Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Training recap




On Tuesday I did my first run of the week and it was a very nice 7 mile run. I decided to do a little bit of a tempo run for the last 3 miles and it is getting easier and easier to switch gears. I really need to practice running a little slower at the start so that I can pick it up in the middle part of the race. In the past I have been guilty of going out too fast and then not having enough “juice” towards the middle. For some reason I always seem to pick it up for the last 2/3 of a race so it is the middle part that I need to focus on.

Today, I did a 4 mile run at a nice steady pace. I have come to accept these recovery runs for being a very important part of my training. I used to “have” to run at least 8-10 miles per day or I felt like I hadn’t done too much. Now I am appreciating these small runs because my intensity levels have increased dramatically. At the end of the run today I did some core work and some weight training.

Tomorrow I will be doing speed work at the track near Pickering High School. The training calls for 5X 800 metre repeats and I will attempt to run this as close to race pace as possible. For me that translates into running each 800 Metre distance in 4 minutes or less. In between each set I will be walking about 200 Metres to catch my breath.

A few weeks ago I was able to do 4 sets in less than the 4 minutes required, so I will have to see how the addition of 1 extra set affects my performance.

Yesterday at the gym I decided to check my body fat and weight as we have recently purchased a new fancy digital scale/body fat analyzer. Much to my surprise my weight was 162 pounds and my body fat was 9%! I was completely caught off guard by those numbers and felt very good about where I am in my training. I knew that I was making some improvements but I feel that now I am right on track to getting to 150 by the end of September when my race arrives!

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