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Confidence run
By Kevin | April 19, 2009
With two weeks until the NJ Marathon, I decided to replace the Sunday long-run today with something that would instill a bit of confidence: a speed-play intervals run. After an easy mile warm-up, I alternated 4 minutes of 7:00-8:00 pace with 4 minutes of recovery around 9:30-10:30 pace. After the fourth speed interval, I slowed for the final 1.5 miles of cool-down. In all, the run covered 6 miles in around 57 minutes.
It did feel good to push my pace a bit on a shorter run, and I was pleased to discover that it didn’t take me the full 4 minutes to recover in between. By the last speed interval, I also felt like I had corrected some running form issues that I had been struggling with at the faster pace. I have a tendency to get my hands really high, and begin over-striding at faster paces. Once I got back into a quicker cadence, shorter stride, with hands more relaxed by my hips, I found the flow pretty easily, and decreased the “bouncing” too.
See the run as captured by the Garmin Forerunner 405 here.
Feeling good when I got home, I also tried to get a jump on Week 6 of the Hundred Pushup Challenge. Instead of waiting until tomorrow, I went after it soon after the completion of my run. It probably wasn’t the smartest move, as I struggled to complete the last TWO sets, but squeaked ‘em out with some longer-than-normal rest breaks between (and during) sets. Scheduled for Week 6/Day 1 was: 31, 34, 28, 28, max (I did 42). I think I’ll be feeling that tomorrow.
I’m excited to follow the Boston Marathon tomorrow! You can follow it online by clicking here. Kara Goucher (CU alum) and Ryan Hall are both well-prepared and entirely capable of becoming the first American winners since the 80’s. It will be worth watching!!
Also – can’t let today’s post go by without remembering Columbine…ten years ago today. I was in Colorado for a 3-day stay to interview for a job at University of Colorado when it happened. The impact was palpable. In the years that followed, working at C.U., I had several students who are Columbine alum, and who cannot ever forget that day. I remember too, and wish them all peace.
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