Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Ants In My Pants and Speed Workouts

It's our spring break here this week, and we have been blessed with a visit from some of our family from Maine (hence, my lack of posting).  Our kiddos have been having a blast playing with their cousins, who they get to see far too infrequently.  We've had some bizarre weather the last four days.  It snowed on Monday and it's supposed to be almost 80 degrees tomorrow.  Weird, but I'll take it.  The last few days of warmer weather has given me a serious case of 'ants in my pants'.  I have been absolutely ITCHING to get out for a run, but spending the time with family has taken (and should take) precedence.

But, I think I may sneak out early tomorrow morning...

And, I was pretty excited to find out from a friend who works at the high school just up the road from our neighborhood that using their track for speed workouts should be no problem.  Now, I just have to figure out what a speed workout is...

Do you ever feel guilty for "squeezing" your runs/workouts in during times when you know there are more important things going on?

What exactly does a speed workout entail?

6 comments:

  1. It's hard to fit everything in sometimes, and not feel like you are neglecting family or other duties. I'm lucky Jim and I are both active so we understand when the other one has to dedicate time to training.

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  2. Is there a local running club website you can go to to get more info on speed work? Our local club (Macon Tracks) does weekly group speedworkouts. The coach used to post a weekly schedule as to what we were going to do. He follows the Jack Daniels traning programs. Jack Daniels (not the drink LOL) has a book that is pretty technical but GREAT if your wanting to incorporate speed intervals/tempos into your runnning. It can be VERY overwhelming at first but you will see results.
    This week I did my first track workout since the spring, we ran 1 mile warmup w/ 2 ladders of (100m,200m,400m,400m,200m,100m) and a mile cooldown.
    I've got a lot of info if your iterested. Look me up on FB, my name is Kathy Wilkins - I'm in Georgia. I think there is a link on my blog.

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  3. You can do so many different types of speed work! That's the great thing- you can find what works for you. I love repeats ;) Check out runnersworld.com for some ideas! Good luck and let us know when you do your first!

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  4. when I was working out like crazy, I took off to exercise at disneyworld :( sad but true. I sort of regret that now, instead of taking in that experience fully, I was too busy worrying about losing weight!

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  5. Hey you! I think is important to take time for the things that help us reach our goals and feel happy! More to give later. I don't feel guilty really because I know that I'm working hard towards something that important to me.

    All kinds of speed workouts. Longer intervals that help with endurance at higher speeds. Shorter spurts of speed workouts that help you start to build a base with speed. Tempo runs where you hold on to a faster pace for a longer stretch of time.

    I'd start out with doing shorter fartleks based on time....like 30-90 seconds at 5k pace with 2 min of recovery pace and then do it again several times. well, don't quote me on that but something like that.

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  6. Speed work? That's when I make myself run fast right? :) I really have no clue. :)

    I just started training and I've already had both family and school take precedence over a run on a few occasions. It's a crazy world that of a mother. balance balance balance. :)

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