Clockwork mornings

Tuesday morning I hopped on the trainer. I had a bright idea to start adding some intensity. I plotted out a workout that would involve a warm up followed by 7 – 1 minute intervals at very hard intensity with 2 minutes of easy recovery. I stopped after the first interval. I just do not have the intensity on the bike right now (or the tired legs – or whatever). This is where my training has always suffered. How do you fit 3 hard bike workouts while doing 3 hard run workouts? Which follows which? I am still working on that – I can do either hard bike workouts or hard run workouts – it just breaks down when I want to do both.


I had class at lunch and I was planning on doing some run intervals at the track after work. I was not looking forward to the track but I knew that once I got there it would be cool. And it was. I decided on the fly that I was going to run a couple 1200’s and call it an easy day. I ran a mile or two with Charles and the crew and then started the intervals. These would be challenging but obtainable. I wanted to round the track every 1:35 – this would put me at a slower 6:20 minutes per mile or 4:45 for each 1200 interval. I was a little bit fast the first two at 4:39 (6:12 pace). These were feeling easy – well not easy but not all out either. I felt good. Then it hit – “IT” has hit me the last 3 times at the track. Major GI distress. This is simply not like me. I have a cast iron stomach. Nothing much bothers me. But when I have been running hard in the evening (and only when I have been running hard in the evening) I feel like I am going to crap my pants. This is not much fun. So I completed the third 1200 and feeling like a deer in headlights I headed towards my vehicle. Charles and the crew asked me if I was done and wanted to run a few cool down laps – NOPE – I headed towards the elementary school – it looked like there was an open house or something – maybe I could slip in and do my damage. While walking towards the school – in just a minute or two - everything was better – no, I did not go into the school – the pain and discomfort subsided. I think that since I am a morning type of guy – between first and second cup of coffee – like clockwork – when running hard in the evening, the food that I eat all day just gets jostled around. I have been eating a pound plus of carrots during the day. I have only ran on afternoon / evening race in the last year and that race was not a problem (5KPR 19:09). I wished that I would have gotten one more 1200 but I have given myself a pass.

I hit the gym on Wednesday morning feeling great. I ran around the indoor track with Jodie for a few laps warming up and just chatting. I then made it to the treadmill where I wanted to do a set of Tabata Intervals. If you remember, these are 8 sets of 20 seconds on / 10 seconds off. The on is at an all out / break neck pace. Getting all 8 sets is hard. I set the treadmill and the stopwatch up and prepared with a little more warm up running. I started at 8 minutes per mile – this was easy stuff. I inched the speed up to a 6:18 minute per mile pace. This also was not too hard. I was feeling good. I set the treadmill for 12 MPH (5:00 minutes per mile pace) and began the Tabata Intervals. I completed all 8 sets without problem – sure they got harder but this was the easiest that they have ever been. Afterwards, feeling pumped, I hit the weights. But still feeling strong, I ran some fast straight-aways on the 200 meter indoor track. I had a great workout!