Another TriGirl Take on January’s Schedule

Literally hours before heading out to NY for Christmas, I was at our Saturday morning bike class when Coach M. announced the January schedules were ready – and that we would be picking up the intensity next month. I glanced at it and chatted about “the times” with TriGirl Devil Face (who also has a post on about this topic on her blog) during our post bike 4 mile run - and then forgot about it in my cookie and glogg induced haze.

Until now.

Based on my 8:40 mile run test last month, three target times have been created by Coach M and G. I was practically pumping my fist at the “easy” time - an 11:30 mile – which is supposed to be used during long or easy runs to increase duration. Lately, a 10:30 – 11:00 minute pace is feeling fairly easy (i.e., I am not gasping for air every moment) – so I am excited that maybe I will have to “force” (ha) myself to go slower.

Then there are the other two times. My “tempo” pace is a 9:40 mile. I started to worry when I read the description, “This is a pace that is close to a 10k pace.” Wait, even with two half marathons under my belt, I still consider a 10K a longish run – I was hoping for/counting on that 11:30 pace for anything over 4 miles. But I thought about it some more. I’ve done a couple of runs lately where I’ve been able to do 2-3 miles at a sub 10 pace. Even this past weekend, my mile splits for one run (gotta love the Garmin watch) were a 9:30, 9:51 and 9:53. Not exactly hitting the 9:40, but not too terribly far off either. Though I have to admit, I wondered if the Garmin was off that day. Then again, I was practicing keeping my elbows behind my waist (that was mostly a joke – but you never know). (Note picture from Naylor's Beach Triathlon earlier this year, left elbow is clearly NOT behind my waist!)

The third time is for ½ mile repeats – I am supposed to aim for a 4:10 pace. We’ve done a few ½ mile repeats workouts this year – and toward the end, my best time was right around 4 minutes, with most ranging in the 4:15-4:30 range. So, I guess this may be doable. Though I think the 2-3 ½ mile repeats we were doing might be increasing to many more repeats – so I’ll reserve my thoughts on this for now.

The fun begins.