Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Getting ready for Bekele

It was an unplanned double workout today. I went for a run during my lunch break at noon with the thoughts of running for an hour to include some fartlek running. About a mile into the run I remembered that I had a meeting to attend immediately following lunch. I wasn't sure of the exact time of the meeting, so I decided to forego the fartlek workout and just run easy for 30 minutes. I was ticked off when I got back to the office because the meeting was scheduled for 1400 (2pm civilian time). During the meeting I was feeling guilty for missing the fartlek workout, so I made the decision to run after work to get some leg-turnover. It then dawned on me that it was Tuesday, the night that the AV Unitas, a Dutch Running Club, meet up at the track for some speed workout. It has been almost two months since I last ran with the club. After a 20 minute warm-up followed by some stretching and drills, I waited for the coach to yell out the workout. 5 x 1000m with 200m recovery. This was my first speed session since the marathon, so I was unsure what splits to hit and how the legs would react. I decided that I'd just stay with Paul, who was aiming for 3:10-3:12. The legs felt light and springy and the breathing rather controlled. I hit the 5 x 1000m in 3:12, 3:11, 3:10, 3:10, & 3:07. It was a good feeling knowing that I still have some leg-turnover following the marathon and that my fitness is still at a decent level.

On another good note, the running club invited me to run as part of the club in this weekend's Fortis Zevenheuvelenloop (Seven Hills Run) in Nijmegen. The 15Km race is one of the biggest road races (~22,000 runners) in the Netherlands and is an IAAF Silver Label Road Race, which basically means the Kenyans and Ethiopians will be battling it out at the front. Kenenisa Bekele will most likely win the race as he takes his first big step on the roads.

Today's Run: Noon: 4.2M @ 6:55 pace; PM: 8.5M with 5 x 1000m (3:12, 3:11, 3:10, 3:10, & 3:07) w/ 200m recovery.

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