Speed Work…it’s hard, but it works!

So in years past I have not focused on speed. I was always worried about distance, just surviving the 26.2. Well, this year I have a new lease on life (and training) it’s about speed…pushing my body. What can I sustain? In the fall I did a half marathon at what I thought was the top of my game. Finished in 1:46:01, a PR by approx. 5mins. I was on cloud nine!! A week later I pulled my hamstring and took some time off. After that injury I built back to where I thought I was and set my sights on the Boston Marathon (in April.)

In January, I began to do some indoor track workouts with Team Envision on Wednesdays at MIT. Despite the tight radius (8 laps=1 mile) I did a few workouts there and saw good results at 1 mile repeats. I was averaging 7:41min/mile pace. That pace was comfortably hard and I would go home and sleep like a baby!!

In February, I did quite a bit of fartlek running. I method of speed+recovery where you are running hard constantly and then a short rest period between efforts. I was doing these LT (Lactate Threshold) efforts at approx. 7:35 pace (note, improvement from 7:41 in January.)

In early March, I did a few weeks of Yasso 800s (an 800meter repeat where you build up to 10x and take the average pace and that number should *closely* equate to your marathon pace, eg. If you want to run a 3 hour marathon, you should be able to do 10x800 with an average pace of 3:00mins.) So I did these at the outdoor MIT track by myself yielding 3:36/800 one week, and 3:31/800 the next. Great results.

Now here we are at the end of March (one month out from the Boston Marathon) and I did another (outdoor) track workout last night. The workout was 1.5mi w/u, 6x1mi @LT pace (400m recovery), and 1mi c/d. I head off to the first Team Envision outdoor track session this spring in Watertown. I did the w/u with the group and then headed off to do my 6x1mi workout (w/ 400m recovery) My splits were as follows:
7:26
7:23
7:23
7:23
7:22
7:14
AVG: 7:21:50
I am excited about TWO things here…
1.) my consistency. To hit 7:23s for three straight and then 7:22 for the next one. I thrive on consistency.
2.) The speed of my last mile. WOW…I *hoped* for a 7:20 effort…and mostly just wanted to prove to myself that I would not fade at the end. To do the last effort at :08 faster than the first 5 has me speechless!

Speed Works.
Still not sure what to expect at Boston next month, but I still believe that I have a lot of work to do before then. Mostly, I need to decide on a race day game plan and stick to it.

A week of tests…

Wow, it’s been a long week!! I had a bike FTP test on Tuesday…I do this test once/month to see if my bike power is improving. When I first got my powermeter (beginning of Dec) I tested my ftp power at 203watts. In January I retested at 211watts…a great improvement..so this week was my February test. This test includes a nice w/u with a 2x20’ interval with a 2’ recovery (easy) in between…you take the whole 42minutes and use the power over that entire time. So I rode hard (not too hard) for the 1st 20mins, averaged 217watts, for the recovery I was at 136watts and then for the 2nd 20min interval I held a whopping 228watts!! So (drumroll please….) my FTP is now 220watts!! A 10% improvement over two shorts months with only riding 2x/week!! So I am very happy with my test and I KNOW I am riding harder this winter than I ever have before. One other important statistic is my watts/weight ratio. With my latest ftp test I’m currently riding 3.28w/kg. Which is pretty average for a female rider. My goal is to get to 3.6w/kg…which would raise my ftp up to 240watts…I have a lot of work to do!!

So, test #2 this week was last night…a 1000yd swim time trial. We went over to the new BSC in Medford (nice facility!) with a brand new pool. We were TOLD it’s a “junior Olympic” pool, which puts it at 25m long (not 25yds) this will come into play later. So we warmed up some (not very much!) and started the TT, the goal was to swim at race effort (read: not a sprint!) you don’t sprint the swim in triathlon…it’s supposed to be a fairly relaxed pace. So the test went quickly (I’m used to swimming ~60mins or so at Masters) so this test flew by! I did the 1000m in 16:34. To convert it to 1000yds, the math is 1000yds in 15:05. WOW…I have seen some improvement since last season!! According to swim pace charts this puts my mile at approx. 26-27mins and an IM distance swim at 1:06-1:10 pace. I would be VERY pleased if that were the outcome in Sept!!

All roads lead to Madison!

Ever have a day where everything just clicks?

