Winging it

edinrunna

Tuesday

2 mile warm up with 4 strides, 12 x 200 with 200 recovery, 2.5 mile cool down

Decided to cut back on the volume on this session as I got a bit spooked with that niggle last week and don't want to over do it. Thankful I did as I was glad to hit 12, wasn't really feeling this at all. Walked half the recovery for the last few reps. Splits all over the place down to GPS, traffic on the paths etc but ranged from 37 to 42 seconds. Happy to get it done and looking forward to the tempo effort on Friday which is supposed to be 3-4 miles per the book.

edinrunna

Wednesday

5 easy @ 8.16

Can't remember a whole lot about this one!

Thursday

6 easy @ 8.20 with 4 strides

It rained for exactly 50 minutes and 34 seconds yesterday afternoon, I know this because it started to rain when I pressed start and stopped when I pressed stop.

Friday

2 mile warm up with 4 strides, 30 minute "predator run", 10 minutes easy, 4 x 200 with 200 recovery, 2 mile cool down

Once again my watch was controlling the weather, hit start for the warm up and it started to bucket down. Felt good about the prospect of this run though. I've seen the "predadtor run" pop up a few different places, really just a progressive tempo with the aim of the last couple of minutes heading towards 5k pace. I used my usual route so the end would be uphill, so in my mind an even pace would equal a progressive effort. I changed the watch so all I could see was time as I wanted to go by feel. Between the wind, rain, puddles and drags knowing the pace probably would have been a hinderance anyway.

I started a bit too fast and sped up a bit too soon, but still had plenty to push on for the last couple of minutes. The pace didn't increase much but as it was uphill into the wind the effort definitely did. I was hands on knees at the end but if push came to shove I think I could have repeated it after a short rest so in my mind it was a big success. As I started the 10 minutes easy the rain stopped, the clouds parted and the sun was shining, in a sadistic way I loved this! I almost forgot to do the 200s and after Tuesday wasn't looking forward to them but 4 is grand to be honest.

I covered 4.54 miles in the 30 minutes, mile splits were 6.42, 6.34, 6.43, 6.31 and 6.27 pace for the .54. The 200s all over the place as usual, 35, 41, 37, 37. Very happy with the days work all in all, I think I've found my favourite session! Over 10 miles in total, have been forgetting to keep track of mileage so I'll reconcile it at the weekend.

OOnegative

Nice job on the “predator” run, can’t say I’ve ever heard of it but definitely be giving it a go now that I have.

edinrunna

This is where it comes from I believe :


Scott Simmons, coach of the American Distance Project in Colorado Springs, Colorado comments in the article, and calls them PREDATOR RUNS. “ ‘[Progression running is] how a predator will increase tempo to catch prey, especially as they get close.’ " His recommendation is to start 60 seconds slower than your current 10K pace, run each consecutive mile 10-20 seconds faster, and finish at (or faster) than the pace you hope to run your upcoming race.

Next time I do it I'll start a bit slower and hopefully feel like a cheetah sprinting after a gazelle for the last couple of minutes!

Comic Book Guy

Have you worn the Floatride 3 yet?

I had the 2 version last year after an alert about a big price drop in the bargains and codes thread on here.
Really liked them and they were very similar to my current go to general training runner the Saucony Iso Guide 2. My current pair don't have much more miles left in them and both the saucony and reebok are no longer available!

What kind of effort are you doing the 200 metre intervals at? Are they a certain % of max effort? Think I have 300 metre intervals next week so just curious!

Thanks

edinrunna

Yep wearing the Floatrides for most runs at the moment, I'm finding them pretty good but just a slight bit clumsy on slow easy runs. I'm hopeful that will go away as I get used to them. I watched a few reviews on Youtube and most seem to be saying they are pretty similar to the Floatride 2.

The 200s are supposed to be at Daniels R pace which is pretty much mile/1500 pace. I'm probably doing them a bit faster than neccesary in that regard! I wouldn't be far off sprinting the last rep most of the time! The recoveries are fairly generous though.

I have 400s in my plan next week, not really sure how many reps to go for. They are supposed to be at the same pace so I don't think I'll do crazy volume but I'll see on the day how I'm feeling.