#miletimetrial

[cmjhawk86]

Time for another #miletimetrial to assess progress. About a month ago I clocked a 6:16. Since then I've done #chivirtualtri plus two #5k races. Then I hit a fitness wall about a week or so ago. All my performance stats went to crap and my Garmin was giving me the dreaded "Unproductive" indicator every day. When I see that on the watch for one day, no big deal, but when I see it every day for a week, yeah something is out of whack. I finally decided to take the past weekend off and now I'm building back. But I'm clearly not all the way back. Thanks weird thing is, today's 6:30 was evenly paced the whole way, and I always felt like there was another gear there...but I just couldn't get to it. Then when I finished I was only modestly winded. I recovered quickly after it too, then worked some bleachers and cooled down, barely beating the big storm that rolled in. Anyway, a few years ago when I trained hard for the mile and got down to a 5:32, I collapsed on the turf when I finished with my lungs and legs on fire. Oh well, all I can do is #keepshowingup and #puttinginthework. I have to believe that breakthrough will come at some point. #runblr #fitblr #fallrunning #trackworkout #timetrial #masterstrackathlete #xctraining #mastersxcrunner (at Wilbert Tucker Woodson High School) https://www.instagram.com/p/CFvehMOHgrR/?igshid=1d5n6087wcx5l

[cmjhawk86]

Shots from #meetday at PG County today. I hadn’t done a real #trackandfield race indoors in 3 years so I went into this knowing I would be rusty and I would probably get smoked. Both were true. But there’s only one way to bust the rust and that’s to get out there and race. I started off with the 1600 and while I said I had no real goal, in my heart I really wanted to break 7:00. Also I knew it would be hard. But I came so close, running 7:03. For perspective, back in June when I did a #miletimetrial on the 1-year anniversary of my surgery I ran 7:59. And today was my fastest mile since the surgery. My real long term goal is to get back under 6:00, but that’s a ways off to be sure. For today I’ll take what I got and go from there. I then ran the #800meter after trying to do what I could to clear lactic acid out of my legs from the mile, but it didn’t work I guess. At about 500 meters, the wheels completely fell off as my legs and lungs both burned. I staggered across the line in an ugly 3:29. Basically I ran the first 400 at around 6:00 pace, and the second 400 around 8:00 pace. But I wasn’t done yet. I wanted a little more work so I did the #3000meter. At this point I had abandoned any pretense of being competitive in this race, especially after the 800 filled my legs with toxins. I switched from spikes to flats and told myself it would just be a tempo run. I watched the field gallop away from me right off the line but I swallowed whatever pride I had left and stuck to my plan. The 15:14 I ran equates to 8:10/mile, which according to the #mcmillanrunning calculator, is 8:10/mile right on current #temporun pace. It all adds up to very vigorous workout day and a needed reorientation to the track. I’ve got one more meet next month, down in Virginia Beach at the @tidewaterstriders all-comers meet. I’ll be looking to make some improvements there. #onerunatatime #mastersrunner #masterstriathlete #masterstrackathlete #mastersxcrunner #mastersroadrunner #runva #tracktraining #xctraining #neverstopstriving #justkeepgoing #zensah #zensahambassador #teamzensah #withoutlimitz #altragoldenspike #atreyubasemodel (at Prince Georges Sports & Learning Complex) https://www.instagram.com/p/CndBpM_OPRd/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[cmjhawk86]

I’ve been trying to get my #cycling volume back up but finding time has been a challenge lately between starting up a new job and keeping everything else going at home. So I settled for a quick 30 minutes through my neighborhood which of course means #hillshillshills. It kills the speed stats but it’s a great workout. And it’s definitely better than no ride at all. Back to running tomorrow, with a big test in store, a #miletimetrial. I have done zero fast running in the past several months, but since I’m planning to start a new program next week, I need to benchmark current fitness. My over-50 #mastersrunning PR is 5:32, and I’m probably not within 2 minutes of that right now, so expectations are not high. I just need to know where I am so I can train at the correct paces. And if I do that, the paces will eventually get faster and those benchmarks will move down. All part of the process. #mastersrunner #masterstriathlete #masterstrackathlete #mastersxcrunner #mastersroadrunner #runva #tracktraining #xctraining #neverstopstriving #justkeepgoing #zensah #zensahambassador #teamzensah #withoutlimitz #roadcycling #crosstraining #litespeedbikes #fairfaxcountyva #mantuava (at Mantua, Virginia) https://www.instagram.com/p/CfaT6RfDBZb/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[cmjhawk86]

You know when I’m wearing my @altrarunning #altraescalante that I’m all business. And I was on this evening. @mcmillanrunning had me doing 12 x 1 minute road #fartlek reps at #5k effort. For me, based on current fitness, that’s about 6:45-7:00/mile. Tonight I was under that, sometimes well under it. My best one was 6:08/mile pace. Have I hit a new fitness level? I’ll find out in two days when I do a #miletimetrial but the signs are good! #runblr #fitblr #summertraining #summerrunning #mastersrunner #mcmillanrunteam #xctraining (at Mantua, Virginia) https://www.instagram.com/p/CEFssLJnyCD/?igshid=1lylfcrqtw9li