If someone had told me I was going to run this workout, I wouldn't have believed them.
It was borne during my recovery from a respiratory illness that caused me to wheeze like a chain smoker. My lungs were 80% better, but I feared that running in a snowstorm and 20 degree windchill would set me back significantly. I didn't want to miss my Saturday run completely, so I settled on running a treadmill run. I shuffled a few workouts around on my training schedule, and came away with missing nothing but a local 20K race I had scheduled the following weekend as a tentative tempo effort. I replaced that race with the 20-22 miler I planned to miss in lieu of the treadmill run.
Getting much distance in on the treadmill for me requires speed work, so I settled on half mile repeats that I had scheduled for next week. I figured I would aim for a 2 mile warm-up followed by 10 x 0.5 repeats with 0.5 recoveries (the actual workout was 8 x 0.5 mile repeats in 2:55 with 0.25 mile recoveries, but I was trying to draw out my mileage). That would give me 12 miles and the satisfaction of a mostly salvaged training weekend.
I finished the warm-up and 6 x 0.5 miles in 2:58s (5:56 pace or 10.1 mph) before the treadmill started nearing it's shut off time of an hour. I always stop it before the hour at a time that is convenient for me, and this time was at 54 minutes. Then I re-started it for my next hour. 8 and 9 repeats in I was still feeling great, so I decided I would up it to 12 repeats, which would also get me to 14 miles. At 12 repeats I wasn't feeling like I was at the end of a speed workout, so I decided on 14. Repeat 14 was a little harder, but I still had another one in me, so I made it 15. At that point I was at 16.5 miles total, so there was no turning back on cooling down to 20 miles to give myself the option of still racing next weekend!
The most mentally taxing part of the workout was the 3.5 mile cool-down. I ended up bumping it up to about goal marathon pace (6:48) just to get the miles finished. In the end, I came away with:
20 miles total in 2:24:25ish (not quite exact on the seconds since I had to re-start the treadmill twice)
15 x 0.5 mile repeats, all in 2:58 (0.5 mile recoveries were run in 4:10, or 8:20 pace)
1-1.5% incline the entire run
That was a significant treadmill distance PR for me, and it wasn't nearly as taxing as the 15 mile progression run that was my previous treadmill PR. I credit the intervals, as well as having missed a couple of runs while sick.
Mentally, I could have never wrapped my head around this workout had I known I was going to run it when I started that day. There is a lot to be said for just getting started and going as far as you can! Even though I think treadmill runs and paces are kind of fake (easier than running outside), I think this was still a solid effort and what I needed to keep my lungs healthy on this day. Here's hoping it's my only treadmill 20 of the season, but if it's not I know what I need to do to make another one happen.
No comments:
Post a Comment