The Crazy Ladder

The missing piece to the puzzle lately has been my speed workouts. I've had some so-so track workouts in the past couple weeks. All a reminder that speed doesn't come back instantly.

Last night, however, was a pretty solid workout. Dubbed as a Crazy Ladder... and one to be repeated in a few weeks:

4mi warm up

1200 @ 86s
800@ 79, 80
400 @ 77
1600 @ 81-82s
1200 @ 80-82s
800 @ 79, 81
400 @ 71
90 rests

2mi cool down

The goal was to ease into the speed with the first 1200, get some fast endurance with the mile and second 1200, and add turnover with the 400s. Nothing ridiculously fast, but just a strong workout. It was definitely taxing, but ultimately I felt much more comfortable this week versus last week. I'm finally starting to see some gains.

Eyes on the Prize

The season opener for Chicago racing was yesterday... the ol' Shamrock Shuffle.

My expectations weren't overly high for one of my favorite races this year, given that I've hardly done any speed work lately. My main goal was just to run something of a steady, fast tempo... and not kill myself.

Weather was chilly - mid 30's. No ridiculous caked slush to deal with, like last year. With the exception of a nasty NE headwind, which effected the second half of the run, conditions were good for the race.

I wound up going 28:05 (unofficial because of elite start)... Splits were 5:30, 5:36, 5:42, 5:38, 5:38. Mike was a huge help, as he got me going. We ran the first 3.5 miles together. The only complaint I have is that I lead a train of scum suckers into some brutal wind during the latter part of the race. It seemed like nobody wanted to man up, and then a handful of them passed me in the last quarter mile. Roosevelt was a pisser this time around. It felt like I was crawling up that thing with the wind. Oh well.


Aside from the Shamrock though, I had a great 20 miler on the lakefront on Friday night. I ran about 17 of it at around 6:40ish pace. 6:30s with the wind at my back... and mid-6:40s with the headwind.

Hitting that pace for a long run, and then going a steady Shamrock tempo 36 hours later makes me feel a lot better about my running lately.

As of now, no shin splints. No massive knots in my calves. No pains in my foot. A little soreness from the Shamrock... otherwise, all systems go.

Eyes on the prize.

5 weeks 'til touchdown in Londontown.

Feel more like a turtle than a rabbit

I feel like I've been in a rut for the last couple of weeks. I'm finally starting to get some miles... In the 60's, but I've been plain old lethargic when it comes to adding speed.

Easy and maintenance miles are no problem. Long runs feel good the whole way. Even progression runs have gone well. Track speed sucks.

A couple of tempo runs in the last few weeks have gone alright, considering they're my first attempts. Last week I had 5 miles that started at about a 6min pace, and got down to 5:49... OK, but easily 10 seconds slower per mile than they should be.

I've also done two speed workouts in the last two weeks. Both were 6x 800's. Both were disappointing. I was hitting 79-83 second laps. Very inconsistent... with the expectation that I was consistently running the second lap slower than the first. Not good. Last night was especially lame. I was hoping to see week-over-week improvement but got nothing. I even pulled the plug and cut it short (6 instead of 8 reps). A morale loser.

I know I can't expect myself to all of a sudden start running at the pace I was back in the fall... but I'm discouraged by the fact that I've had to ramp up a little more slowly than I anticipated.

Shamrock Shuffle is on Sunday. Typically this is one of my favorite races. Last year, I had an excellent run in horrible conditions. I'm expecting a pretty lame showing this year. I'm not training hard enough to even consider tapering into it (not that there's even much to taper). I'll run through. 20 tomorrow night just to spite the fucker. Then treat the race as a tempo workout.

This week's miles are little light, as I took a long weekend to ski in Colorado. Next week will be a jump up in miles. I'll hold that for 3-4 weeks, then take it easy for a week into London.