The return of tempo

Monday 5/2 (2.0mi, 15min, 7:40/mi) Another 2 mile warmup on the treadmill before lifting weights. I played with my speed a little bit on this one. I ran sets of a quarter mile and then a tenth of a mile cool down. I increased the pace of each quarter mile repeat 0.5 mph and lowered it down to 8:30/mi for the cool down tenth. I think my fastest was 6:00/mi pace. I thought I'd do something different to try to keep it interesting.

I'm also playing with my weight lifting routine. I only lift weights twice a week for 30 - 40 min. I don't know if it's better to do one set of an exercise per muscle group and hit all 6 main groups (shoulders, biceps, triceps, back, chest, legs) in one session or to focus on 2 - 3 muscle groups per session but doing sets of 3 different exercises per group. Hit all of the muscle groups lightly every workout or hit them hard every 2nd or 3rd workout? I did the former on Monday.

Tuesday 5/3 (6.25mi, 48min, 7:43/mi) I ran out to Viewpoint park again for 3 CCW loops of my newly discovered trail. I ran them in decreasing times (4:25, 4:03, 3:48) which left me pretty tired after the 3rd one given the short steep climb at the end of the loop. Good run other than my nemesis the Gingerbread man showing up and the stinging nettles that I managed to scratch my butt on.

Wednesday 5/4 (12.0mi, 1h 26m, 7:13/mi) I had a long day at work so I kicked off a job and went out for a run so that I could come back as it was finishing up. I decided to run along the Sammamish river trail and insert some half-mile pickups into the run. I feel like ever since hurting my Piriformis muscle I've been slacking on my running, mostly jogging with no speed or hill work thrown in.. I got down the long hill to the trail and ran six 1/2mi repeats with 1/4mi cooldown. I ran the repeats in: 3:07, 3:06, 3:10, 3:09, 3:08, 3:14) The times slipped a little bit which I'd expected. I was pretty tired after the last one. I ate a gel and turned around for the run back to work. I tried to run the next 4 miles increasing the pace every mile and I'm impressed that I did in: 7:22, 7:09, 6:52, 6:41). Even running mile 10 mile in 6:41 didn't seem that hard. There is a hill at the beginning / end of this route that follows hwy 520 down into Redmond. It's about 1.25 miles long and averages maybe 7% - 8% grade so it's much more than a false flat. I felt good enough that I was able to pass a guy my age on a mountain bike at the bottom of the hill and by the time I got to the top I couldn't even see him behind me. I wasn't able to pass the guy in front of me on a road bike as he slowly put distance on me. Maybe if I hadn't just finished 10 miles of tempo running I could have held on to road bike guy.

Thursday 5/5 (6.2mi, 50min, 8:09/mi) After yesterday's tempo / interval run I needed to take it easy. I probably should have gone to the gym and lifted weights instead of running but I didn't have the time. Instead I ran the Pro Club loop CCW at a somewhat leisurely pace. Starting the run was a little rough with the soreness in my legs from yesterday but once I got going I felt pretty good. I tried to really work on my legs before bed with my PVC roller and some stretching.

Friday 5/6 (2.0mi, 15mi, 7:45/mi) Just ran a simple 2 mile warmup on the treadmill before lifting weights.

I didn't get a chance to run on Saturday and Sunday. It was just an overloaded weekend hanging out with the family and spending Mother's day out and about. I did make it to the pool and had time to swim 300 yds while the wife and kids were getting ready. I didn't have goggles with me so I just squinted to watch the line on the bottom of the pool. It reminded me how much of a workout swimming is for me. I'll run for hours and feel good but a few hundred yards in the pool has me out of breath in no time.