Tag Archives: ms

440 interval workout

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Today I did one of the more difficult workouts that I ever do, the dreaded 440 interval workout! As part of my efforts to add more quality runs alternating with recovery runs, I headed to the track this morning. I have been somewhat lame this week and took the last two days off, so a tough run was in the stars for me. As I headed down the street for the track, I remembered I had to send a next day air letter out today so I headed back, grabbed the envelope and sped off toward s the UPS store. This added some steps to my run, but essentially it was equivalent to my normal route to the track, only backwards.

Right from the start my HR was pretty high, but so was my pace. I had a good wind at my back so that was helping. It really wasn’t the sort of gradual warm up that I had intended to begin with. But the temp was cool and I figured if I got the HR up before I got to the track that would be ok, basically like doing another set of intervals, just not as structured. I was a little concerned with being to tired to do a full set of six 440s, but I was willing to be flexible.

The track was empty except for a couple of walkers and runners. I did some additional warm-up and then picked up my pace for the first 440. I didn’t go all out like I do on the straights and curves, after all I had to do a full lap for my 440, but I got it going pretty well. Turned out I spent most of my time right around 7 minute miles, sometimes less, more often closer to 7:30, but a good pace none the less. My HR on the intervals got up around 180 or so at first, then down to 150 or so on my 220 recovery. That was basically my pattern, full lap of 85-95%+ and then a half lap of recovery with the goal of bring my HR down as much as possible.

The max heart rate that I have been working with is 184. I got this number from a formula (205-(age/2)) that is supposedly reasonably accurate for most people with the caveat that I might discover changes in that over time. The highest I have ever seen my HR has been 183. Even though I felt I wasn’t really going all out when I saw it, I know I couldn’t keep that up for long. When I saw it the first time during the Shamrock Run it sort of freaked me out a bit, especially since I was feeling sick then. So, I have always wondered if 183 was my actual max. Today I saw 186 twice on the intervals, so I am going to have to say “NO” to 183. Even at 186 I still felt I could give more and that is what the max is all about. Still makes me a little concerned to be working so hard at such a hard level. The ghost of my  father who had heart trouble follows me even though he was over weight and definitely not a runner. But genes are genes. I had taken a half an aspirin beforehand, so that always makes me feel more confident that I am not going to die! Also, I hear in teh news that I can now eat a small amount of dark chocolate once a day as medicine for my heart and stroke prevention. Sounds good to me!

Eight miles of recovery

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Today I faced the gray skies and headed out for a run. Even though I had a day off on Monday and My Sunday long run wasn’t that long, I decided to stay on schedule and do a recovery run. My avg HR was a beat above my 70% ceiling and I noticed that I was often over on the run and really had to focus on reigning in my pace to slow down enough to bring my HR down. I could have gone ahead and done some sort of quality run this morning but I have band practice tonight and I wanted to be somewhat alert. I have gone to practice after doing hard runs in the past and it was a mistake! I poop out really early and don’t focus as much as I should. So I’ll save the hard stuff for tomorrow. I think I will head to the track for either straights and curves or 400 intervals. Probably the latter as I just did S&Cs last week, though I can never do too many of those.

We msers are really supposed to be good at either doing the fish oil or for those of us who are vegetarian flax seed oil. The omega-3 fatty acids are supposed to do wonders for everybody, but the msers apparently especially benefit from it. As a veg my option is flax seed oil which apparently isn’t as effective as the fish oil, but close (I think it is just propaganda from the fishing industry!) I have been bad about the flax seed oil, mostly cause I don’t like the taste. There are capsules you can get, but it is often hard (and expensive) to find vegetarian capsules that don’t have gelatin. Why a meat eater would be so accepting of eating processed hoof I don’t know, but I pass for sure. I used to put a table spoon of crushed flax seeds on my cereal, but I got tired of doing that so I bought several bottles of the oil which was really inexpensive (5 for the price of 2 from www.puritan.com) But I went off of that for several months as well. Recently I have renewed my vigor and have been forcing myself to take a slug of it every day. At first I experienced a horrible aftertaste from the oil, yuck. Also, I found myself burping the taste for several hours afterwords, yuck again. But after a week or so that seems to have died back for whatever reason, maybe my system has gotten used to it. I actually feel somewhat more healthy when I am taking it. I don’t know if that is psychological or not, but still I feel more energized and just healthier. Hmm. I have to say it is worth the bad taste. I did find that having a mint to eat right after taking it is a good solution to the initial aftertaste, water also helps.

