Last post I discussed psychology of and my rationale for easy running. I'm changing gears (no pun intended) in this one and talking about speed. Or at least running with increased effort and physical force and tired legs.
I feel like I have done a good job giving most of the miles a purpose and staying consistent with my strength and core work. So much so my stride doesn't feel like mine anymore-but it is! The first phase of "restoring the car" is coming to an end now I'm beginning the process of rebuilding the transmission, i.e. finding more 'gears' to play with. Cruise intervals, hills, and tempo runs have been a staple for the past couple months. Building just 10% in volume each session, just like you do with weekly mileage.
There has been this one set on my hand-written training plan since the beginning of March, that I did last Wednesday; the purpose was a real "crossover" into more harder-core stuff (for me presently, anyway)...
Speed 400s ; 10-12 of them/ 90 seconds recovery between each. What this means to the laypersons that you go as hard as you can without dying out (within reason-I do use VDot and McMillan to determine how fast to target), rest for 1 minute and a half, then repeat. These were fun. For the first 2 or 3. Then they got hard. And I got focused.
While executing this voluntary, relatively painful session I seemed to reconnect with some of the mindset that used to appear during track workouts: dialing in on a degree of pain tolerance (almost enjoying the effort), focusing on the line pulling me around from corner to corner, and talking myself through not slowing in the last 50 meters ("see, it just feels different, it's not harmful, and you can breathe..."). I settled for 11 repeats, knowing that the proper stimulus was administered for now and that it would get easier with practice. My split times averaged where they were 'predicted', but there was some variance in effort level. If I was a few seconds slower than the last, I just cued myself to recover a little better and repeat the exercise. One at a time-that's it. No judgement, no frustration, just putting the effort there and being grateful to be able to do it.
I was jokingly reminded later that day how I used to treat an interval that was off as a negative judgement of my ability. This past week, I was just glad to have one more done! All it really means is that I am working hard, and hard work will vary as the session goes on. Besides, whatever was on the watch is just numbers (a line that works mid-tempo run, too). I know I got what I wanted out of that workout.
As the title eludes, I think the best way for me to approach this "long-term success oriented" sport is to speed up slowly; applying the art and science of running throw in personal experience. Be patient, do my best, throw out the results until they're in stone and re-connect with the fun of running fast. Admit it, it is fun every now and again to forget about the arbitrary details and just perform how I want to.
Back to the "car" analogy, why accelerate hard all the time when when it's better for the vehicle to reach top speed gradually? Just my own Sunday afternoon thoughts.
Enjoy improvement. Enjoy the process.
Stay the course.
1 comment:
Great job, my bestie! You are doing amazing! Keep up the good work! <3
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