Aug 3 - Threshold Run

Today Mr. Jack Daniels required that I leave the comfort and coziness of my bed to run some sweet, sweet threshold miles around the track. I was a little nervous going into this workout since I did not really "hit" any of the threshold workouts while on vacation (actually - who am I kidding - they were non-existent). Today's workout was supposed to be:

2 mile warmup

20 minutes threshold

10 minute easy

20 minute threshold

2 mile cooldown

Threshold pace = 5:59, 5:54 min/mile for VDOT's 59 and 60.

Instead, I decided if I could just break the 2 threshold sections into 5km sections (12.5 laps around the track), then I would be happy with that.

What ACTUALLY happened is this:

2 mile warmup (7:21 min/mile)

Threshold:

1. 6:00

2. 5:58

3. 5:58

200m (44 seconds)

10 minute easy (7:30 min/mile)

Threshold:

1. 5:58

2. 6:00

* 30 second break - feeling dizzy (the same feeling you get after standing up really quickly from the Lazy-boy after burning out all day!)

3. 5:58

400m (1:29)

Cooldown - 1.25 miles (7:17 min/mile)

Total miles = 11.04 miles

Total WEEKLY miles = 60.06 miles (Goal = 60miles - goal achieved...barely!)

For the astute reader you will notice that I slipped with a little unscheduled 30 second break when the going started to get tough. I was feeling quite nauseated. Was I going too hard today? Has my diet been off the last few days? How is my sleeping? My HR, to me, would indicate that I was working a little harder than normal for this type of workout but this is nothing that I could not have broken through if I were in a race (for example). Bottom line - I think I just get a little lazy sometimes when things start to "hurt" and I do not have someone there to drive me through. Afterwards I told Jennie that NOT having a training partner is my krptonite. Oh well - overall I am quite happy with the workout - 6.2 miles of threshold is always a nice accomplishment and has given me some confidence back.

The cooldown was cut short because I think a security gaurd was objecting to a few people (maybe me?!) being on the track even though it was bolted and locked shut. Actually, I think he was more upset with the people using the grass in the middle of the track, but I did not want to risk having an international incident so I quietly slipped out the back (actually, throwing my stuff and climbing the fence would be a more accurate description). No worries though - the weekly mileage was hit (and from a runner's perspective that is all that really mattered!)

Here is my HR and pace graph. You can see where I became a little Nancy during the second interval!

Also, I want to give a shout-out to my main man JD for finishing 4th OVERALL (out of 6676 total people) and 1st in his age group in the San Francisco 1/2 marathon! Dude you are rockin' it! I hope that you do not mind waiting for me at the end of the Berlin marathon!

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