Running into August

Day 214 - August 2, 2009

Another month has come to a close and with today's run, I have logged 214 consecutive days of running and 842 miles. Considering all of last year I only logged 880 miles, I am well on my way to surpassing that and I'm even on pace to set a new annual high (in 2005 I logged 1424 miles).

Today's run was a good mix of endurance and speed. I drove over to the Tech school, parked the car, and then ran 2.3 miles to the high school track for a warm-up. For the speed work-out I ran what I call a funnel. It starts with a longer distance, like a 1600m, and then decreases by 400m with each interval. The idea is to run each interval at a slightly faster pace. Today I started with a modest 6:33 1600m, and followed that up with a 4:48 1200m (6:24 pace); 3:03 800m (6:06 pace) and 1:23 400m (5:32 pace). For recovery, I jog a 400m lap in between intervals. I finished the workout with a 2.3 mile recovery run back to the car.

I like this type of speed workout because it gives me a chance to loosen up and get faster with each interval and I also get the endurance benefit of running longer intervals at the beginning. It also teaches you to run faster at the end of a race which can really help with your final kick. I'm hoping to continue running at least one speed workout a week to prepare myself for the fall 10K season. I'll keep you posted.