Progress on the Track

Last Saturday the track was not accessible, so I did 60′ on the road at a brisk pace – I was pretty beat by the end.  Today, I did 2×200m, 2×400m, and 1×800m.  I was planning to do 2×800m, but I was pretty beat by the end of the 1st one and I thought I would go much slower on the 2nd.  Today was a blah day – I was tired and uninspired.

Times:

1.  :37  (200m)

2.  :36  (200m)

3.  1:18  (400m)

4.  1:17  (400m)

5.  2:37  (800m)

I was hoping to do 2×800m in 2:36, but not today.  Looking at past posts, I figured I’d have to run 6×400m in 75 seconds, and 2×800m in 2:33 with minimal (4′) rest to break my PR of 5:14.  That’s probably right, and I’m a ways off from that.  The good news is that I went 7 seconds faster on the 800m than I did about a month ago.  I think my legs are shot from this week.

Next week I’ll be in DC Saturday morning, so I won’t do a track workout, so I’ll have to plan my workout for 2 weeks from now.  I think I’ll do 2×200m, 2×400m, and 1×800m with the goal to hold a 78 second 400m pace on all pieces.  Once I can do 1×800m at goal pace, then I’ll go up to 1000m.

New Personal Record!

This morning I Bench Pressed 205 lbs. for 1 rep, absolutely destroying my old PR of 200 lbs.   Getting stronger!

New Personal Record!

This morning I pressed 140 lbs. for 1 rep.  Getting stronger!

Speed Work on the Track

This morning I did 4×400m with lots of rest.  Last week, my goal for this week was to run the 400s in 72-74 seconds.  My goal this morning for this workout was to go sub-70 seconds each piece, or 8-10 seconds faster than my goal pace of 78 seconds per 400m.  My times:

1.  1:09  (400m)

2.  1:10  (400m)

3.  1:11  (400m)

4.  1:11  (400m)

The first piece was hard, but I was hoping that I would be warmer and looser for the successive pieces so that I could stay under 1:10.  I’m pleased with my consistency, though.  I think I could have done 1 or 2 more at around 71-72 seconds, but my goal for this workout was 4×400m so I stuck to that and will probably do more reps when I repeat this workout in a few weeks.

So, not bad but not great.  There is a BIG difference between running 400s in 78 seconds and running them in 70 seconds.  I did this workout in about 45 minutes, so I had about 10 minutes rest between pieces – a huge amount of rest given the duration of work.

As always, to put things in perspective, the world record in the 400m is 43.18 seconds, set by Michael Johnson in Seville in 1999.  In these videos, it’s hard to appreciate the speed when viewing the runners from ground level.  But when Michael Johnson (and the rest) crosses through the 300m mark and the camera is almost directly overhead, you get a better sense of how phenomenally fast these guys are.  I think if I were 100% prepared to run a 400m, at my current level of fitness I think I could run it in about 63 seconds.  I just counted 20 seconds (the difference between Johnson’s time and my own) – that REALLY makes me appreciate just how fast he is.  20 seconds is an eternity.

Success on the Track

Today I was feeling a little lethargic, so to get the workout over with without much pain, I decided to run on the track for an hour, just doing steady state (solidly aerobic work).  Once I was there, I was motivated to check my speed by doing 1×1200m.  Based on my 800m time last week, I thought I could do it in 4:00, holding a solid 1:20 400m pace the whole time.  My time, starting from a stop:

1.  3:59.62  (1200m)

I crossed through 400m in about 1:18, then through 600m in around 1:58, then through 800m in about 2:41, so I picked up the pace in the last 400m and beat my goal time.  I was very tired, but had I been 100% fresh, fully warmed up and stretched, and wearing shorts and track spikes, I think I could have done a mile (1610m) in about 5:24, which puts me about 12 seconds off my goal pace.

Next week, I think I will do some speed work, going well faster than goal pace.  I think I’ll do 4×400m at a 72-74 second pace, with lots of rest in between (3 laps, probably).  This will help to get my body used to a faster-than-pace speed, so that race pace feels slower.

