Speed work No 3

Made it to the speed work-out this week. Work is seriously interfering with my training. I'm just pleased I am able to bike to work.

The club usually work out on a school track but due to make-up soccer games have been going to a local park which has a 800m plus undulating loop, with a bitch of a hill at the end. We spilt into two groups. I usually drop to the slow group after lap 2/3 as I am at the back of the fast group and don't get as much recovery time. There are some serious runners in the group - one gal just broke the US 10k record for over 45s and came 2nd in a marine corps half marathon!!

lap 1: 3:45
lap 2: 3:58
lap 3: 3:48
lap 4: 3:53
lap 5: 4:05 (intentionally eased off as i was getting tired!)
lap 6: 3:55

I was very happy with these times as they were considerably faster then last time. Just need to get a more consistent pace. Now I'm waiting for the hot weather to slow me down!

Had fun time at the beach last weekend. Hiking and century bike ride this weekend. Fun!

Tuesday night speed work.

A minor hitch with the running club work out. We went to the park where we ran last week and no-one was there. We have since found out via their web site that they usually train at a school track, not the park. At least we know for next time!

But that didn't stop us doing our own work out at our usual track. So that we could run together, I did 300m splits and hubby did 400m splits. We did 8 and my times were:

Lap 1 1:15
Lap 2 1:15
Lap 3 1:12
Lap 4 1:11
Lap 5 1:14
Lap 6 1:12
Lap 7 1:10
Lap 8 1:13

I'm not sure if that's good but it was just over a 6 min mile pace; there is no way I could keep that up for a mile!! Hubby couldn't catch me though, even when I let him get within 5 yards before I started!!

Weekend antics

Took a day off on Friday and did the sites in DC including a couple of museums then down to Georgetown for some beers by the river. It was a beautiful 80f day.

Saturday I actually went on my first hash with Mount Vernon H3. It was fun to be hashing again and they are a friendly group. But it starts at 10am, which is a bit early for me to be drinking! One slight incident - I was checking trail when I tripped over a log and came down hard on my knee. I could hardly walk for a while then gradually I managed to start running again. Fortunately the trail was well marked as I was right at the back by this point. Afterwards it hurt like hell and was cut up and very swollen. No serious damage I hope.

On Sunday we went on to our new biking clubs annual picnic. Fortunately when I woke up my knee felt OK. Did a 43 mile ride in 2 hrs 40 mins, which is my longest ride for a while and at a pretty decent pace as well. The weather was great and the food was yummy.

This morning my knee was hurting again but I still biked to work. Hopefully I'll be OK for the speed work tomorrow night.

back in training

As I said below we have recently joined a running club. Since the Army 10-miler back in October I have not run any races. But I have still been running around the local area and on the track. The other week I ran a 15:35 2 mile on the track which is pretty good for me.

At my first visit to the running club we ran 6 x half mile laps around a park with a bit of a hill at the end and about a 100yd/1min rest in between. My splits:

lap 1 4:10
lap 2 4:12
lap 3 3:56
lap 4 3:54
lap 5 4:05
lap 6 3:56

I am reasonably happy with these times for my first attempt. My first goal is to get each split below 4 mins.