With a week and a half to go til the Brooklyn Half, last nite’s tempo workout could not have been better timed. Perfect way for me to practice half-marathon pace, no? 🙂 But it seemed that this workout was also a lesson in patience…
Well first off was 2 x 600 with a little rest inbetween…to sorta gauge the pace/effort we should be running for the bulk of the workout. Although I swear I was holding back, I ran the first 600 about 10 seconds faster than I was supposed to 😛 So I really tried to pull it back for the 2nd…hell, I was still able to chat! OK, still a few seconds fast, but much better.
So the bulk of the workout was 1100 meter loops continuous…2 minimum with an optional 3rd. Target per loop was 5:30, and the first 2 were dead on…I did have someone else to pace with, which was really good. When I finished the 2nd loop, one of the coaches asked if I wanted to continue on for a 3rd and I was like “bring it on!” And I was able to pick the pace up ever so slightly (hey dontcha always want to run negative splits in a workout? 🙂 ) and finish strong…of course, it may have helped being lapped by some of the speedsters near the end ;-)…maybe I was trying to stick with them? (nahhh…)
The damage from last nite:
Again, it felt pretty comfortable…was even chatting during the 2nd loop and wasn’t breathing heavy. So maybe sub-1:45 in Brooklyn is possible? And if anything, this almost felt too slow for a tempo effort…or maybe this was just the coaches trying to save me from myself 🙂
Yeah, Brooklyn. I think I’m ready. Did my last long run this past Saturday…15 miles-7 hilly in Central Park, 8 flat along the West Side Highway. Kinda sorta mimicking the half course 🙂 Felt pretty good, though fighting the wind tired me out. And I apologize to everyone running behind me on the west side path, as I didn’t check the wind forecast and wore some very wind-unfriendly shorts (same shorts and effect shown here at Grete’s Half 2008). So I guess I won’t be wearing those shorts on race day 😛 The outfit has not been decided yet, but I decided I will be wearing my Adidas Tempos…which I ran in to do the tempo run last nite (hence the post title 🙂 )
Though I did a little shoe shopping at Urban Athletics after the workout…as I finally found my gift certificate for free shoes for pacing the 3-bridges run last September (I didn’t redeem it right away due to the marathon and the injury, so I misplaced it for awhile…doh!) and I decided I wanted to buy a sweet pair of racing shoes for short distances. So I tried on a couple and ran a little in them (even ran with a different shoe on each foot to compare and contrast!) and wound up with the Saucony Fastwitch 3…don’t they look nice? (Lam, you will be happy with my decision 😉 ) And they feel nice too…I liked them from the minute I put them on-while I think the other pair I tried on, I was trying to convince myself to like because they looked cool (the Adidas AdiZero Adios.)
So my cool new shoes will get a debut performance on the track early next week…gonna be doing a mile time trial!! Excited, but nervous. On one hand, it’s gonna be hella cool running on the track at Icahn Stadium. And I was assured that this would be a good tune-up for the half…hell if I run well, it will be a nice confidence booster heading into next Saturday. But I’ve only run the mile once in my life…about 6 years ago. And didn’t really feel the love for it. But I guess I do have to remember that I wasn’t training smart back in 2004 and I am now…time and maturity has got to make a world of difference. Or will it? Guess I’ll find out in a week…
training hard, hardly training... 