Oh, the world record for the mile is 3:43.13, set by Hicham El Guerrouj (Morocco) in Rome on July 7, 1999.  This means that he would have lapped me in my 1200m run during his 1610m run, and had time to stop, turn around, and watch me cross the finish line.  Had I run a mile, he would have been able to pace me for my last lap, since his post-race catch-his-breath speed is probably the same as my all-out mile speed…

Small Successes

This morning was another good workout on the track.  My slowest 400 was faster than my goal pace, and my fastest 400 was the fastest I’ve done in the last two weeks.  My times:

1.  1:17  (400m)

2.  1:16  (400m)

3.  1:16  (400m)

4.  1:15  (400m)

5.  1:15  (400m)

6.  1:13  (400m)

7.  2:44  (800m)

I’m quite pleased.  In the middle of the first 400, I thought I was going at a slow pace, and I felt a little tired; coming through in 1:17 was a surprise.  Then, I just kept getting faster and faster, each time thinking in the middle of the piece that I was getting slower.  I felt pretty good during the rest laps, but I still kept them at a slower-than-walking pace; I’m sure I look pretty funny bumbling along like a 90-year-old man trying to jog.

Going into the 800, I was excited because I was pretty sure I could do a 2:44.  Coming through 200m, I was at 39s and needed to do a 41s.  I came through 400m in 1:19.  I was surprised how much I slowed down during the second lap, though.  I didn’t realize that I slowed down that much, and I actually thought that I could possibly hit 2:40.  This is no big deal, though; I hit my pace and I’m quite satisfied.  This was at a 5:28 mile pace, now “only” 16 seconds slower than my goal pace.

It took me 52 minutes to do the whole workout, so longer than last time and thus a little more rest on the rest laps.  But not bad, especially since I felt much better on these rest laps than last week’s.

It’s very good to have rowing and ballroom dancing to balance the real estate.  Right now real estate is tough, so it helps to have small victories or progress in the other two to keep my spirits up.  Sometimes it’s the other way, and I’m making progress in real estate and ballroom, but the rowing is not great.  Something I tell myself often when things are tough (quote from Rocky Balboa):

“It ain’t about how hard you hit, it’s about how hard you can get hit, and keep movin’ forward.  How much you can take, and KEEP MOVING FORWARD.  If you know what you’re worth, go out and get what you’re worth, but you gotta be willin’ to take the hit.”

2nd Track Workout in a Week

I posted some faster times on the track today for the same workout as last week: 6×400m, 1×800m.

1.  1:14  (400m)

2.  1:17  (400m)

3.  1:16  (400m)

4.  1:17  (400m)

5.  1:18  (400m)

6.  1:18  (400m)

7.  2:46  (800m)

All my 400’s were faster than my fastest time last week (1:19), and my rest was less (1 very slow lap instead of 1.5 very slow laps).  My goal was to do a 2:45 for the 800, and I went through 200m and 400m ahead of pace, but I slowed down in the 3rd 200m, picked it up a bit in the last 200m, but came through in just over 2:45 (rounded up to 2:46).

This past week was a very easy week for me because I pulled a muscle in my lower back last Friday (8 days ago), and so didn’t do any hard erg workouts and only lifted weights once (yesterday).  So while I had less rest time between intervals this week, I was far more rested than last week.

It took me about 48 minutes to do the whole workout, which is shorter than last week.  My rest time is still very long because I go veeeeery slowly on the rest lap, so over time my goal is to be able to do 75 second 400’s with the rest lap at a respectable pace, and not a I’m-on-mile-99-of-a-100-mile-road-race pace.

Almost invariably, on my 400’s I’d come through 200m around 36.5 seconds.  After a bunch of these, I thought “There are guys who can do 100m in 10 seconds, and I’m doing these in 18 seconds…”  Fortunately my goal is not to make the US Track and Field Team.

