Planned run 10x30 seconds speed with 30 second jog recovery

Date: 8 Apr 2010
Time: 10 min
Distance: 2.45 km

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/29338393

I skipped a planned 50min run yesterday as I was feeling a little flat. Also I have a slightly sore left calf/Achilles/heel that I thought I should rest for a bit. It hurts only slightly during warm up, and sometimes on a longer run. It also flares spontaneously, a burning sensation not exactly on the heel or Achilles, just around that area. It is much better after the rest.

So I did this 10x30 second speed, swapped from next weeks scheduled runs ( doing this weeks runs next week). I did that to form a mini taper leading up to my 10km race on Sunday.

I did this run in the middle of the day, normally not a sensible thing to do in Queensland as it is far too hot. But for such a short run it was just fine. In fact I felt really good and warmed up, and I am sure that helped.

I pushed much harder today than I have ever done for a training run of this type, heart rate got to 172bpm toward the end. In the speed period, I managed to do a 3:30 pace or better for all of the runs except for two, and the first one was a 3:06 min/km pace. That is much faster than my previous similar runs.

I need to get my legs and lungs to a point where I can run consistently with an elevated heart rate for faster runs. I think that is what I need to be able to do a fast 10km time.

I am headed in the right direction, I am doing best ever times for speed runs frequently, and the weather has cooled significantly in recent weeks. This all sets up for a PB for my 10km run Sunday - If I am feeling good on the day.

I used my foot pod again to measure cadence. I found that in the fast sections, I am around 88 to 92. For the fastest rep, 3:06min/km I did 92 steps per minute, higher than usual. And cadence dropped slightly in the later reps. I was tiring, speed did not drop that much so stride length must have increased a little. I have a pretty good idea how cadence affects my speed now, and I could benefit from practice with a metronome. Next week after my 10km race is an ideal time I think.

Oh yeh and I think the recent longer runs I have been doing have resulted in a lot of fat burn as I am now suddenly 73.8kg's after this speed run. I am not particularly dehydrated either. That is the lightest I have been in years, even lighter than after last years gastro problem where I lost 5kg in a week of misery. The weight loss by itself accounts for some of the improvement in speed I think.