Fast Twitching

Week of May 6, 2012:

Wednesday: Running speed work-out

Thursday: Bike commute

Friday: Off

Saturday: Errands and grocery shopping by bike (you know, the usual)

I’ve been listening to a podcast called Latest in Paleo in which the host talks a lot about paleo approaches to fitness.  One strategy that paleo fitness people advise is to do high-intensity interval training.  In other words, choose work-outs where you push yourself really hard for short periods of time.  For runners, this means speed work-outs.

I may be a freak, but I LOVE SPEED WORK-OUTS.  Love them.  There is something so powerful, so primal, about pushing yourself to the limit for a short interval.  We’re really talking all-out sprinting here, or something close to it.  When I’m training for a long-distance race, like a half-marathon, I tend not to do any speedwork so that I can focus on good long runs.  But right now, I’ve got a 10K on the calendar, and I feel confident that the mileage will not be a problem.  I’ve done two 50-minute runs recently, and I have a plan to “ladder” my way up to two 60-minute runs in the weeks before the 10K.  When I’m not doing super-duper long runs, it’s more fun to make at least one of my running work-outs a speedy one.

On Wednesday, I hit the pavement for a 14-minute warm-up followed by two 1-minute sprints, with 1 minute of recovery between them.  The sprints were hard but good, which is exactly what they should be, I think.  If they’re not hard, then I always think I’m being too easy on myself!

Tomorrow’s agenda includes a 40-minute “easy” run and a bike ride to the lab to take care of a few things.  I’m dropping down from 50 to 40 minutes in my long runs because I was struggling at 50 minutes.  There’s no need to be struggling with my long runs when I have six weeks until race day.  And this is a fun race, an automatic PR because it will be my first 10K!  A fun race requires a fun training mentality, so I’m just happy to get out there and run.

That’s what it’s all about, right?