The Need for Speed

I am on blissful day #5 of my 10 days of vacation. It was a very busy day!

After getting up at about 8:30 & drinking some coffee the architect had thoughtfully made for me, I made some pancakes (hey! it’s national pancake day!), did a lot of homework, and then hit the gym for a strength training session.

I have to say that I pretty much love my gym. The thing I love most (besides proximity) is that it has this computer generated strength-training program. Every time I go to the gym I say to the machine “give me my workout, bitch!” and it DOES!

I do a 10 minute cardio warmup, b/w 35-45 minutes of weights, and about 5 minutes of abs at the end. Then, I enter the number of reps I did for each set in the computer, and next time I come, it has a different workout for me. In the program that I chose (“strength building”, after I determined that the “toning & weight loss” program was for pansies), I’ll do two workouts in a row with the same focus (i.e. back focus, shoulders, chest, etc.). Today was day #2 of a leg focus. But, since I knew I was doing a track workout tonight, I didn’t want to go all out & ruin my legs for tonight. I do, however, HATE doing the low number of recommended reps. Because I may have issues. So – I compromised, and did the exact midpoint # of reps for each leg activity. 🙂

After getting stronger, I headed home for a quick bite and rinse before heading to the salon.

I entered with long brown hair (this is the only recent photo of me that even shows I have hair. that also isn’t ugly):

I left the salon a ginger midget. Or at least a relatively short woman with coppery red hair.

The architect likes the color. But thinks it’s too short (which isn’t surprising). I LOVE it, and think it will be so nice for spring  summer. The stylist not only cut about 8 inches off, she also thinned it a LOT. I think I lost about 5 lbs in 2 hours! (wouldn’t that be awesome?)

THEN, I came home and found the most awesome birthday gift that has ever existed:

(the little man tells me HOW TO DRESS! Because he cares!) (Thanks Mom! You rock!)

AND THEN (because that’s not enough for one day), came the reason for the post title (I had no idea I had so much to say when I started).

I did my first speed workout in over six months. Last August, I pulled my adductor muscle during a speed workout & ended up missing 2 long runs due to the need to recover. After that, I played it safe, and dumped all speed work, tempo runs & trail runs from the schedule.

BUT, I love the track, and tonight, I headed over to meet up with The Ambitious One for some 800s. I am so glad I was meeting her – it was cold & rainy, and I wouldn’t have done it on my own.

My plan was 1 mile warm/cool + 4×800 (with 1:30 RI) @ 8:30 pace (i.e. 5K pace minus 30 seconds). My half miles were a little long because Leo wasn’t notifying me when I was finishing my 800s. Mostly because it turns out I’d programmed my workout to be 1 mile warm/cool + 4×5 miles (instead of 0.5 miles). That would be a bit much, I think.

So – the results:

Mile 1 (warmup): 9:53 (RIDICULOUS! That is not a warmup pace for me, that is not much slower than tempo run pace)

800#1: 0.58 miles @4:43 (8:11 pace)

RI: 1:30

800#2: 0.56 miles @ 4:35 (8:12 pace)

RI: 1:30

800#3: 0.55 miles @ 4:41 (8:30 pace)

RI: 1:43

Cool: .59 miles @ 6:05 (10:20 pace) – this is fine for a cool down.

Overall: 3.56 miles @ 34:42 (9:44 pace)

I was aiming for 8:30-ish pace for my 800s, so I was definitely a little too fast on the 1st two, and I was out of steam for the 3rd one (which is why I skipped #4). I need to get better at pacing myself. I think I also need to stop putting in ‘goal paces’ in to my garmin, because all the beeping makes me angry!

I’m pretty happy with this as my 1st speed work in months, and am looking forward to doing more! I love the track!

After running, I took The Ambitious One out to dinner to thank her for being the best swim coach in all the land!

Now: Olympics & relaxing with the architect & the cats.  Good times!

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