Friday, September 03, 2010

Mile Repeats in the Heat

The last time I did mile repeats, I allowed too much recovery time in between intervals (4:00 minutes). After seeking advice from those more experienced with these kind of workouts (thanks Jeff and Ryan), it sounded as if two minutes recovery or lightly jogging one lap around the track in between intervals was best. So, that was the plan. Overall, it went quite well. However, still far from perfect.

The MDI Marathon is very hilly, so times are naturally a bit slower. My goal is to break 3:15:59 to qualify for Boston. However, I need to take into account the hills when using the McMillian calculator to figure out split times for speed workouts, so I'm using 3:05:00 as a benchmark. That has me doing mile repeats in the 6:06-6:18 range. I averaged 6:08/mile today.

I averaged those splits in some pretty warm temperatures and intense humidity to boot. It was in the mid-eighties and still very humid when I finished. However, I was very inconsistant in my splits. Lack of experience with these kind of workouts showed, as I started out way too fast and as a result the splits dropped pretty substantially. Typical rookie-like mistake.

Original intent was to jog lightly for a lap around the track in between each mile interval. I nixed this after the third mile and opted to drink up and walk around for two minutes instead (same time as a light jog for one lap). Just was too hot and humid out there.

Worth noting that I full-on puked a few times after the final mile repeat. Nothing related to heat stroke or the like. My stomach just wasn't holding down the diluted Gatorade I was drinking during the workouts. Felt fine afterwards, and after resting a few minutes, went ahead and did my barefoot cooldown run with no problem.

But overall, pretty pleased with the workout, all things considered. Good hay in the barn, and though the splits were pretty hap-hazard, was glad to keep the average low and do it in hot and humid conditions, nonetheless.

w/u - Ran 1.0 miles @ 7:17/mile pace.
5 X 1-mile repeats w/ 2:00 recovery in between: 5:56, 5:54, 6:05, 6:15, 6:28.
c/d - Ran 1.6 miles @ 9:27/mile pace. Barefoot.
Total miles including recoveries - 8.3 miles
Upper 70s to mid 80s, mostly cloudy, very humid.
Saucony Kinvara, shorts.

8 comments:

Thomas said...

Mile repeats and puking. Seems to be a common enough combination.

You might want to revise your 3:15 target. It's a bit conservative.

Blaine Moore said...

How are the kinvaras working out for you?

Jamie Anderson said...

Thomas - thanks, appreciate the vote of confidence, but the MDI course is pretty tough. I'm not planning on leaving anything left though, we'll see what happens.

Blaine - Best shoe I've ever run in, by far.

sn0m8n said...

Nice workout, homey. Flip those splits and it would be stellar. Don't sweat it, though, the heat and air quality just flat out sucked again today.

I would recommend taking it easy at the Bruiser, though. Really, no need to push it.

Scout said...

Yikes! I've only heaved from racing. I think puking during training is really hard core!!

Grellan said...

Great splits Jamie. When I built up to 5 x 1 mile at the track I started with 3 x 1 mile with 3 minutes light jog recoveries (200m and a bit of walking around). The next week it was 4 x 1 mile and then 5 x 1 mile. The following week I reverted to 3 x 1 mile with 2 minute recoveries and built again up towards 5 x 1 mile.

RICK'S RUNNING said...

Yeah, you did go off a bit fast:]
It's all about controlling your effort, when you can run them all within 5 sec of each other your getting in the ball park!
The last effort should be as fst if not even faster than the first!
If you have a Garmin you could set up the virtual man mode and simply keep up with him on the screen!
Always bare in mind that setting off too fast, be it a training session or race will have a negative effect on your overall time!
I know! It took me a long time to get it right :]

Jamie Anderson said...

Grellan and Thomas - Great advice thanks. I think I'll do better next time around. I was very consistent with the Yasso 800s, just the longer distance has thrown me off a bit. Like the suggest with the running pacer guy with the Garmin, I forgot about that feature!