Back at it

No use worrying about Sunday's time trial. After a nice day off yesterday (well, I did swim), it was time for another Rep workout today.

After my usual 2.5 mile warmup on the Creek Path, I showed up at the BHS track. This place is becoming a regular hangout for me. I think I've doubled my overall lifetime number of track workouts in the last three weeks, or nearly so.

This was a repeat of my rep workout two weeks ago. I did 3x (2x200 + 1x400).

I did adjust my R-pace, based on a new VDOT of 48-49. That means 200s should be run at 44 seconds and 400s at 89-90 seconds. Here are my splits:

	1	2	3
200m	44.4	44.1	43.4
200m	44.4	43.5	39.8
400m	1:28.1	1:29.2	1:28.0

I guess I was pretty close to my target paces for each rep, although overall I did come in just a little fast on several. Actually the last 200 was a lot faster because I got carried away chasing down another guy at the track. Ha!

At just a couple seconds slower than my earlier rep pace, this still didn't feel that easy. On my last 400, I was slow at the 300m mark and had to really hoof it in to the finish. I'm feeling pretty good, though.

It always feels good after a workout.

Rep Workout #2

Today's run included my second Repetition workout. This one called for 6x400 at 86 seconds each. I knew this would be a little tougher than last week, because last week had a mix of both 200s and 400s, and the 400s felt significantly harder than the shorter reps!

After warming up for 2.5 miles on the Creek Path, I again found myself at the Boulder High School track. It's so convenient that I can do a track workout on my lunch break, without even hopping on my bike to get there.

The first rep felt ragged. I was pushing hard, but didn't feel smooth at all. I was surprised that my watch said 88.7 seconds, nearly two seconds off pace! And it wasn't for a lack of trying, either.

I jogged another 400 for recovery and then walked around a little, allowing my heart rate to settle back down, before starting the next rep after about 4 minutes total recovery. I ended up using this same recovery period after each rep. As I understand it, the point of repetition workouts is not to stress your VO2 max or your lactate threshold -- it's to improve leg speed and running economy at speed. Thus, full recoveries are necessary in order to insure that each rep can be completed in the same amount of time.

The second rep felt a little bit smoother, and I came in at 86.3 seconds. From there, the rest of my reps just kept feeling better and more in control. I posted the last four in 85.9, 85.7, 85.5, and 86.0 seconds. Actually, the last rep felt so good that I foolishly ran the first 100 in 18 seconds (it should have been 21.5). I consciously slowed it down, though, and finished the 400 right on pace. I jogged another 400 and turned for home. Total mileage for today: 7 miles.

I think next time, it would be worthwhile to pick up the pace a bit toward the end of my warmup. Going from my 8:10 warmup pace straight to my repetition pace of 5:46 minutes per mile is a bit harsh, I guess. Well, I'm learning!

Repetitions

Today I completed my first repetition workout at the track. Daniels describes repetition (R, or rep) training as repeated sessions of fast running that last 2 minutes or less. Recovery times are relatively long, to allow each rep to be run just as fast as the initial one. The idea behind rep workouts is to develop good mechanics and efficiency (i.e., economy) at faster speeds, and to develop anaerobic (not aerobic) metabolism.

I pulled today's workout straight from Chapter 13 of Daniels' Running Formula.

R-1: Sets of 2x200 + 1x400 at R-pace, up to 5% of week's mileage.

First I determined how many of these reps to do. Since I'm currently running 30 miles per week, 5% of this week's mileage is 1.5 miles, about 2400 meters. Since each "set" as described above is 800m, I just needed to do three sets of 2x200 plus 1x400.

Next, I needed to figure out my R-pace. Normally this is a simple task. Just look up a recent race time in Daniels' VDOT Table, then use the corresponding R-pace from the Training Intensities Table.

However, I don't have a recent race time. My last 10k race was at the Bolder Boulder at the end of May last year, where I ran a disappointing 43:46. That corresponds to a VDOT of 47. However, I was recovering from my first marathon at the time, and had stomach issues as well. In 2005 I ran a PR of 40:39, which corresponds to a VDOT of 51.

In the end, I decided to use a VDOT of 50-51 to determine today's Repetition Pace. That meant 200s should be run at 42-43 seconds, and 400s at 86-87 seconds. I had no idea whether this would be easy, difficult, or impossible. That should give you an idea of how little time I've spent at the track!

After 2.5 miles of warmup running, I lined up at the Boulder High School track and started my first rep way too fast. I ran the first 100 in 17 seconds (it should have been 21). I slowed down and hit 200 on 40 seconds. After that, my pacing improved, and I hit all the rest of my reps either right on pace, or a second or two fast.

Frankly, I was relieved to complete the workout successfully, considering I was just guessing about my appropriate VDOT value. The reps felt fast, but pretty controlled. Only one of them felt hard -- the last 400, where I finished into a stiff headwind and came in at 87 seconds.

Now I'm waiting to see how my legs feel tomorrow!