful to leave the watch off, especially on days when you're feeling sluggish.
2. More specifically about changing paces: I've found that mixing some faster strides into the warmup can get you ready to run fast intervals right off the bat. Its like you get out the discomfort of having to run fast in smaller increments rather than letting it wear you down during the actual workout.
3. We all have down days (or even down weeks). A couple of weeks ago Anthony was feeling bad and running kinda slow. Last week he was feeling awesome and totally killed me in the saturday long run (my new nike shirt did not make me run any faster -- lame). The trick is not to let it feel like a roller coaster ride. You just have to trust the training (even if you designed it) and believe that it will get you ready in the end.
Also, theres something to what you're saying about finishing track workouts with a tempo-type effort. Coach Joe has started giving us 30-35 minute "25% effort" cooldown runs. That equates to something like 4.5-5.5 miles of running while extremely tired. My best guess is that he does it so that you get used to running efficiently even after you're completely zapped from speed work. Or he could just hate me and want to watch me suffer.
l8r sk8r.