I had hoped that for my first post I would have a great workout to share. Intervals were on the schedule. I did what I needed to do but it was just one of those days where you get through it. I use Run Coach as my template and I am working towards a 10 mile race in June. Based on the results of my previous races, Run Coach generates an individual plan for you. I am on my second week. I like that they generate a plan with the paces you need to achieve. So far, everything has been challenging but not so much that I can't do it.
Today was supposed to be 8 x 400m intervals at 9:26 min/mile (with a .5 mile warm up and .5 mile cool down). I wanted to run outside at a track by my house but the winds are 20mph and I thought the treadmill would be a better option. Right off the bat I noticed my heart rate during the warm up was high so I figured it would be a struggle to do all the intervals. And it was. I lost count unfortunately and ended up doing 9 intervals instead of 8. I decided to err on the side of doing too much rather than too little.
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| Garmin output...see 9 intervals instead of 8. |
As you can see by my pace, I am not a speed demon. But I am working hard to be one. I started my warm up at 5.4mph and bumped it down to 5.3mph. My cool down was at 5mph which felt ok. I was supposed to jog in between the intervals but I walked instead. I don't think that I would have made 8 of them if I jogged.
I know I can set my Garmin up to capture the intervals, but I haven't figured out how to do that yet. I just turn it on and run, so my splits are always by mile. They don't really tell me too much in this type of workout. But here is the summary. Intervals burn some calories!
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| 5 miles, 482 calories and tired legs. |
I like doing intervals on the treadmill because I don't have to look at my watch. I took the easy way out today. Maybe the weather will cooperate next week. I have only been running on a treadmill except for 2 races this winter. I want to run outside but I don't want to run in the dark and I workout in the morning. I am slowly transitioning to the outdoors as the weather warms up and the sun rises earlier. I ran on the track once to calibrate my Garmin and I did one "long" run outdoor (long was 7 miles for me). Other than that I have been slogging away on the treadmill. I realized I needed to become faster because I can really only be on a treadmill for about an hour and then I lose focus.
Tomorrow is a cross training day, which might be a rest day for me.
