Hell Repeats.

Week of February 4-10…10 weeks to Boston.

I like to compare data from last year and torture myself (and my Coach) insane, lamenting and crying as to why I’m so slow this year.  (hint:  weight)  So this week’s Faster Finish, instead of doing exact same workout as previous year, my Coach did the unthinkable.  He rearranged the pattern and the length of the “Yasso 800s” we do in Central Park’s Great Lawn. 

1)      It was counter clockwise rotation instead of clockwise rotation.

2)      It went from 800m to and odd “half mile and a little bit”.

3)      He made us run it despite icy grounds (forced slow down).

I was slower than I would have like to have gone, but I consciously slowed down for ice patches.  So now I can’t compare, and it wasn’t a full effort.  I managed a 7:00/mile at one point, so I guess that’s good.  I believe my Coach decided to save himself from my harassing e-mails.

Thursay came with the Harlem Hill Repeats, which from now on, I shall call it HELL REPEATS.  I did these back in December:

Split	Time	Distance	Elevation Gain	Elevation Loss	Avg Pace
Harlem Hill 1	03:02.4	0.35	71	0	8:43
Recover	03:18.4	0.33	0	65	9:57
Harlem Hill 2	02:41.5	0.3	65	0	8:50
Recover	03:25.4	0.32	0	65	10:34
Harlem Hill 3	02:40.3	0.3	67	0	8:50
Recover	03:28.2	0.33	0	65	10:36
Harlem Hill 4	02:41.9	0.32	67	0	8:32
80% to 90th Street	07:13.0	0.9	54	43	8:02
Cool Down	15:36.8	1.66	36	84	9:24

Back then it was “good” in the sense that I wasn’t going up these things at 9:00/mile.  I was pretty happy with the 8:43 to 8:32 on the hills, and this was supposedly 80-90% effort.  I think the best part was that I didn’t have to stop mid-hill.

Here is this Thursday.  Now…it took 6 WEEKS to get here, which is a long time... 

Split	Time	Distance	Elevation Gain	Elevation Loss	Avg Pace
Harlem Hill 1	02:48.3	0.33	68	0	8:34
Recover	03:40.5	0.35	0	64	10:25
Harlem Hill 2	02:47.8	0.33	68	0	8:33
Recover	03:53.0	0.35	0	63	11:14
Harlem Hill 3	02:42.1	0.33	45	0	8:16
Recover	03:56.8	0.34	20	66	11:34
Harlem Hill 4	02:42.6	0.32	61	0	8:21
80% to 90th Street	07:08.7	0.33	68	0	7:55
Cool Down	13:01.4	0.35	0	64	8:16

First two repeats at “easy” pace, then last 2 repeats at 75% effort, so marathon pace.

Remarkably better.  I’m especially pleased with the Repeat #3.  I had a target to chase here.  I was chasing an alien cyclist up the Hill.

 

Grant it, I could’ve gone a little harder on these, but the point was to keep marathon effort.  I think these are pretty decent start to the last 10 weeks of training.

This weekend’s long run was an 18-miler.  After not having anything over 16 in a while, I was a bit hesitant.  What if I crap out?  What if I don’t have any endurance?  Well, I’m happy to report that other than some rough patches where I became utterly bored with running (happens after mile 15 usually) I was able to go pretty smoothly.  The only thing I regret was not having any water.  My right calf cramped up at mile 16 and it was a bit of a struggle since then.  (LOL?)  But now I know.  Even if I’m in a good “zone”, I should stop and hydrate.  Or else, I will end up mugging people for their water.  You live and learn!

So with 10 weeks to go, I have to, I have to, I have to really start my diet and lose 10lbs.