I went out to do this week’s long run (14miles) with the TNT team on the Boston course in Wellesley…we ran 7mi towards Hopkinton and then 7mi back. I have been doing the 10min run/1min walk method to prepare for Boston. I have seen some VERY nice results from this method and will continue to use it leading up to April 21, 2008. So most of my long runs have yielded a gross per mile pace of 8:39/mile (including the walks) which puts my actual running times at 8:15/mile pace. Not too shabby, but can I hold this pace for longer than a couple miles?? That is the question! So I decided to challenge myself a little this particular week and see what I’m made of! I wanted to do 8:00/mile pace for the run, with 1min walks in between. I started out a little fast (which I knew) but wanted to see if I could hold it. Here were my results:

1: 7:52 pace (AVG HR-174)
2: 7:45 pace (AVG HR-163)
3: 7:44 pace (AVG HR-171)
4: 7:44 pace (AVG HR-167)
5: 7:47 pace (AVG HR-169)
6: 7:44 pace (AVG HR-165)
7: 8:04 pace (AVG HR-167)
8: 7:52 pace (AVG HR-168)
9: 7:58 pace (AVG HR-166)
10: 7:57 pace (AVG HR-169)
11: 8:06 pace (AVG HR-170)

So these were 10min intervals with 1min walk in between to add up to 14 total miles. Today was a great day…I never *really* thought that I could hold the 8min/mile pace for that long, but sometimes when you challenge yourself you achieve remarkable things. I was on cloud nine after this particular run! I was in a zone. Everything just seemed to click.

Mother Nature is Evil

Well, well, well…I guess this is what winter in New England is all about. See my previous posts about running in the snow, I guess the training runs in the snow are worthwhile when it snows on race day. The 2008 Derry Boston Prep 16 miler was held on Jan. 27, and guess what? It snowed!! Nothing like an inch or so of freshly fallen snow to make a challenging course more challenging!

I battled through and still managed to beat last year’s time by 4mins or so, despite the weather conditions. It was a tough race and definitely one that took a lot out of me. I woke up the Monday after feeling like I’d run a marathon. My legs were sore, my back was sore, I took a couple days off until my muscles recovered.

Next up: Martha’s Vineyard 20 Miler, next Saturday Feb. 16, that is one of my favorite races!

"I think I'm done pretending"

It's official- I'm done pretending to enjoy running in the snow. Two Thursdays in a row, Boston has been socked with lots of the white stuff and both days I was scheduled to run 10mi. I embraced the first storm. An early season snowstorm that dropped 10" of snow in a matter of hours left the City in automobile gridlock, which allowed Greg and I to venture out and enjoy the serene winter wonderland. About an hour into the run, I was pooped...running in freshly fallen snow is HARD!! It's like running on the beach...it takes a lot of our your legs.
Yesterday's storm, not so heavy on snow (maybe 3") but still heavy on the legs!! I ran with Laura and Betty...and about half way through our slushy cold run I proclaimed "I think I'm done pretending, there is nothing enjoyable about this run right now...I'm miserable" I might be confined to the treadmill for the balance of the snowy, winter season. Boo.....

My focus is on Boston '08

With the threat of a blizzard this afternoon and talk of another storm this weekend, I'm convinced that winter is here (even though the calendar doesn't say 12/21 yet!) What is more fun than planing a 10mi run in the middle of a 10+ inch snow storm?? All these distractions make it easy to forget that in less than 5 months, I will be running the Boston Marathon for the 5th year in a row!
I've taken some time to relax and enjoy the last couple months with no pressure to workout hard, or train all that often, but in a couple weeks the New Year will be here and then I will feel the pressure to perform in Boston this year. I have a lot of work to do! Many miles to run and many dollars to raise!

I sent out my first TNT fundraising email last night...here is a link to my website to donate if anyone feels inclined :)
http://www.active.com/donate/tntma/dmg2008

My focus is on Boston '08. (April 21, 2008 to be specific!)

Well, well, well….long time no blog

There hasn’t been a lot going on with me lately as far as training, so I seem to have turned into a mute! Life gets busy (VERY BUSY) and before you know it months have gone by! In a fluke accident in October I tripped and pulled a hamstring (not an overuse injury, just a fluke!) So I nursed that back to full strength and I’m back to running and biking regularly. I continued to swim while recovering, that seemed to really help it! I also went to Boston Bodyworker for some deep tissue massage and I KNOW that played a HUGE role in my recovery!! So that injury had me down in the dumps some, but I’ve emerged with some exciting news!!

I am now the proud owner of a Cervelo P2C Carbon bike WITH an ergomo powermeter (http://www.ergomo.net)!! I could NOT be happier with my new bike, my only wish would be that the weather warm up enough so I can take it on the road!!

I love the lightness of it, the Dura Ace components are noticeably better than the 105s my road bike has and with the ergomo setup, I should be in MUCH better (biking) shape come spring!! I do my first FTP (functional threshold power) test this weekend which allows me to get a baseline watt number to train from. I still need to download the Cycling Peaks software and get familiar with it so I can learn what all these numbers actually mean! I know this form of training will transform how I ride my bike. I cannot wait!

Well...that's all my exciting news for now...