Yesterday was a recovery day — although I did a bit of cross-training on my indoor bike (an hour of 8 minute heart-rate zone 3 efforts). Today it’s Yasso time!
The workout
Today the schedule tells me it’s time for Yasso’s. A yasso (see Runner’s World) is a 800m run which you run in the time of your marathon, in terms of minutes and seconds. For instance, a runner aiming at a marathon in 3 hours and 30 minutes should run a yasso in 3 minutes and 30 seconds. Recovery is the same time as the yasso.
Of course you can clock these times, which is especially easy on a track (which is, after all, 400m), I find it handy to use kilometer or mile pace, which spans 1000 or 1609 meters. You can calculate this yasso pace at the calculators page.
Today I’m doing 8 yasso’s, each in 2:50 (pace around 3:30/5:38).
Afterwards
The first yasso (or any interval for that matter) usually sucks, as it did this time. I think it has to do with finding the right pace. The rest went well, a bit too fast, but it felt good. Sometimes I do yasso’s on the track, but not this time, which meant finding a stretch of road without traffic lights.
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash
A yasso workout always feels like hard work, which it should, of course, but it’s a quality workout which I really like doing.
Workout data
If you want to see the workout, check it out on Garmin or on Strava.
Today, a second tune-up race, although this one was a bit short for a distance runner like me. In Rotterdam, the Maastunnel has been in renovation for two years and today was the new opening, with all kinds of festivities and, as the organization calls it, the unofficial National Championship Mile — the Maastunnel Mile.
The race
As the name suggests, this race was a mile long, a bit longer than the tunnel itself. As it is a tunnel, we started downhill and ended uphill. Not ideal, but a lot of fun. Check out the race at Hopasports.
Coming out of the tunnel, near the end of the Mile. Thanks to Percy van As for the picture.
Afterwards
It was a lot of fun. There were nice people and the overal atmosphere was very Rotterdam-like, just friendly and no-nonsense.
After a warming-up of about two kilometers, I had to wait for my starting wave. There were three waves, going from slower to fastest. As I had to wait for the last wave, I got really cold, but one of my team mates was in the second wave and gave me his plastic bag to hold me warm. Nice! I set my goal to a tempo of 3:10/5:10, so the same pace I tried out yesterday during the 3*800m workout. My goal finish time was 5:10 for the mile.
The running was good — no aches, no being out of breath, just going fast and trying to hold the pace. Going uphill at the end actually felt better than I had anticipated and as I could do and end sprint, I probably could have gone a bit faster, but this felt good and finishing in 5:08 aiming at 5:10 felt great.
After the race, I ran back home (about 8K) in an easy pace. It was a good day.
Race data and results
If you want to see the workout, check it out on Garmin or on Strava. The official results can be found on this Hopasports page.
The results. My official finishing time was 5:08, but you can see how accurate Stryd was — given that the 20 meters extra could well have been caused by my late button pressing.
PS It was nice having Stryd for this race. Being in a tunnel means no GPS, but Stryd appears to be very accurate in pace and distance, which helped pacing a lot.
Yesterday was a recovery day, which actually felt pretty good. Today, I’m doing a short speed workout with my eyes on a crazy short race tomorrow. (More on that later.)
The workout
Warming-up of 2K (after the usual dynamic stretches), then 3*800m at roughly 3:10/5:06 with 400m of active recovery in between. To finish the workout, a 2K cooling down.
Afterwards
Running at the desired pace was pretty hard, but it should be. As the road was wet, corners were a bit tricky, but next to that, the workout felt good and effective.
Workout data
If you want to see the workout, check it out on Garmin or on Strava.
Okay, today I did strength training, and the plan was to do an easy 10K the day after, but I ended up doing a workout on the track the same day. There was a workout on the program of my athletics club and I thought it would be nice to join. Fun? Yes. Smart. Don’t know.
The workout
The workout was a combination of laps on the track, form drills and some games, like jumping on the sound of a whistle, collecting pawns from the midfield, and running laps, throwing a die and getting sweets for the number you threw.
Photo by Jonathan J. Castellon on Unsplash
Afterwards
Although the weather really sucked, the training was fun. I cannot help but feel that it wasn’t a really focused workout (as in ‘building endurance’ or ‘improving speed’) and I don’t know what to think of that. On the one hand, I like knowing what the goal of a workout is. On the other, most workouts are pretty serious and goal-directed, so having a more fun and loose workout could lower the tension a bit.
Workout data
If you want to see the workout, check it out on Garmin or on Strava.
The workout consisted of eight stations this time, interspersed with cardio, which I filled mostly by jumping rope. I got some good feedback on weightlifting form, so I’m quite happy.
Today’s workout is a workout I’ve done many times — weekly — the last year: (longer) hill sprints.
