Thursday, March 30, 2006

BOUNDING OR SPRINGING

Awake at 4:30 AM. $0
12 miles of hills and strides. $0
Done for the day by 6:30 AM. Priceless

Man, it feels so good to get done with a run, especially a hard workout, right away in the morning. Afterwards, sitting in traffic in the rain didn’t even bother me.

This morning I did a similar workout to Tuesday’s hills and strides. The only difference was that I added in another stride during each circuit. I thought I was ‘bounding,’ but I re-read an article that Mike sent me and it sounds like I’m ‘springing.’ I don’t know if it matters. I do know that it’s work.

During my cool-down I was calculating how much of this run was actually “hard.” Of the 96 minutes, only 12 minutes were spent on the hill and 8 minutes spent doing strides. Only 20 minutes of work, but it sure feels like more. The last two times I started this workout, I felt really good. By the time the cool-down rolled around, my ass was dragging. I could barely make up little hills in my neighborhood.

I need to keep this in mind when I look at my mileage graphs. What used to be 90-100 mile weeks are now 70-80 mile weeks. 31-day rolling totals that were 380-400 miles are now 340-360 miles. Fewer miles but more, harder miles.

This quote of the day probably should have gone with yesterday’s
post:


“Don't let a few minutes of discomfort lay to waste hours and hours of training.” Eric

Here's Eric trying to hold off Jim at the Human Race.

3 comments:

E-Speed said...

it is so nice to be done at 6:30 am...too bad I usually don't wake up till 8 ;)

Sounds like you are geting in some quality training!

Chad said...

Susan, I think you get the award for most loyal commentor.

Elizabeth, 8 AM? Seriously? You must be a night owl.

Anonymous said...

You must be a night owl.

Night owl is when you're up at 4:30 running, because you still haven't gone to bed yet (-; I haven't achieved this yet, but I've done a few midnight runs/workouts.