Tempo run and enjoyable trail run to finish the week

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Friday I set out to add another quality run onto my week. Since I had already done some interval work at the track I decided to do a tempo run. I did sort sort of a longish warm up so I could get to a flat area in my route. So after a mile and a half of  relatively easy pace I cranked it up. My target Heart Rate was 85% of my max or around 163 and I wanted to do that for at least 3 miles. Once I hit the second mile I was cruising along pretty well and even averaged 7:20 for the third mile. The HR crept past 163 and fluctuated between my target and 171 or so. I didn’t want to slow down any so I kept it in that range for the next four miles or so. I adjusted my route so that I wouldn’t hit any big hills and kept to flat areas. My plan was to start my tempo run just after I dropped down into East Moreland. This would give me a half mile or so on a gentle slope downhill before I hit the mile long greenway. After a couple of miles I was really feeling it but kept pressing on focusing my head on small distances to complete. I rounded the mailbox along the Reed greenway and headed back. As I was cranking along I kept thinking about getting to the end of the greenway, so that became my mini goal. Once I hit the end of that stretch I refocussed my mini goal to be the four blocks back to the gentle hills I ran at the start. When I turned onto that block, I again refocussed, this time on the entrance of the park. And I made it! It was tough, but it was a good feeling to make the whole distance at the high HR.

Sunday’s run was a very different one. My running partner and I went out to 1000 acres park and ran trails with her dog. Right off the bat I stumbled and slid through a big puddle of mud landing on the same area of my hip I fell on the other day. At least this time I didn’t have my water bottle to make the fall more painful. But back up on the feet and off we went. It was really beautiful out there and we all had a good time especially the dog. After 2.5 mile on the fire road we were on we found ourselves on the bank of the Columbia. We turned back and continued our run through the muddy trails giving my RP’s new shoes a proper christening! We are going to have to come out here again.

Track work

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After a recovery run on Tuesday (and a day off on Monday) I went to the track to force  myself to do some speed work. I think that is what has been missing from my running these last several weeks, actually I know it. My speed really slowed down after the time off I took going up to Seattle and then the week following being sick. It has been somewhat of a struggle getting back into things. The running itself hasn’t been too bad, but my pace has been really slow and basically feels like I have reverted to where I was a couple months ago before I started including quality runs into my workout. Everything has felt plodding.

Yesterday’s speed workout went ok. After six laps of straights and curves I decided to head back. I was tired and the track was crowded. I kept having to dodge soccer balls, apparently you need like 50 of them to have a practice and they have to be kicked all over the place. The sprints were at a good sold pace and I felt strong doing them. I think it was a good start back to going faster. Now I just need to keep it up. I think a tempo run is in my near future!

Today I am going to do a short recovery run. Hopefully I will be doing it with my running partner, she has been sick and still working with her new dog who will also probably be joining us this morning. No text yet saying she can’t make it, and we are supposed to leave in ten minutes.

Update: I ended up doing the run on my own this morning which wasn’t all bad as I did the miles I wanted to do. I also really focused on doing a recovery run. My goal was to keep my heart rate under my recovery ceiling of 70% or 143 bpm for the entire run. There were a few times it got up to 146, but I did pretty well even on hills. I was surprised to notice that I was able to keep up a decent pace and even keep the HR below 140. Towards the end of the run the final two miles were harder to keep the HR low but I was able to without going agonizingly slow.

Long slow distance run

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Today I made up for my short run yesterday putting in 13.5 miles in 2:20. It was a harder run than I expected granted it was a long one. Our warm spring days of yesterday did not make it past the evening and the rains returned. The rain actually made for pretty nice running weather as the temperature was nice and cool. The clouds that came in yesterday evening kept a lot of the warm air around also, but it wasn’t muggy at all, at least that I noticed anyway. There was a bit of a breeze that felt a lot stronger whenever I would head into it. So I don’t think the weather was the issue. Maybe it was what I ate last night which wasn’t horrible, but also not that great as far as fueling up. I had a large veggie sandwich and a bag of chips that was almost 500 calories (that really surprised me as the bag was pretty small! The calories didn’t stop there either, I also added on a juice drink and a slice of carrot cake. So that was the culprit I think. Not enough energy stored up to make that run as well as I would have liked.

The other factor that I think got in the way mentally was the route I took was a new route. These new routes always seem to go by slower than the ones that I am overly familiar with. Also, I overestimated how long it would be. So at the point when I figured I had 8 or nine miles done, I really only had 6 or 7. So I decided to take my first extension. then I took my second mileage extension finding myself down on the water front which meant I would have to climb my way back, which wasn’t too big of a deal. Down on the banks of the Willamette I had a hard time finding a path and had to climb over some areas, but that just added to the fun (well I say fun, but my legs were pretty woozy at that point so I was climbing very slowly.) I took a third mileage extension into East Moreland and figured I would hit a half marathon distance pretty close to home. I hit the 13.1 mile mark at 2:16:16, not great at all, but tha’ts ok.  Good run but a tiring one.

Short volcano run

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I ran with a buddy of mine who was having some knee issues. Tabor was probably not the best idea for a run, but he went for it anyway. There were tons of people out, the 66 degree weather was too nice to stay in for a lot of folks. His knees acted up pretty quickly and we ended up cutting it short, still good to hang out. Tomorrow I will make up for it! And tonight I’ll do some stretching in preparation.

Building up fitness

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It is amazing to me how much fitness can be lost in a couple weeks. I feel like I am running so much slower now that I was two weeks ago. I am sure it will come back but I am not sure I’ll have it in time for the Race for the Roses half marathon on April 10th. Actually my limited amount of time before the race may be perfect for me to build up my fitness as I usually seem to peak early. Maybe if I force myself to not have “enough” (in my mind anyway) it will be perfect! That’s the theory I am going with, and besides what else can I do.

