Great Treadmill Interval Workout! - 3/11/13

This morning was one of those overcast - blech mornings, that was made worse by the Spring Ahead time change this weekend. Even Bennie (our hyper Jack Russell Terrier), seemed out of sorts on his morning walk, that was back to being done in the dark.

Based on this and that I ran 5.0 miles on my scheduled day off yesterday, I wasn't really expecting much from my treadmill interval workout today. I figured that I would struggle through it and really hit it better next.

Well guess what - I NAILED it!!!!

This was probably the best indoor workout I have had this year and I have had a couple of pretty good ones. The plan called for 8 x 600 @6:30 pace with .25 easy between, plus warm-up & cool-down. To make things easier to keep track of I changed the distances slightly to 8 x 0.4 miles with 0.3 easy between.

So what did I do.

• 1.0 @ 6.6 mph warm-up
• 1.0 @ 7.3 mph warm-up
• 0.4 @ 9.3 mph - 1
• 0.3 @ 6.6 mph
• 0.4 @ 9.3 mph - 2
• 0.3 @ 6.6 mph  - 3.4 miles
• 0.4 @ 9.3 mph - 3
• 0.3 @ 6.6 mph
• 0.4 @ 9.3 mph - 4
• 0.3 @ 6.6 mph - 4.8 miles
• 0.4 @ 9.5 mph - 5
• 0.3 @ 6.6 mph
• 0.4 @ 9.5 mph - 6
• 0.3 @ 6.6 mph  - 6.2 miles
• 0.4 @ 9.5 mph - 7
• 0.3 @ 6.6 mph
• 0.4 @ 10.0 mph - 8
• 0.2 @ 6.6 mph  - 7.5 miles
• 1.5 @ 7.3 mph - 9.0
• 0.75 @ 7.5 mph 
• 0.15 @ 10.0 mph
• 0.10  @ 11.0 mph

Total Run:  10.0 miles in 1:18:14/7:49 pace

No it is not my fastest 10.0 miles this year, but it is the best I have felt while running in a long, long time. The odd distance felt strange at first - my body thought is was supposed to stop at .25 and when I kept going it went - oh no not half's - half's suck. Then when I stopped at .4 things were fine! Most of the time I could have started back up at .2 instead of .3, but I wanted the little longer rest between, just to make sure I felt good and could make the .4's quality, instead of simply battling through the faster paces.

After I finished the first 4 intervals, I felt really good and decided to kick it up a couple of notches, yes they were a little harder, but nothing bad. Then the last one I decided to go with a little kick to it to see how I felt at that faster pace - again no problem.

After getting done with the SOS workout, I just ran easy until the last quarter. There is something about me being on the treadmill, I want that last quarter to mimic a kick at the end of a race and I was able to get it up there pretty good and focused on my form at those speeds, to stay compact and not fly apart. By the end I was definitely sucking wind, but it did feel good to blow out some of the cobwebs and know that I can still get up there for a little while.

The best part is that I feel as though I could go out and run another 5-6 miles (slow) without any problems, it was a tough workout, but not an all-out one.

My left calf, still has a little niggle going, but not enough to stop running a little faster than usual. This run felt great and I think that this would be a great workout for some of you to try! Modify it to meet your speed goals or see if you blow the doors off this older gentleman (and I use that term very loosely) ;-).

Have you done similar workouts lately? How did they go?

I know I am getting antsy to get outside and yes I know that I won't be able to run as fast outside, but it does the ego good, to know that I have the potential to run that fast again, if I work at it!

I also ran in the Altra Superiors for this workout and experienced ZERO problems, it is almost like they are a hybrid shoe more than a trail shoe! Whatever, category they are listed in, they sure are working great for me so far - will have a 50 mile review on them later this week.

Well time to get some work done.

Originally written by Harold Shaw and published at "A Veteran Runnah" © 2011-2013, All Rights Reserved. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Harold Shaw and A Veteran Runnah" with appropriate and specific directions or links to the original content.