Training in Montana

Thursday was a planned rest day and Friday I just couldn't wake up and didn't have time for a workout after that. Phooey. Today I did my first real track workout ever - 8X400M with 400M jog in between. Woke up a bit late once again before having to take my boy to a one day football camp, but I did get in 4 miles at a nice pace (9:25, 8:24, 7:54, 8:04) AP 8:26. I didn't want to push it too hard. Took my 11 yr old to camp and my 8 yr old and I went for a 1 mile jog. Then measured off 55M and had him sprint it - he lasted 4 times. I wanted to get in my track workout so drove to a different track and I did my workout while my 8 yr old figured out how to do the long jump. He wants to do it in the upcoming state games. My paces: 1:27, 1:30, 1:35, 1:35, 1:29, 1:30, 1:28, 1:29. I was shooting for 1:30 and it's tough when you're not used to the track! I lost focus on #3 and 4 but then got it back and got more into a rhythm. Got home and my legs were a bit tight so I jogged 2 more miles to loosen them up & it worked well.

I wore my new XC Nike shoes that I got to run 5K and 10K races. Not sure if they'll work or not, but they were $40. They only weigh 5.5 oz so I'm hoping my feet will like them. My right foot was hurting afterwards and most of the day but not too badly so hopefully. My right posterior calf is hurting as it sometimes does after long runs. I must not have been paying attention to my foot form as that normally cures that problem.

Overall, I feel like it was a good workout and I look forward to more of these as I prep for a 10K in 3 weeks (my fourth one but first one in 7 years) and my September marathon. I'm reading McMillan's training philosophy and I definitely need these workouts to get my fast twitch muscles engaged and also to train my body & brain that I can actually run fast. It's hard to switch gears from the Ultra training I just did of long and slow to faster and longer. We'll see how this experiment goes.

Last thoughts (long post today) are that stretching out the miles over a long morning was awesome. I might give thought to trying a double workout once or twice a week to boost my mileage without killing myself. I didn't feel near as tired as I expected I might after doing 11 miles 2 weeks after my race.