Another week of the Hal Higdon Intermediate 5K Training Program has come to an end. Week 2 was a pretty decent week, and I got to add another type of run to my training—the tempo run.
The week started of easy enough with upper body weight training on Monday. There's nothing special about this workout, just 40 minutes of weight lifting, doing chest, back, shoulders, triceps and biceps in 35-40 minutes. In the training program, Monday's are marked as rest days, but I like to use them to get in weight training, so that I am not doing my runs and weight training on both Tuesday and Thursday.
Tuesday was a 3 mile run, which in this program means "easy run." I finished it in 34:45, for an 11:33/mile pace and an average heart rate of 150. During the run, I tried putting into practice some hill running techniques that I had recently read in Runner's World. The only thing of note was the weather. It wasn't too cold, with an average temperature of 43.9°F, but it was really windy, with an average wind at 17.2 mph.
Wednesday was my very first tempo run (30 minutes). Hal says that a temp run should include an easy 5-10 minutes of warm up running, followed by running at an increasingly faster pace so that by the last third, you are just a a few seconds off your 10K race pace (you can also use a 5K race pace), followed by 5-10 minutes of cool down. I really didn't think that this would be too terribly tough. I figured that I would do 5 easy minutes, using my long run pace or even a little slower, and then hammer out 20 minutes at a sub-10:00/mile pace, followed by a nice long run pace for 5 more minutes. That plan started out fine, with the first 5 minutes covering .41 mile with an average heart rate of 140. The next 20 minutes were surprisingly tough! I covered 2.1 miles in those 20 minutes, with an average heart rate of 172. I definitely started out too fast, with an early pace that was sub 9:30/mile. By the end, I was holding onto a 9:40-9:50/mile pace. The final 5 minutes covered .35 miles, and I had to mix a little walking in with slow running.
Thursday, it was back to an easy 3 mile run. Again, I focused on my form going up and down our little hills. These 3 miles were run in 32:58 with an average heart rate of 153 bpm. I tried running this one on feel, and not look at my Forerunner 305 until I finished. I was pleased to see my pace and my heart rate. I even ran reverse splits: 11:11, 11:03, and 10:42 (even with my near-spectacular face plant!).
Friday is rest day, thank goodness!
Saturday was my first "fast" run. Hal Higdon describes this run as faster than your regular runs, that if you run with a training partner, you'll probably not want to carryon a conversation, and it is okay to be out of breath. That said, I set out to run my 3 miles in under 30 minutes. Again, as with the previous run, I hit start on the Forerunner 305, and didn't look at it again until I was finished. I ended up turning in my fastest 3 miles to date at 28:33, for a 9:31 pace, with an average heart rate of 174 bpm. The bad news is that I ran out of gas by the start of mile 3. The good news is that I still finished mile 3 in under 10 minutes. The splits were 9:22/mile, 9:11/mile, and 9:58 (that last one seriously felt like 12:00/mile+).
Yesterday (Sunday) was my long run of 5 miles. After the Tequila and Salsa Party the night before, I was in no hurry to get this one done, and I didn't get to it until nearly 5 PM. The run was a 2.5 mile out and back along a greenbelt, which passed through a big city park. It was a very nice, and even relaxing run, though I was ready to walk before I had even hit the turn-around. As with my other recent runs, I hit start on the Forerunner 305, and tried not to look at it until it was time to stop. I ended up running the 5 miles in 59:12 with an average heart rate of 155 bpm. My splits were: 11:49, 11:46, 11:53, 11:53, and 11:51. Not bad for a newbie self-pacing, huh?
The week ahead brings my second interval training session, which I'm not really looking forward to, especially since it includes an extra interval since the first interval session. My Saturday run also increases from 3 miles to 4 miles, and my long run goes from 5 miles to 6 miles. This should put me over 20 miles/week for the first time. Wish me luck!