The workout
The workout is 8*400 meter hill sprints, using a bicycle tunnel near my house. From the lowest point to the most nearby exit is exactly 400 meters. I roughly take 90 seconds per sprint. Before and afterwards, I do a 2km warming-up/cooling-down.
Photo by Daniel Lerman on Unsplash
Afterwards
Running went okay, but my watch messed up. Normally, when I go into the tunnel, cadence takes precedence over GPS (as there’s no signal inside) and the watch estimates pace, distance et cetera. Now, it did nothing. No big problem, because I know exactly how long the way up is (400m), but strange and irritating, because I have no post-workout data. Or at least, not a lot. Anyway, the workout was nice — the 400m’s up are tough, but keeping up with a high cadence and upright posture helps.
Workout data
If you want to see the workout, check it out on Garmin or on Strava.
This week is a recovery week, which means less miles in order to recover form the last three weeks of mileage build-up. Less miles does not mean no running, though. Instead of weekly totals of 80+K, this week totals at 45K.
Photo by Martina Misar-Tummeltshammer on Unsplash
The workout
A short 5K recovery run. I never run 5K, so it’ll be interesting to see what the effect of such a short run is.
Afterwards
Well, 5K got to 7,5K. I just messed up the route and I should’ve known, because I usually suck at routing. Anyway, not a very big deal, as I kept the pace and heart rate low and steady. My legs were a bit tired, but that’s not a problem for a recovery run, of course.
Workout data
If you want to see the workout, check it out on Garmin or on Strava.
Today, the day after the first tune-up race, I’ll do an easy longer run. I propbably shouldn’t, but I want to get to a week total of 83K, which means running 15K today. Smart? Probably not, but I can’t help it, I’m afraid.
The workout
An easy 15K run. As I have plans for the morning, I’m going to wake up early and run right after the sun comes up.
Afterwards
Running felt okay, a bit sluggish, but no real aches. I didn’t really feel my knee this times, but the left leg was definitely stiff/tired. I ran at 4:55 in heart rate zone 2 at a somewhat lower cadence of 186spm. That just felt about right.
Workout data
If you want to see the workout, check it out on Garmin or on Strava.
Today I ran a tune-up race to check how things are going.
The race
I was planning on doing a 5K, but I got together a team from work to do a relay of 4.44K each. (Yes, that’s a weird distance, but it’s in celebration of our University’s 444th birthday.) The race was a sponsor event to support the UAF for refugee students. Running for such a good cause is great, of course.
Afterwards
I find it hard to do short races and this was no exception, especially because the wind was brutal (several races got cancelled this weekend), as was the rain, and the course was quite tough, with lots of small bends, corners, and even woods and fences. I was planning to run at an average pace of 3:25, but I ended up at 3:35, which was mostly due to one long stretch of windy road and the fences and woods I had to travel through. That being said, I should keep working on maintaining speed for the next tune-up race, which hopefully provides me with better conditions for a proper test run.
Apart from that, I felt the running went pretty okay, although I should pay attention to proper breathing. That said, form was good, as were stride and a nice, high cadence of 200 spm. Funny thing is that I started the first relay and I immediately took the lead and after I think around 1 kilometer, I didn’t hear the runner-up and I have not seen him again, although I heard his trainer (on a bike) say to him right after the start: ‘just hang in steady, that guy [me] will drop pace in a minute or so’. That’s actually good advice, I think, but it did work out a bit different.
The start of the race. I’m the one in front wearing the blue 444 shirt
I ended up crossing the line first, which meant getting a medal from, having a chat and getting a photo with the Rector Magnificus of the University, Carel Stolker. I think it’s great he’s so involved with these kind of events and I even like it more that he kept cheering and presenting medals until the last runner finished, supporting both the running teams and the UAF.
Of course, I did a warming-up of 2K including dynamic stretches and a cooling-down run of 2K and some static stretching afterwards.
Workout data
If you want to see the workout, check it out on Garmin or on Strava.
A very early long run, as I have a conference and other appointments the rest of the day and evening.
The workout
An 12K long run in heart rate zone 2, pace around 5:00/8:00.
Afterwards
I miscalculated and ended up running 14K. No problem, but I had to shower and eat (and drink coffee) very fast to catch the train.
Photo by Lucaxx Freire on Unsplash
What is a problem, though, is that my left knee still aches. I don’t know what it is, as I didn’t change anything, except doing more faster workouts and adding some miles. No a lot though, because the first and second week of the program were not much bigger in terms of miles than what I’d run before starting. So, it might be the fast workouts, or the one-legged rope jumping. For now, I stopped doing the latter and I’ll see where it brings me. The problem isn’t as severe that I can’t run, and running doesn’t hurt, but the nagging feeling does worry me.
(Note to self: it might also be related to the weight lifting and strength training, but I don’t think this is the case.)
Workout data
If you want to see the workout, check it out on Garmin or on Strava.
