Dante's In-tervals

For someone who was once a sprinter, I sure don't much like speedwork. I guess nobody really likes speedwork, just the results it produces. Based on the recent article making the rounds about intervals vs. tempo runs, I have switched my Thursday run to be interval based. I don't have access to a track at lunch and don't really like running in circles anyway so I do simple timed intervals. After about a 6-7 minute warm-up that brings me to the dirt and gravel path around the Coyote Creek, I set my countdown timer for 2:00 min. I run 2 minutes hard followed by a 2 minute recovery jog. After the fifth interval, I allow myself a 4 minute recovery jog before hitting the next 5 VERY painful intervals with 2 minute recoveries. I don't know exactly how far or what pace I am at, but I am definitely sucking wind badly at the end of those last couple. I'm pretty sure that I am running somewhere below my 5K race-pace of about 7 minute miles as I know I could never keep up the level of intensity for 3 miles (or maybe even 1 mile). At 6:45/mi or so, that makes these about 500m intervals. Maybe not as good as 800m intervals for distance training, but with I am getting in at least 3 miles at intensity and I definitely feel worked. I finish with a 6-7 minute cool-down jog back to work for a total of around 7.3 miles of running.

Today was interval day. I was going to bail completely due to feeling pretty worked already this week. Normally, Wednesdays are my mid-long days which should be reaching close to 12 miles or so at this point. However, scheduling conflicts made me decide that I would try out a double day instead this week. Further scheduling conflicts meant that my easy 7+ on Tuesday was done at 4:20pm. Then, I did around 6 miles early Wednesday morning and finished off with another 7+ miler at lunch on Wednesday. During that last one I had a "near bonk experience" as I hadn't really handled my nutrition correctly given that I was now running 20+ miles in a less than a 20 hour time period. I probably should have treated it a little more like the end of a long run. I survived, but was definitely feeling worked. So, when I felt OK with the decision to skip my speedwork.

However, one thing I like about doing my speedwork in the same area as a my "normal" runs is the mental games I play with myself to keep myself going. I was feeling OK at lunch. I had already gone from deciding to do a tempo run to convincing myself to do a minimal interval workout. Maybe just 6-8 with a longer recovery at 3 or 4. After the warm-up, I hit the timer and was prepared for 8 intervals with a long recover after 4. At interval 4, I was feeling OK so I thought I'll do 5 and then take the long recovery before doing just 3 more. At 7 I though, maybe I'll finish 8 and take a second long interval and complete my 9 or 10. However, each time that alarm went off, I found the motivation somewhere to kick it in, like some sort of Pavlovian response. Finishing the 9th and 10th intervals I was sucking wind so hard I felt like I was hyperventilating. I had gone from deciding to skip my interval workout altogether to running the intervals from HELL!!

In the end, there is really nothing more satisfying than completing a hard workout. Especially one that forces you to dig deep and push past the pain and your perception of your own limits. I'm thinking I may try to increase the length of the intervals if I can ever get to the point of finish number 10 feeling like I could actually do another. We'll see. It was actually pretty warm today and it definitely took some time to cool down. However, I still felt good enough to hit the gym tonight and do some weights, abs and some very light spinning on the bike. I am definitely looking forward to the rest day tomorrow. Then its the weekend and the plans are already stirring in my head...