I've been spending the last few days looking for a new apartment and packing up my old one. This included a two day trip to CT apartment hunting, including an unexpected stay in DC because of missing my flight. Not good! Luckily I have great friends there, so I had an unexpected visit with them. Needless to say, I have had little time to work out.
Today I went out for a 3.2 mile run and really pushed it. While I was driving around CT looking at places, I was listening to the Top 20 station on satellite radio, and Bulletproof was on over and over. Now, I love it! I downloaded it and played it over and over while I ran. I finished in ~28 minutes, which is awesome for me! So this brings me to my new goal...
Sub 2 hour half marathon!
I need your help though! My average pace right now is probably in the 9:30 to 9:45 range depending on the distance I'm running. The race I'm going to run is in October. So I have a bit of time to get myself going. I need help figuring out how best to make this happen. Any good speed workouts you know of? Or maybe I should run a certain mileage each week with tempo and intervals thrown in? With a couple 5K's or 10K's here and there to test my pace? I have no idea!
Also, I'm looking for a new heart rate monitor. It was a casualty of my flood. :( I think with my new running goals it's time to invest in a GPS watch. I really want something that tracks calories well too though. Does anyone have a favorite GPS watch? I have used a friend's Garmin but the one he had was huge. I want something that's a normal watch size. Thoughts???
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She's back! Haha. I would strongly suggest doing track workouts to build up your speed. Do a lot of tempo runs (running at or above race pace) and enter 5k's. Use the races as your speed workouts.
ReplyDeleteThe best way to build speed is to push yourself until you want to throw up (graphic but true). When you are doing 800m repeats on the track, you don't want to be able to walk when you are done, after a couple weeks of that you will see drastic gains :)
When I want to gain speed, I often think of things that make me angry/mad and I harness all that energy for the run. It works and it allows you to release the bad stuff.
Speed work is very hard on the body though so keep up with the yoga and stretching!
Have to agree with Matty O on all accounts. I would add that working with a track coach to do some drill work to improve your mechanics would be of great value as well. Speed comes from a variety of factors, chiefly leg cadence and stride length. The other best way to improve speed is running with faster runners.
ReplyDeleteHeart Rate monitor - I have a Polar RS400 that I love - I also have the huge garmin...there are newer garmins that are smaller and most of the friends I run with all love the new ones - better satellite reception and nicer looking.
Sounds bad to say this maybe, but the last way to get fast is to be as lean as possible - when I dropped 10 pounds a year ago I improved my marathon time by 10% - I have read other articles that suggest each pound of fat lost is equal to a 1 percent improvement in time.
Hey -- just found your blog and look forward to following your journey!
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