fast: 2 x 2 miles LTP
Saturday, February 18th
I wasn’t ready to attempt another partially completed (or totally failed) workout on the 16th (if you follow my blog you’ll know I haven’t been able to finish a track workout in two weeks for unknown reasons) however I wasn’t ready to give-up speed altogether. Time to change things up: new training plan and a break from my Wednesday night group. This brings me to a Saturday morning in February and a very empty Greenlake.
Now Greenlake is usually not empty on Saturday mornings but it was real early for a Saturday and really windy (even for Seattle standards). The sun had just come up (not that you could tell through the gray haze) and I was getting ready to start one of two 2 mile repeats.
The new plan called for LTP (lactic threshold pace) workout my only problem was I wasn’t (and still am not) sure what that is right now. You are supposed to base it on your current half marathon pace or 15k race pace. Since I haven’t raced since August I was just going to have to guess.
I settled on 6:45 pace and got to work. I checked my watch at the quarter-mile and half-mile splits and all was well, well at least pace wise. I can’t remember where it hit me, maybe the mile mark or just past it, but I started to panic and started to feel like I was hyperventilating.
To be honest I was ready to stop just like I’d done at the track the past two weeks. But my legs were fine it was the breathing that was tripping me up. As I debated my next move I told myself if you want to run fast you have to be comfortable being uncomfortable (something I’ve hear a million times).
I started to repeat it over and over again and before I knew it I’d reached the second mile maker. 6:44 and 6:24 for an average o 6:35. I was happy to see the second mile was so fast but knew I need to slow it down. Clearly I was a little excited trying to make it through the first rep.
4 minutes of easy jogging and back at it. The second rep started off pretty good, but a half mile into it the wind really picked up; another stormy day in the Pacific Northwest. I went through the mile in 6:42 and pushed on, but the harder I pushed the windier it got.
The last half mile was off the track on and on the sidewalk on my way back to the U. I was trying to find some relief from the wind and turned a corner. My pace was about 6:50 but once I turned the corner I got it down to a 6:45 in about 2 tenths of a mile.
I wished the final mile had felt better but was happy to make it through on pace, you see this workout was a bit of a test for me. I’m pretty certain my iron stores are low and I was testing my strength on this run. Not only did I finish a workout (something I hadn’t done in a few weeks) but it felt good. I decided I’d take it a week at a time but this was a good sign.
As I ran my cool down my running group sped by me off on their tempo run, none of them recognized me. I don’t blame them after all they were in the middle of a workout. It made me realize that I’m going to miss them but I really need a break. A 14 week break to be exact and a little experiment with my training plan and I’m very happy to report that I am excited for this new journey.
run pretty run fast
… and much, much more to come…
