Friday mornings are my wife's, so no chance to workout there. I think she swam at the pool. Anyway, I went to the Blue Ash Rec Center at lunch to 'only lift weights'. A co-worker also went to run on the indoor track, as it was raining on and off all day. I did about 6 sets on two different machines, throwing up big numbers (wink!), when I saw my buddy running. The track is on the 2nd floor, and I was sitting on the machine downstairs, pumping away, watching him just cruise around. He was having a great run, and I was bored.
I was surrounded by tons of guys lifting serious weight. This was my scene from about 2002 to 2006 (pre-kids). I loved the weight room and didn't care about cardio at all. Back then my bench press (max) was in the 300's, and I wore a 54 jacket (chest, 47 today). I used to be the guy people would ask to help spot them. My how things have changed. It was all I could do to finish my 6th set and return the weight to the racks before I jumped up the stairs to join him.
He was running about 7:30mm pace, as the track is 1/10 of a mile and they have a giant digital timer on the wall. I ran a few laps with him, before he stopped to do pushups and some other stuff. I saw this as a chance to do some intervals. From what I understand, the best way to run faster is to run faster. Hah ha. How? Just run a short distance faster, then recover, and repeat. This and the higher cadence is what took my 11:00mm avg pace down to 8:30 or so.
So, I ran a lap or two slower, maybe 9:30 or 10:00mm, then ran a couple laps "fast" at maybe 6:30 or 6:00. Back and forth, slow then fast. I know I ran several laps at about 6:00mm flat, which to most runners is nothing (they get into the 3's & 4's) but for this guy (me) I was having a mini party in my head. I would have never thought I'd be a sub-10:00 minute guy, now I'm doing even better. I love it.
All endurance athletes hate intervals. To do them properly, you need to actually run to failure, just like when lifting heavy weights. They do their fast laps as fast as they can run. Imagine you're running from a bear. Now, do that and then rest, then do it again. It's painful and miserable, but it really works. So, I could have gone faster but it was lunch break and I did what I did. The next intervals I do outside, I'll picture a bear chasing me and see if I can't hit the 4's (I've hit the 5's a couple times).
Photo of the day:
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