Category Archives: lactate threshold run

Catching Up

Start time: 10/2/07, 6:30pm
Location: McLean High School
Distance: ~3.5 miles
Average pace: 9:15min/mile & 7:00min/mile

You know what happens when you’ve skipped your LTRs for a month? They stink, that’s what. I ended up only doing a little over half of the prescribed amount and then thought I was going to go splat. (This strange “oh look, August temperatures” phenomenon isn’t helping matters either.) Right foot was cramping again, although it eased up after a mile or so.

Start time: 10/3/07, 7:00pm
Location: Wilson Boulevard (Clarendon, Virginia Square, Ballston)
Distance: 4.25 miles
Average pace: 9:11min/mile

Just a quick jaunt up Wilson Boulevard and back. And, yet again, right foot strange cramps were in the house. I’m now wondering if the problem is the new pair of inserts in the shoes, so I swapped the right foot insert out today before going to the gym to use the elliptical and rowing machines. No foot pain, so fingers crossed, a bum insert was the problem! We’ll see on Sunday.

LTRs yet again

Start time: 9/4/07, 5:30pm
Location: Thomas Jefferson Community Center
Distance: ~4.5 miles
Average pace: 9:15min/mile & 7:00min/mile

This was definitely a little harder, as the reps shot up to 6x3min. (Plus no running since the previous Thursday.) Feeling it in the last lap? Oh, you betcha. But on pace, so all’s well that ends well.

More LTRs

Start time: 8/28/07, 6:00pm
Location: McLean High School
Distance: ~3.75 miles
Average pace: 9:15min/mile & 7:00min/mile

This felt a little tougher than last week’s, but then again… I also had just run 18 miles two days before this most recent iteration. Other than that, nothing to report. Still on pace, still doing well.

3 minute excitement

Start time: 8/21/07, 6:00pm
Location: McLean High School
Distance: ~3.75 miles
Average pace: 9:15min/mile & 7:00min/mile

So, yesterday’s LTRs pushed the time of the faster speed from 2 minute bursts to 3 minute bursts. Happily, the number of repitiions accordingly dropped from 10 to just 4. It was a piece of cake, happily; the only real problem I had was that it was pouring rain when I got up in the morning to run my LTRs, so I had to wait until after work to do them and it was sort of like running through a big cloud.

Which way to go?

Start time: 8/14/07, 7:15am
Location: Washington & Lee High School
Distance: ~4.75 miles
Average pace: 9:25min/mile & 7:00min/mile

In the “planning to do this for ages” category, for this morning’s LTRs (after a week off of running due to weather conditions and then being on vacation) I did my warm-up run by jogging a mile over to Washington & Lee High School, then ran the LTRs on their track. For the most part it was nice, but I did get a little annoyed at one point. When I got there, other runners were on the track and everyone was running clockwise. Ok, clockwise it is.

Halfway through my run, most of the other runners had left, and then a new group showed up and… started running counterclockwise. Which means you’re dodging each person twice per lap. Maybe it’s just me, but if I show up at a track and everyone is running in one direction, I’ll do the same out of consideration for my fellow runners. Pfft.

(Suddenly the “you must run this direction” signs at my closed-for-two-weeks community center’s indoor track make even more sense.)

Next week, the LTRs shift from 10x2min to 4x3min. This ought to be interesting.

“There are worse things I could do.”

Start time: 8/7/07, 6:15pm
Location: McLean High School
Distance: ~3.25 miles
Average pace: 10:10min/mile & 7:20min/mile

Well, we were supposed to do ten sets of LTRs yesterday. The heat finally and truly got the best of me and Laura, though. We quit after five, and our warm-up and cool-down runs were so slow that we knew we’d made the right decision. What a hideous mess outside.

(I’m already about 95% sure that I am cancelling my Thursday run plans because of the weather, in fact. Too hot!)

Two Updates for the Price of One

Start time: 7/31/07, 7:30am
Location: Thomas Jefferson Community Center
Distance: ~4.75 miles
Average pace: 9:20min/mile & 7:00min/mile

Nothing to really report about the LTRs; the 10 reps went great, the “cool down” lap was above pace again, and about the only thing new was for a chance I did my LTRs on the indoor track on a “counter-clockwise” day. (I seem to always hit “clockwise” day.)

Start time: 8/1/07, 7:00am
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 8 miles
Average pace: 8:55min/mile

Well, there was nothing “tempo” about the run at all based on that pace, but after spending 40 minutes of yawning and trying to talk myself out of running at all (tired tired tired), I got the distance under my belt for what turned out to be a very, very long Wednesday indeed. Oof.

New LTR Distance

Start time: 7/24/07, 5:30pm
Location: McLean High School
Distance: ~4.75 miles
Average pace: 9:20min/mile & 7:00min/mile

Tuesday’s LTRs extended the number up from 8 reps to 10. I was of the, “We’ll see how this goes” mindset, but happily reps 9 and 10 were right on pace at the 7min/mile time. Hurrah! The funniest part, though, is that at the start and end is a mile warmup/cooldown at a nice slow pace. Lately when I’ve been doing them with Laura, we end up somewhere around a 9:40min/mile pace for those. (Which is exciting when I think that last year my regular pace was a 9:30.) So I’ve finished up all ten LTRs, I’ve started my cooldown, I feel like I’m going slow, but the quarter mile loops on the track seem a bit fast according to my watch. Sure enough? 8:55. Heh. Proof that those LTRs really do work!

Highs and Lows

Start time: 7/17/07, 6:15pm
Location: McLean High School
Distance: ~4.25 miles
Average pace: 9:40min/mile & 7:00min/mile

It was sickeningly hot on Tuesday, yet somehow Laura and I had a really good set of LTRs. We kicked some serious butt, and I was delighted with how on-the-dot we were. This was a good prelude, then, to…

Start time: 7/19/07, 7:30am
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 5 miles
Average pace: 8:39min/mile

…my crappy tempo run, which doesn’t look bad until you realize it was supposed to actually be a 7-miler. I just felt run down and a tiny bit sick as it progressed, until I finally just decided that enough was enough. I’d been smart enough to weigh myself right before leaving. Upon returning? 2.5 pounds of water sweated out. Ouch. Too hot, and bad hydration equals a crappy run. I must try and keep that in mind. (How long have I been doing this?)

“Stop that, you’re making me giddy!”

Start time: 7/10/07, 7:45am
Location: Thomas Jefferson Community Center
Distance: ~4.25 miles
Average pace: 10:00min/mile & 7:00min/mile

After running LTRs with Julie and Laura last week, it was a little sad to be by myself today. On the other hand, it is still hot as blazes in the DC area, so given an option of outside after work at the McLean High School track, or using the indoor (and therefore air-conditioned) track at my gym in the morning? I know which one I will take every time. Anyway, 8x2min were knocked out just fine. Hurrah! That said, using an 1/8th mile track? Ugh, you get a little dizzy after a while.