Difficulty Focusing on 2011 Goals
Here I am four days into 2011 and I have yet to set real goals for the year beyond the obvious attempt at a BQ (pending whatever changes the BAA makes to the qualifying standards). Either way, running a marathon in 3hr15m is the BIG ONE. As for the milestones along the way? They're still a bit blurry...
I am charting a course to make an attempt at running the Around the Bay 30k in 2hr15m at the end of March if for no other reason than to earn a Silver medal. They give out Gold medals to finishers under 2hrs, silver medals for those who cross the mats between 2hrs and 2hr15m, and Bronze medals for anyone slower than that. I already have a Bronze from my pathetic and injury plagued attempt at the distance back in 2009. Now, like a good Canadian, I want SECOND PLACE! (If they had a shinny medal for something equivalent to fourth place that would be the logical Canadian target, but second place will have to do in this case.)
This goal will require a rather speedy pace of 4:30/km or faster, and given that the medals are based on Gun Time and not Chip Time I will likely have to run a couple of seconds per kilometre faster. It's worth noting that this is my current 10k PR pace I am really stretching to make it a possibility, but should it come to pass it will definitely set me up for a confident attempt at 3hr15m in the marathon in October.
Anyway, those are two big racing goals. I am also mulling another Half Marathon at the end of May, which, if I do enter it, will come with its own time goal.
Other than that I am currently mired in a training plan creation malaise. The overall impression that I am left with whenever I sit down and try and plug things into my Training Plan spreadsheet is "There's just not enough time to fit everything in!" How do I get enough mileage in while working out at the gym to try and continue to add much needed strength and a bit of bulk to my weak legs?
Anyway, I will get there. But until then I am still committed to the biggest goal of all for 2011: another year of injury free running! (But this time with some speed work thrown in for spice.)
With that being said, I started off my first full week of training in 2011 with a recovery-paced 5km over snow covered sidewalks this morning. It gave me the opportunity to test drive a new running hat and light jacket that was purchased yesterday at MEC. They were great! I also bought some running tights (against every fibre of my being since I really dislike the whole tights look on men, and on myself even more). It wasn't cold enough to test those bad boys out, but I'mnot looking forward to it...
Next up? A little treadmill interval session at lunch. Yay!
And they went like this...
I stopped the treadmill at 5.28 miles and my on the fly calculations were correct because that works out to a tidy 8.5km run! It was certainly tough, but it's these kinds of efforts that will pay off in the end. Certainly going down to 4:58/km (7:59/mile) pace for the recovery portions makes this much more challenging than it would be otherwise, but I figure that if I can make 5:00/km feel easy it's not a bad thing. I am slowly working the faster parts up as well having done this workout the first time with 8.5mph as the top end (4:22/km, 7:03/mile) back at the end of November. Each week, or whenever I do this workout, I move the speed up one tenth of a mile per hour for the fast bits and now sit at 8.8mph. It will be very cool to be able to run this workout at or below 4:00/km someday!
I am charting a course to make an attempt at running the Around the Bay 30k in 2hr15m at the end of March if for no other reason than to earn a Silver medal. They give out Gold medals to finishers under 2hrs, silver medals for those who cross the mats between 2hrs and 2hr15m, and Bronze medals for anyone slower than that. I already have a Bronze from my pathetic and injury plagued attempt at the distance back in 2009. Now, like a good Canadian, I want SECOND PLACE! (If they had a shinny medal for something equivalent to fourth place that would be the logical Canadian target, but second place will have to do in this case.)
This goal will require a rather speedy pace of 4:30/km or faster, and given that the medals are based on Gun Time and not Chip Time I will likely have to run a couple of seconds per kilometre faster. It's worth noting that this is my current 10k PR pace I am really stretching to make it a possibility, but should it come to pass it will definitely set me up for a confident attempt at 3hr15m in the marathon in October.
Anyway, those are two big racing goals. I am also mulling another Half Marathon at the end of May, which, if I do enter it, will come with its own time goal.
Other than that I am currently mired in a training plan creation malaise. The overall impression that I am left with whenever I sit down and try and plug things into my Training Plan spreadsheet is "There's just not enough time to fit everything in!" How do I get enough mileage in while working out at the gym to try and continue to add much needed strength and a bit of bulk to my weak legs?
Anyway, I will get there. But until then I am still committed to the biggest goal of all for 2011: another year of injury free running! (But this time with some speed work thrown in for spice.)
With that being said, I started off my first full week of training in 2011 with a recovery-paced 5km over snow covered sidewalks this morning. It gave me the opportunity to test drive a new running hat and light jacket that was purchased yesterday at MEC. They were great! I also bought some running tights (against every fibre of my being since I really dislike the whole tights look on men, and on myself even more). It wasn't cold enough to test those bad boys out, but I'm
Next up? A little treadmill interval session at lunch. Yay!
And they went like this...
| Duration | Speed | Pace (miles) | Pace (km) |
| 5:00 | 6.7mph | 8:57/mile | 5:34/km |
| 5:00 | 7.5mph | 7:59/mile | 4:58/km |
| 5:00 | 8.8mph | 6:49/mile | 4:14/km |
| 4:00 | 7.5mph | 7:59/mile | 4:58/km |
| 4:00 | 8.8mph | 6:49/mile | 4:14/km |
| 3:00 | 7.5mph | 7:59/mile | 4:58/km |
| 3:00 | 8.8mph | 6:49/mile | 4:14/km |
| 2:00 | 7.5mph | 7:59/mile | 4:58/km |
| 2:00 | 8.8mph | 6:49/mile | 4:14/km |
| 1:00 | 7.5mph | 7:59/mile | 4:58/km |
| 1:00 | 8.8mph | 6:49/mile | 4:14/km |
| 5:00 | 6.7mph | 8:57/mile | 5:34/km |
| 0:51 | 6.2mph | 9:39/mile | 6:00/km |
| 40:51 | 7.8mph | 7:43/mile | 4:48/km |
I stopped the treadmill at 5.28 miles and my on the fly calculations were correct because that works out to a tidy 8.5km run! It was certainly tough, but it's these kinds of efforts that will pay off in the end. Certainly going down to 4:58/km (7:59/mile) pace for the recovery portions makes this much more challenging than it would be otherwise, but I figure that if I can make 5:00/km feel easy it's not a bad thing. I am slowly working the faster parts up as well having done this workout the first time with 8.5mph as the top end (4:22/km, 7:03/mile) back at the end of November. Each week, or whenever I do this workout, I move the speed up one tenth of a mile per hour for the fast bits and now sit at 8.8mph. It will be very cool to be able to run this workout at or below 4:00/km someday!
Labels: 2011 goals in progress, intervals, running, treadmill
posted by Vava at
10:58 AM
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