Last Week's Runs

I finally feel like I'm starting to get back to my previous level of running. Maybe I've been slacking not to be more advanced than I am. On the other hand, this time I want to really build a base for running to help myself run faster and longer.

Tuesday - 1:01 4.29 miles. W10, (R5 W1) x 6, W15.

Wednesday - 1:01 4.7 miles W10, (R5 W1) x 6, W15.

Friday - 1:39 6.33 miles W10 (R6 W1) x 5, the rest walking. I went running at Walnut Creek and it was just lovely and beautiful. I saw two different women walking dogs and 2 bicyclists and that was it. There were more people at the park which I could tell because of the cars in the lot but I didn't run into them.

Friday redux - 46 minutes, 2.49 miles. I needed to kill time between not making the iron cutoff to donate blood platelets and picking up my nephew at school. I planned to park and walk at Town Lake but I could not get parked due to the Reggae fest so I just parked and walked downtown.

Sunday - I set out to do some Yasso 400s. If you google Yasso 400s or Yasso 800s you will find about 20,000 links (no exaggeration) - mostly to blogs. Either is an interval workout that theoretically predicts marathon time (800s) or half-marathon time (400s). For the 400s, you run a 400 at the pace you want to run the 1/2 in (but minutes:seconds rather than hours:minutes), then you walk 200 meters. If you're starting your training you might be able to do 4 400s at pace and you work up hoping to get to 20 by the time you're nearing race day. I went to the track at my neighborhood elementary school. Now I called the school last year and spoke to the P.E. teacher who said that the track is 1/4 mile. It's a trail type track - dirt and gravel but doesn't look like 1/4 mile.

After walking 10 minutes, I set down my water bottle which I intended to use to mark my starting/finishing points for each lap, hit start on my watch, and started running. Lo and behold, my first 400 was 1:50. Well, since I was hoping to do at least 4-6 400s at 2:20 that seemed sort of fast. Very fast. I walked my 200 and then hit start again. Another 1:50 lap. Third lap - I hit my timer but also hit the button on my Nike+ to find out the distance. Guess what? The track is .18 miles long, not .25. So 1/6 of a mile. I did 5 more 400s at 2:20 by running about 100 yards past my water bottle, then walking back past it and then some more. The 10 minute walk and then 7 400/200 intervals took 35 minutes and covered 2.4 miles. I walked another 1.69 miles in 33:20.

It's definitely a workout I'll do again (Yasso recommends doing it once a week in addition to all other training) but I think next time I'll use a "real" track or mark off a true 1/4 mile on this one.

In other news, I put on a pair of shorts that I haven't put on in about 3-4 years or more this weekend. It fit great. Actually it was a little baggy. I could probably wear a 1 inch smaller size. I have two pairs that are the same khaki & blue and I wore both during the weekend and both fit great.

In other other news, I ordered a foam roller this weekend. I've heard very good things about using them to stretch and loosen muscles so it seems worth trying.