More HIIT... Speed, Speed, Speed

Will To Win, Part II

Consider this a sequel to my previous post entitled A Runner's Will To Win / Whine. This is my struggle to be the fastest runner I could ever be. The Pandesal Runner Adventures rolls on.

Week #17, I continue with my speed training program. This is supposed to be my second and last week of interval training before I venture into the tempo and long run workouts necessary to conquer the marathon. How is it going? Am I still sticking to my 42-day marathon schedule? Am I gaining the speed I need to bust the 22-minute 5K goal? Will I ever be faster than my 4:40 min/km 18K race pace? Will I be able to break my 22:54 minutes 5K training PR? Will I ever have a positive response to all the questions I just threw in this paragraph?

RTYP Interval Run

Intervals. Repeats. HIIT. Today, I just learned a new term to refer to my interval training workout -- RTYP, thanks to Amby Burfoot's TRAINING: The Right Speed. (Amby won the 1968 Boston Marathon.)

On my quest to be the best.. of myself, I pushed once again on my RTYP training day today. How hard? Till I almost puke. Bumaligtad talaga halos yung sikmura ko! (My stomach almost turned upside down). It was the 7th, 8th and 9th 400m repeats that really made me feel uneasy. The result? I just broke the sub 3:00 min/km pace on my 400m runs.. not once.. not twice.. but six times today.

Here are my 10x400m splits.

1. 1:04.8 minutes
2. 1:04.5 (my new 400m training PR)
3. 1:10
4. 1:04.7
5. 1:07, followed by a hydration break
6. 1:20.5
7. 1:14.4
8. 1:11.7
9. 1:13
10. 1:13.3
    

Push yourself too much and you invite injury. I was pushing so hard that I was running side-by-side with most of the vehicles running along Makati Sports Complex from time to time. At the last 100meters of the 400m sprint, I was desperately gasping for air and I was really about to puke. Feeling uncomfortable and almost losing control of my senses, I will slow down a bit to relax and recover.

There are a lot of times in there that I don't really know for sure if I am working hard or I am working foolishly. A roller coaster ride could really make you puke. Is it still worth it? When is it too much? At the last few 400m sprints, I still timed pretty good. So that tells me I am still within my limits. And I did stop at the sheduled 10th 400m repeat. No more, no less.

What Now?

I just had a 2:55 min/km average pace today. This Thursday, I will put myself to the test -- 2 x 5K race simulation runs. The Race for LIFE race this Sunday has just been moved to October 24. My speed test will now be a double attempt to break my 22:54 training PR. The target is to run sub 22 minutes on a 5K training day. Here's the 1K route that I will run continuously for 5 loops.

The Infinity Loop, A 1K Route covering Velazquez Park and Makati Sports Club.
Click on the image for a full view of the Infinity Loop.

The Finish Line Just Got A Little Crowded

When I started racing last November 2008 at the Race for LIFE, I finished the 10K race at 56:00 and ranked 52 out of 268 10K runners. Back then, a 4:00 min/km pace would have brought me at the top 5. I started to dream big and trained myself to run as close to 4:00 min/km ever since. Reality check, I'm still far away from that speed. Hehehe.

At the Eco-Dash Race last Sept 13, 2009, a 4:00 min/km pace would have given us these rankings:

• 3K, 5th
• 5K, 6th
• 10K, 6th
• 21K, 3rd
  

This is the set of data that really surprised me.. At the recently concluded 5th Octoberun, a 4:00 min/km pace would take us to these finish ranks:

• 3K, 6th
• 5K, 16th
• 16K, 14th
  

The Milo Race remains the most competitive race joined by thousands of runners. My 56-minute 10K finish was just 160th among a thousand runners. A 4:00 min/km finish at the Milo Manila Eliminations would have the following rankings:

• 3K, 88th
• 5K, 28th
• 10K, 10th
• 21K, 7th
• 42K, 5th
  

I thought a dream 4:00 min/km pace would be a sure top 10 finish from 5K to 10K. As Milo and Octoberun races just proved, it is not necessarily true. There a lot of fast runners in the country right now running sub 4:00 min/km. That's a very tough road battle out there.

At the back of my mind, I want a sub 4:00min/km pace at my 5K simulation races this Thursday even more. The Philippine racing scene has just gotten a lot tougher. Let us keep training hard.