Lake Michigan at Sunrise

Lake Michigan at Sunrise

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Practice intervals - take one

Chicago Marathon 18 week training plans started this week..exciting! As posted before, I'm doing the Hanson Marathon Method advanced plan. I'll talk about the plan Thursday..maybe.

The first few week of the plan has no hard runs. I looked to next week and Tuesday has a 12x400 meter run, with a 1.5 warm up and cool down. Today I decided to take a stab at it to get a better feeling of the effort I need to muster.

I feel pretty comfortable adjusting the plan to let it catch up to me. I've spent the last few months restructuring my running to mimic training, 50ish miles a week, 1 long run, two hard runs, 3 recovery runs.

With that positive thinking,  I woke up and felt like having a DNS.  Very tired body and mind. First step out of bed, Achilles felt tight. Dramatic me - one more step and it pops .. it is over. Few more steps, all better. I'm still going to refocus on Achilles stretches.

I used +Endomondo to set up an interval plan, which is pretty nice. I used miles instead of meters, so I actually did .25 mile intervals, which is 402.3 meters! Close enough! Here is what the set up looks like:

The run was hard. The effort level is a challenge, not having visual sights as to when your interval ends takes a bit to get used to, but the hardest part, at least for me, is the sinking feeling in your gut after a few intervals. After every interval, I start to question if I have to go to the bathroom.  Strength and fatigue I can fight through, a scary bowel movement... I cannot. I would say this held up my times more than anything.

My splits were okay to a little slow at times when I felt like nature growling. Glad I did a practice run at this. Next week - wake up earlier to make sure my stomach is settled, and run a little harder. Here is the breakdown:


You can follow pretty easy to see where my stomach started to get mad. And if you were running next to me, you would have heard some expletives after every red portion on my run. Overall though, good run.

The weather was gorgeous, ~60, really nice sunrise, light breeze, lots of people out. I started a few minutes later today as I was waiting for my GPS to connect. When I caught up to Mr. V on his walk, he was worried that I wasn't out yet. Funny seeing everyone on different spots on their run.

I tried to nab a few greetings, not as good results as yesterday. Same results as previous weeks - south of Addison, everyone is more focused on looking for money on the ground than keeping their head up!

I tried to take a photo when I finished my run to show I don't look as peppy as my blog, but I looked like a wet dog- DELETE - .

Did you run this morning? Or running in the heat later?

Are intervals your friend?

OH! And how can I forget - Just say Jenn!  (Fellow Chicago Running Blogger) will be on WGN News at 9pm CST on Friday! I saw a promo for "Chicago's Very Own" this morning and it was her! I emailed her to confirm! Watch it!

15 comments:

  1. Running in the heat later!

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  2. you skipping ahead in training? The 12x400m isn't until week 5 or 6 of the Hanson plan. The intervals should also be at 10K pace which will be around 20-30 seconds slower than your half marathon race pace.

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  3. I'll double check, you using advanced too? I don't have the book on hand, but thought it had it on week two and used the chart in the intervals section for time i should aim for at 400m.

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    1. Ah There's The Difference. I'm Using Beginner

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  4. 12x400! Yikes! I say you still did really well despite the #2 issues. Hee hee.
    Running later today for me! :) Yeah. Up too late again. Sigh.

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  5. It was a tough one, but I brought water and I never do that. Still got stitches right before I got home.

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  6. Sounds like you had a great workout today! Looking forward to reading any future posts about how you're liking (or hating) following the Hansons plan. I'm always interested to hear about how people's bodies react to that one. :)

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  7. I'm running the beginner program so that explains the difference. I might do a hybrid of the 2 programs and start speedwork early myself. I actually love doing intervals. Gives me such a runner's high

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  8. thanks!
    I think i'll like the Hanson plan. The couple months I've spent to mimic the plan haven't felt bad. I've actually enjoyed running more the more I run. I get sad the days I don't have a longer run planned. Thanks for commenting!

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  9. Wouldn't be a bad Idea! Harder, faster, stronger!

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  10. The word "intervals" makes me so anxious! I can't believe you will running 70+ miles a week leading up to the marathon.

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  11. 70 sounds scary when you say it. There should only be a couple weeks of 70, so it won't be that bad!

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  12. thanks!! be safe out there! tell everyone you are an Ironwoman now ** see legal disclaimer after the run **

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