Friday, July 21, 2006

One of these days....

Couldn't ask for a better temperature during this time of the year. It was a nice 74% and breezy by the time Bob and I took off for our workout. The workout today - 30' warm-up, 3 x 10' @ half-marathon effort with 4' recovery, and 30' cool-down. We ran our warm-up on the roads before heading over to Pope Air Force Base track. Pope AFB, which is actually on Fort Bragg, has a nice rubber track. Bragg has 3 running tracks but none of them are rubber surface and as nice as Pope's track. For some reason the Air Force always seems to have better athletic facilities. Did I join the wrong service?

The intent of today's workout was to build speed - aerobic capacity. At half-marathon effort I should be running at about 5:39 - 5:44 pace. I thought it was odd running 10 minutes on the track and not a specific distance. Doing the math in my head, running 10 minutes equivalates (is that a word?) to running 1 3/4 mile repeats (7 laps). I ran the 3 repeats in 9:55 (5:40 pace), 9:56 (5:41 pace), & 9:51 (5:38 pace). The pace felt good and comfortably hard. Only if I can run the marathon at this pace. The near-term goal is to run sub-6:00 pace (5:59 pace will do) for the marathon and then hopefully get down to the 2:30 - 2:35 range over the next 3-5 yrs. One of these days I'll be a sub-2:30 marathon chaser like Mike. Like Simons Says... it takes "pure hard work".

I ended up running in the mid-afternoon heat. I did not plan to put in a 2nd run. It just so happened that I felt the need to get out and do a slow shakeout run. It was hot, but also breezy so the run wasn't too bad.

Today's Runs: am - 1:38:14 (~15 miles) / pm - 30:12

2 comments:

Dubs said...

Wow - that would be confusing. I have a hard enough time counting all my laps or intervals, to have to do that kind of math in the morning while running - I'm impressed!

I envy your weather!

Dubs said...

Wayne,

Hey, thanks for visiting my blog. No, I'm not in the military. I considered it as a kid, but they were only letting 2 women fly fighter jets at the time and none in combat. My Dad was in the Army (just a couple years) and his high school best friend was a Captain in the Navy (retired an Admiral who made his way up from enlisting). I was sure interested in landing a plane on his ship (USS Valley Forge CG 50) when I was in junior high.

The boot camp I refer to is 4 week sessions by a former Army drill sergeant. The class is 3 times a week for 1 hour each - I go 4 times (I pick up a workout at another location). It is held outdoors in a parking lot in the heat or cold. We bring our own hand weights & carry body bars instead of guns (5' PVC pipes filled with sand) and ammo boxes. Not as hard as actual boot camp or he wouldn’t have anyone paying (well, except maybe me - I enjoy the heck out of it). I have a hard time getting the number of sit-ups in 2 minutes that I need. Give me 2:10 or even 2:05 and I would make it. I threw out my SI going a bit overboard with weights while doing lunges or squat hops, so I don't play as hard there anymore, but just focus on the running. All through college, I had weak arms and abs, I sure love the cross training. Once I got my 300 (3rd try - 1st was 180 - 90pts on the run, 2nd was 299 - missed by 2 seconds on the run) I was able to easily score 300 from then on - but they didn't have us do "military style". Once I switched to sit ups with my hands laced behind my head with my elbows out, it took a while to get 300 again.

Thanks for being in the military - Means a lot to me that so many of you all serve!!! I'm lucky I was born here, I'm thankful you keep it safe & free!

Dusty