Overall, I’m pleased with this workout.  I’m now consistently faster than 80 seconds on my 400’s, and I ran 800m at about a 5:32 pace – “only” 20 seconds slower than my goal mile pace.

First Track Workout in 14 Years

One of my goals for 2009 is to break my personal best mile time of 5:14, set in 1990 at an outdoor track meet in the Spring of my sophomore year in high school.  I figure the best way to prepare is to run a bunch of 400’s and 800’s over the next few months to get my body used to the pace needed to set a personal best.

This morning was my first track workout in 14 years, and I did 6×400m and 1×800m, with about 5 minutes rest (1.5 to 2 laps) between intervals.  Halfway through my first 400m piece, I saw the time was over 45 seconds and I couldn’t believe how quickly time was passing…  I finished the first 400m in 1:41, and did my last 400m in 1:19.

After 6×400m (with lots of rest), I still felt pretty good, so I decided to do an 800m piece, just to gauge my stamina over a half-mile (almost) distance.  I wanted to do it in 2:50, but would have been satisfied with 3:00 since this would have been my first 800m sprint since high school.  I came through 400m in 1:24, so I knew I was within reach of hitting my goal pace.  I felt good through the second half, holding the pace and finished in 2:49.  By comparison, the world record in the 800m is a 1:41.11 set by Wilson Kipketer (a Dane!) in 1997.  Yup, Danes are mighty fast in rowing and running.

My times:

1:  1:41 (400m)

2:  1:30 (400m)

3:  1:27 (400m)

4:  1:23 (400m)

5:  1:21 (400m)

6:  1:19 (400m)

7:  2:49 (800m)

I’m very pleased with where I am right now.  To break a 5:14 mile, I have to do 400’s in 78 seconds, and 800’s in 2:36.  Had I been sufficiently stretched out and perhaps had one day of recovery between this workout and yesterday’s rowing machine and heavy weights workout, I think I could have run a 5:45 mile – “only” 32 seconds from setting a new personal record.  It’s clear my rowing training is satisfactory for running, but I plan to do regular track workouts for the next few months to gauge my progress toward this goal.  I think between these track workouts, the weightlifting, and the volume of AT work I’ll be doing on the rowing machine over the next four months, I’ll be ready to set a new record in the middle of September – perhaps a good time of year, when the air is not too humid and the morning temperatures are not too hot.  When I can pound out 6×400m each in 75 seconds and then 2×800m each in 2:33, with no more than 4 minutes rest between intervals (one veeeeery slow lap), then I’ll be ready to set a new personal record.

New Personal Record!

Today I pressed 135 lbs. for one rep.  Small victories can be very satisfying.  Have a great day.

Performance Measures

While the tendinitis/ligamentitis in my knees has improved considerably since last fall, there are still remnants which are tenaciously hanging on.  That’s ok – a longer recovery period will ensure I don’t make this mistake again.

My plan for 2009 is to set new personal records in many different performance measures.  On the rowing machine, this includes (current best in parantheses): 1k (3:11.2), 2k (6:36.7), 5k (17:38.3), 6k (21:31), 10k (37:25), and 1 hour (16015 meters) time trials.  On the track, this includes the mile run (to beat my personal best from sophomore year in high school of 5:14).  On the weights, this includes:  Squat (265 lbs.), Bench Press (200 lbs.), Deadlift (335 lbs.), Power Clean (180 lbs.), and Press (130 lbs., set today!).  And with respect to body weight, to weigh at least 165 lbs. at 8% body fat (right now I’m about 162 lbs. at about 9% body fat).

My new weightlifting program is working well, as I’m consistently getting stronger while at the same time increasing the intensity slowly to allow my knees to heal while the weight is getting heavier.  My knees are improving slowly but surely.  My aerobic fitness is improving, especially since I’ve increased the volume of aerobic work and just recently started into aerobic threshold workouts on the treadmill.  I’ve been doing a lot of work on the treadmill and stationary bike to take a break from the rowing machine, but will start back on that now that I’ll be easing my way into time trials each month.

Have a great day!