Today's run was a bonus run. I've already done two runs this week and my long run is scheduled for the weekend. So, I didn't feel too bad that I shoved this run into a time slot that was 45 minutes long. In that 45 minutes, I had to warm up, run, cool down, and shower so I was presentable for a meeting. Today's run was short. I'm okay with that.
I've been reading discussions about run/walk intervals. Some of the comments that I have seen say that to increase speed, DECREASE the amount of run time. Think about that for a minute. Run less to go faster. Something about that just doesn't seem right. You run less to run more. That seems like hogwash. You should run more to run more. But, the more I thought about it, the more sense it made. I thought about my times. I've increased my running interval twice. I've slowed down twice. Maybe it wasn't the heat or the shoes or the whining or the distance. Maybe I just wasn't giving myself enough time to recover. Maybe I needed to go backward to go forward.
I know this is profound for a Friday morning, but to summarize, I shortened my running interval today. (With my fancy new watch, I can do that.) I took 15 seconds off and ran for 2 minutes and walked for 1. There are lots of variables. Maybe my time crunch was a factor. But, I ran later and it was warmer than it has been. Maybe the shorter distance helped. Here's what I know. The one variable that I manipulated was the running interval. I ran faster. I ran quite a bit faster. I could have kept going and I don't think that I would have slowed down all that much. It could have all been in my head. We'll see because I am keeping the 2:1 intervals for my 5 mile run this weekend. (Nope, that doesn't say 5K...that says 5 MILES.) Maybe that 15 seconds was just slowing me down.
Today's Stats:
1.72 miles (see, told you it was short) in 19.52 (11.34 minute miles.....see told you I was faster....A LOT faster!)
No comments:
Post a Comment