Doing hill sprints without hills is, well, quite hard. Not impossible, though. There’s the obvious choice of treadmill intervals with a significant incline, but you could also try to define ‘hill’ a bit more loosely.
Photo by Don Shetterly on Unsplash
I do 8*400 meter hill sprints every week and I use a bicycle tunnel near my house for that. The tunnel is 900 meters long, but the lowest point is not in the middle. From this lowest point to the most nearby exit is exactly 400 meters, so that’s perfect. I know people who use the ramp of a parking garage/ I guess these are shorter, but steeper.
After yesterday’s intervals, today’s the time for an endurance run.
The workout
This workout is simple: a steady 14K run in heart-rate zone 2, which for me, most of the times, comes down to a pace around 5:00/8:03. Before starting, there’s a warming up of 4 minutes, consisting half a minute of knee lifts, butt kicks, cross passes, and arm swings intertwined with half minutes of jogging.
Afterwards
I felt a bit tired from the previous day and a full day of work, but running was fine and steady at 4:55/7:55 with a high cadence (190spm).
If you want to see the workout, check it on Garmin (you can see it without an account) or on Strava (you need an account).
So, today I got started with my first workout for a faster 10K time. (See previous post.)
The workout
The first workout is a speed workout and consists of 10 times 400m at 3:20/5:22 pace at the track, with a 3000m easy jog before and after the interval set. In between the intervals, a 200m easy jog.
Afterwards
Although the track was really crowded and some trainers didn’t seem to have their pupils under control, the workout felt good and the pace did too, albeit I went a bit to fast the first few rounds. I used a metronome at 198bpm to maintain form and a high cadence. I’ve been using a metronome for a while now and while the beeping starts off as really annoying, you’ll get used to it.
If you want to see the workout, check it on Garmin (you can see it without an account) or on Strava (you need an account).
I’m going to train for a faster 10K. My current PB on that distance is 36:26 and I’m hoping to shave off a minute. While this may not seem like much, it actually is — it’s the difference between an average pace of 3:38/5:51 and 3:32/5:42.
The program
I’ve created a program, loosely based on Pfitzinger & Latter’s 10K plan in Faster Road Racing: 5K to Half Marathon. The 11 week plan has five workouts a week, with one day of cross training and one day full rest. The first week has a total of 75K and it peaks at 88K in week 6.
The guidelines I’m following in this program are:
Each week consists of a tempo workout, a speed workout and two endurance runs, each with its own benefits. (More on that later.)
The hard efforts account for approximately 20 percent of a week’s total, the other 80 percent of the kilometers are at easy pace (whether it be a long run or the warming-up to a speed workout). This guideline is based on Matt Fitzgerald’s 80/20 Running.
Let’s hope I can do this and let’s also hope I do not forget to continue this series here.
I’m the last guy there, with the yellow shirt. It was very, very hot this day, so I was quite happy to run a 10K in 37:24
Okay, technically not a movie, but episode 5 (‘The Hot Tub’) of Seinfeld, Season 7. The episode revolves around Elaine’s friend Jean Paul, a marathon runner from Trinidad who has previously missed his chance to compete in the Olympic marathon because his alarm clock didn’t work properly. (No, it was not the snooze…) This time he has come to New York to run the famous 26.2 Miles.
The cast of Seinfeld. Copyright Castle Rock Television.
To make sure he doesn’t oversleep this time, Jerry offers his couch to Jean Paul to sleep on and he promises to wake him up in time. Kramer’s hot tub ruins that plan however. Be sure to watch this episode!
As is often the case, things stop working when fixing is impossible, expensive or just annoying. In the latter category, my Garmin HRM-run chest strap stopped working just when I was visiting the States. I figured it was the battery, but of course I didn’t pack any batteries.
I bought some quite expensive Duracell 2032 batteries and replaced the old with the new. My watch however did not find the strap. I carefully followed the instructions on both Garmin’s site and on their forums, including waiting half a minute (and longer) between taking the old battery out and putting the new one in, but nothing worked. As the batteries came in a two-pack, I tried the second one too. Nothing, so I figured the strap was broken. I usually keep all my receipts, but, of course, when I got home, I couldn’t find this one. So, no warranty. Therefore, I bought a new, less fancy strap.
A couple of weeks later, I ordered some batteries online and I figured I could use some CR 2032’s, so I ordered ten of those, but this time, from a different brand — GP. I tried them in my ‘old’ HRM-run strap and guess what, it worked again. I talked to someone at Garmin and he said ‘Oh, yes, Duracell’s do that some times.’ Nice… it would have saved me a lot of money knowing that before investing in another strap.
Moral of the story: try different brands of batteries. If you use a Garmin HRM-run chest strap, try other brands than Duracell.
If you use a weight scale from Medisana, you can only sync your weight stats with the Vitadock app and website. As I could not find any way to get these data into Garmin Connect, I wrote a converter which you can find at https://www.reuneker.nl/files/vita/. It’s limited in the sense that it only allows you to import your weight (so not BMI, bone mass et cetera), but it works.
This early Bill Murray-comedy is no movie about running, but a fairly typical summer camp movie — dad sends kid to summer camp, he doesn’t want to go and has trouble making friends, makes friends in the end. Running is featured, however, as the grand finale between two rivalry summer camps (after a hotdog-eating contest, some swimming et cetera).
This movie’s from 1979 and it shows. It’s still funny, but I guess you’ll have really like Bill Murray or be in that summer-camp-movie mood to enjoy it. Or sit through it and wait for the running, of course.
Today, I did a long, steady run of 22km mainly through the farmlands around here. The weather was abominable for August, but it always feels more rewarding finishing a long run in the pouring rain. On the upside, the cows were very friendly today.
A friendly cow somewhere between Schipluiden and Schiedam
