Cobwebs on a treadmill could mean a whole lotta things....It could mean you're a lazy ass and might as well start hanging shirts on it....It could mean you're a crappy housekeeper and the creepy crawlers have been busy....OR it could mean the weather's been lovely enough to run outdoors!
Well, I have not been a lazy ass (though 11 days off due to bronchitis has certainly slowed me down a bit) and I must admit that my housekeeping skills are sub-par (which is why I implemented GBT). Given that it's only been 11 days since I've been on the Dready, and that I found a big MOFO crawler in the sun room where the Dready lives, I'd say I've got to do some bug bombing. I smooshed it...and it was gross.
But today's weather offered sporadic rains throughout the day, leaving me little options for the return of SPEED WORK. Speed work is not something I look forward to. I'm not a fast runner and I don't like to run fast, but the only way to get faster, they say, "is to run faster." So dreaded speed work is kind of a must. But on a DREADY? UGH!
Considering I haven't done ANY speed stuff since prior to the Illinois Marathon in April, I'm pretty pleased with tonight's last minute Yasso's 800s, even if it was on the mill. With the incline set at 1%, my warm up/recovery pace was 5.0/11:44 min. miles while my 800s were run at 6.5 aka 9:09 min. miles.
Starting with a half mile warm up, I then ran the first 800/half mile at 6.5, pushing it to 7.0 (8:32 min. mile) for the final tenth. I followed this for a 400/quarter mile at my recovery pace. I was able to repeat this for the 2nd 800, but at the third, I really started to feel it and had to walk a 10th about halfway thru but cranked it back up to 7.0 to finish out the 3rd 800.
I was pretty shot at this point so following the recovery, when I hit the next 800, I decreased the incline to .5% for the last half of it. In the recovery, I bumped the incline back up to 1% and went into the 5th just hoping to make it through without quitting. Halfway thru I had to drop the incline to zero, but I hung in there at the 9:09 min. pace. I had nothing left to give in the 4th and 5th to allow me to bump the speed to 7.0.
The main thing is I gutted it out and finished. But I am wondering, much like hill work, do I stay conservative with speed work so I can finish strong? I tried to do this, but the adage of "the only way to get faster is to run faster" kept going through my mind.
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