Week 11 - Day 5

I went out to Washington Lee with Ken late Saturday morning to do a ladder workout with lower rest. Of late, I've been doing more conditioning work than speed work, which has been a good way to mix things up.

Rest: Walk same distance you just ran
Format: rep - distance - target time (s) - actual time (s)

1 - 300m - 45 - 43.0
2 - 200m - 29 - 29.5
3 - 100m - 13 - 13.1
4 - 100m - 13 - 13.6
5 - 200m - 28 - 28.1
6 - 300m - 44 - 42.6
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I hate it when I f-ing go out too fast! It drives me crazy! It has the potential to ruin workouts (see: Week 10 - Day 6...), so I really need to get better about managing my opening speed. The funny thing was, I started to pull up after the 250m mark or so on the opening 300. I slowed markedly and still ran a 43. If I hadn't checked in with my watch, I would have run a 41 or so. For reps 2-5, I closely monitored my time and stuck to the goals. I would go out at full speed and then shut it down as I got closer to the finish. For the 200s, I eased up for the last 40-50m. For the 100s, the last 20-30m. For the 100s in particular, I crossed the finish line at a tempo pace, at best. Is this the right way to approach these reps? Or should I not go out at full speed and try to keep a more constant pace? My gut says the latter approach is better, but something can be said about practicing full-speed starts.

While I found the first five reps rather easy, rep 6 was different. I ran hard the entire time and wanted to beat my opening 43, which I did and was happy about. My heart rate was up during this entire workout which, again, was a good change of pace. I have time trial #2 this upcoming Thursday and over the next few days will look to bribe/incentivize folks (if necessary) to join me, haha.

Andrew