So my plan is continue to slowly work quality runs in to my workouts. I wanted to get one in this week but I didn’t. I’ll have to be satisfied with a long run on Sunday. Saturday I have plans for a short hill run at Tabor, but it will be more of a companion run than a quality workout. Still I’ll get a little hill work in. What I really want to focus on is the speed work.  So those will be in my near future.

Today I did a pretty relaxed base run of 7.5 miles. I took it easy for the most part and I could really feel how sluggish I was. My running partner is feeling sick so I doubt she will join me Sunday, so I think I might run up to the neighborhood of mystery and then around East Moreland to get 12-13 miles in. My weekly miles this week should be pretty significant. Next week they will need to be harder miles…

Recovery slow distance run

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This afternoon I put in eight miles at a pretty slow pace. It should have been an easier run both in terms of distance and Heart Rate, but I could use the miles. I have a month to build myself back up for the Race for the Roses which may actually be perfect time wise. I usually seem to peak way too early for any build-ups I do. So forcing myself to only have a month may be just right. We’ll see. My plan is to get some miles in this week, at least 30 but only do one quality workout. The the following week I’ll get back to the two quality workouts plus the weekly LSD run. I am pretty sure I’ll get a 10 miler in this weekend, probably up Lief Erickson trail again (such a nice run). Tomorrow morning a 6 mile recovery run with my running partner and then the larger challenge – go grocery shopping!

Shamrock Run 2010

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I road the bus down 45 minutes before the 15K race expecting problems exchanging Joao’s chip for mine, but not it actually went really smoothly. I tried to see if any L or XL shirts showed up which was a no. But after hearing how small they were I decided to try an XXL, it was definitely big! I dragged it over my inside short sleeve shirt and I tied my long sleeve shirt around my waste. It was still chilly but I knew it wouldn’t be for long.

Time for the races, the 5K was first and had so many entrants that the very last stranglers to cross the start line had to move out of the way for the winner crossing the finish line with a 15:40 time. Man that’s fast. There were a number of guys crossing right behind him too. Phew!

The walkers were next and headed out in the opposite direction. Next up and pretty close to on time it was the 15K when I headed down Naito towards the start. They sent us out in waves which worked pretty well. We were all separated out by our pace, so the start went really smoothly and as quick as I ever had in a big race I was at my pace and we were on our way.

I warmed up with a 9:28 pace for my first mile which was probably too fast (as usual), my second mile was a slightly faster 9:26. The hills started at the star of mile three and my third mile was a still pretty consistent yet slightly slower 9:29. My HR started rising during the second mile and really cranked up for mile 3 through 5 as we climbed for three and a half miles or so. Miles 4 and 5 were a bit slower, but again still consistent as I dropped to high 9:4os. The hills were brutal but I was determined to keep pace and not let up. There were a couple of times  I thought about walking for a bit as my lungs were heavy but I persevered. My hill ego is still pretty high from teh work I have done this winter (pay off time!)

Mile six finally gave us some downhill and my pace crept up to 9:22. My HR was still pretty high averaging between 169 and 167 for miles 6-9. My pace for miles 7 through nine crept up form 9:12 to 9:02. The final bit .44 miles by the watch and I picked up the pace to make my 90 minute goal and did coming in at 88:30. My HR averaged 177 and nit 183 fr the second time in the race (also did once in the hills in mile 4 (supprised me when I saw it as I felt pretty good though totally pushing it)).

I gobbled several sharkies and sport beans I brought with me. I also took a gel at mile 7 which I almost decided against doing, but I thought what the heck. I drank maybe 75% of my water.

I dropped my mp3 player at one point, but fortunately there weren’t a ton of people behind me so no one stepped on it. I was worried about losing the $20 bill I had in my water bottle carrier, but I managed to keep it the whole race and then spent it on a happy Street Roots paper vender.

Overall I liked the race. It is always fun to run with so many people, the 21,000 runners made it the largest race I have ever done. I wish I had a better fitting shirt, but I’ll live. I am pretty happy that I was able to get past the health issue and still do the race. I never felt like  I was over-doing it. I had decided I wouldn’t worry about quitting if I had to. I bet I was breathing pretty heavily during the race as my lungs were a bit congested and I did my share of coughing (though not that bad). Right now  I feel tired but pretty good!

Morning of the Shamrock Run

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Despite the race’s best efforts to stop me and my own as well, I am awake, fully hydrated and ready to run. Overall I am am feeling about 80% health wise, but I am going to give it a shot. I hope I can get my actual bib number and chip timer. But if not I’ll run as Joao. The temperature is a little chilly and it is totally dark out with the DST. My sleep came really easily last night, I probably got the best sleep I have ever gotten before a race. Perhaps because I am not really going for a goal on the run (to me more of a “run” than a “race”) and since it is my first ever 15K, I am guaranteed a personal best!

I’ll let you know later how it goes.