Monday, March 10, 2014

Treadmill 220's, surprisingly fun

220m intervals with 70 second recovery jog
Today's run (treadmill intervals): 3.2 miles (16 x 220m, 1 mile warm up/cool down)

Although you wouldn't know it by looking at my Garmin data from my weekend runs, I have turned my attention back to performance running. It isn't without irony that, despite my now-clear neighborhood streets, I did my first speed workout this year on the treadmill. My preference would have been to do this on the track, but I was reluctant to risk being hauled off by security for trespassing at the high school.

I normally take Mondays as my rest days but I really needed to focus on my readiness. If the weather holds, I'll be racing on Saturday with the Runsketeers. I didn't intend to take as much time as I ended up needing for today's workout, but it was good that I did. My plan was to start with a half mile warm up at about 9:30 a mile and then run 12 x 100m before finishing with a mile cool down. I discovered that running intervals on a treadmill can be difficult. This is because the machine lacks the hard start/stop precision of the track. I had to account for the time it took the treadmill to get up to full speed each time.

As a result, I decided to run 220m repeats instead of 100's. I'm not confident of the accuracy of the speed displayed on the treadmill, but I set it 25% faster than what I usually run on the machine. I averaged 67 seconds for the 220's (about an 8:10 pace), after factoring in the starting lag.

I started and ended today's session with regular running. I bumped up the speed on the cool down to take advantage of the fact that 6.5 MPH feels a lot easier after pushing close to 8 MPH for twenty minutes. I was surprised that my heart rate averaged only 81% of max overall. Perhaps 67 seconds isn't enough time to go up from 64% (heart rate during recovery cycle). I'm sure that if I was doing 400's at that pace I'd be in the red zone by the end of each repeat.

Treadmill intervals were more fun than I expected and I hope this was a good way of reactivating my speed. I may do another speed session on Wednesday before my mini taper. Running fast is fun. I wish I could remember that more often.

6 comments:

  1. Yes! Playing with the speed on the treadmill is challenging and fun and makes the times go by much quicker.

    I'm psyched about Saturday! I'm thinking I should refuse all drinking invitations the night before. No one ever asks me to have a drink, except if it's the night before a race....

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    Replies
    1. You usually win a podium spot, so maybe we should all drink the night before.

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  2. It does break up the boredom.. but I'm happiest that you've decided to get speedier! We have to decide who's running what leg..

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  3. One of you needs to be the relay anchor and I'll be the boat anchor.

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    Replies
    1. I don't think the family can make it. Sav has her first soccer scrimmage at 11, then my son has his First Reconciliation at 12:30. I will be there Han Solo.

      Delete
  4. Oh, too bad. You'll just have to hang with us then!

    ReplyDelete

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