Interval Day!

Thursday, February 02, 2012 · Mike Davis

Wednesday, February 01, 2012

Started out the day in my gym (basement) getting some strength training in. Because I’m running just about every day during the week, I have to double up some days, but I get in a decent workout in 30 minutes. Hopefully the strength training will help with my longer runs as I progress.

Today’s run was part of my 2nd phase of training. The first phase was base building, where I just ran easy miles building up my base. The second phase is where I add two quality workouts a week that include intervals, tempo runs and race pace runs. Monday and Tuesday were easy 7 milers and today was my first interval run. Justin and I went out easy for a mile and then alternated 4 at around 7:45 pace and 3 relaxed pace. After the 4th 4 minute interval we both pretty much agreed that we would take it easy the rest of the way back. We ran our typical 7 mile course and that worked out okay. The weather was perfect as we set out at 3:00 and the sun was bright and warm. It was good to do something a bit different training wise as we were getting to a point of Groundhog Day.

Intervals are not easy, but like most we may have gone faster than we probably should have. Justin tends to let me set the pace and I worry about being too slow for him, so we end up going too fast. When we got back to the base, my wonderful wife got us Gator Aides and I made Justin do 15 pushups. Time for some force feeding core workouts for my running partner.

This was my third consecutive day of running 7 miles and that might actually be a record for me. Tomorrow I back out for a slow 7 miles and I will hopefully add to my record streak. Year ago this time I was getting ready to leave Iraq and head home. What a difference a year makes!

See you tomorrow!

mike