Hills Again and Again

My left hamstring has been hurting since Tuesday.  Pain killers have not helped.  If I was going to run today, I had to get in more of a warmup than everyone else at our group session.  I started 15 minutes early and got 5 laps around the track.  The first lap was brutal and there was nothing I could do but jog slowly and grimace.  It almost hurt like I pulled my hamstring on Tuesday, but I don't want to go that far.  I've pulled that exact hamstring a couple times and had visible bruises to prove it.  It wasn't quite that bad.  So anyway, I got 2 miles in a warmup by the time the group ran down to the sinkhole.  We did our striders after a short stretch and the uphills hurt, yet oddly enough, the downhills felt normal.  Go figure.

Our workout this evening was 5 x 1km with 2 minute rest recoveries.  The goal pace was 5 mile speed on the first one and then taking off 2-3 seconds per loop.  Mind you that we are running hills.  My goal was around 8 minute pace or just under.  We didn't have a chart, so I figured that I wanted to run 4:55 for the first and then taking off 2-3 seconds each loop.  So my goal was 4:55, 4:52, 4:49, 4:46, 4:43.

The first uphill hurt something fierce.  After a flat section, a downhill and another flat, the second uphill didn't hurt that much at all.  Again, go figure.  I was happy.  My time on that first hill loop was 4:52.  The second hill loop was pain free and I took off more than expected by running 4:42.  The others:  4:38, 4:32, and 4:16.  This was a great workout and I am so glad the hills knocked out the pain in my left hammy.  Knock on wood.  I hope I wake up without soreness, too.

This has been 2 straight workouts that our coach is having us run negative splits.  Am I detecting a trend?  This is also my third straight workout that I have been able to complete.  Also a trend?  I hope so.

Just over a week until my next race.

Fartlek over Hills

It's one thing to run a fartlek workout and it's another to run a hill workout.  Now combine them into one workout and that's what we did yesterday afternoon.

We ran a 2.5 mile course with plenty of hills... twice, but here's the fun part of it.  We broke it down into 3 minutes at 10k pace, 1 minute jog, 2 minutes at 5k pace, 1 minute jog, 1 minute full effort, 1 minute jog... repeat as necessary until the 5 miles are covered.  This was a very hard workout, yet at the same time, it felt very gratifying.

We were supposed to run the entire 5 mile course non-stop, but I made a pit stop at the half way point to get some water since I didn't drink any before we started.  I ran the first loop in 19:00 minutes even.  I took between 1-2 minutes for my water break and then started the second loop.  I ran that in 22:30.

My overall 5 mile time was 41:30 which breaks down to an average pace of 8:17 per mile.  The first loop average pace was 7:36 and the second loop average was 9:00.