Coaching me to RUN, not WALK!
Adjusting to Gary’s training has been eye opening! It’s just different, and honestly – that’s been a lot of fun!
I’m 4 weeks into training with him post-Grandma’s, and in those 4 weeks there have been good workouts alongside epic fail workouts. Mileage has been lower, which scares me a little bit, but I’m putting my trust into the new plan. If change isn’t a little scary, it’s probably not a big enough change, right? Lower mileage has allowed me to take my easy days at a little faster pace – now almost all of my easy days are 7:30-7:45 vs. 8:15-8:30.
The interval workouts, steady state runs, and tempo workouts have all been different and have kicked my butt in their own different ways. I’ve been asked not to share too many of Gary’s secrets (although he admits there are no “secrets” to this sport, but it’s still nice for him to hold his cards!), so I hope I don’t divulge too much – but also want to highlight my journey as best as I can!
My first track workout was two weeks ago. It was written as 12x 400m w/ 200m recovery. A standard enough track workout, right? Gary gave me my pace ranges and recovery pace. Leigh met me at the track. It was the first speed workout for both of us, so we knew we were in for a treat.
I did the first one and was 2 seconds slower than the slow end of my range. Hmmfph, I thought. I took the recovery 200m at 1:02 as I was supposed to do recovery at 8:20/mile pace. I immediately started into the second 400m. I was 3 seconds slower than my slowest goal time and my chest was heaving. That was no small effort, and I was completely off the mark pace-wise. I was running with Leigh and she was 30 meters behind me on the second repeat (and she has wheels!), eyeballs popping out of her head. There was no way this could be for real, I thought! She agreed. 10 more like this? He must have meant to catch my breath for 10 seconds and then run at 8:20 pace.
We did all 12 and my speed was better when I had a little more recovery. My fastest was in 1:17, and most were in 1:20-1:21. I thought it was a solid effort.
That’s why I can’t stop laughing at Gary’s reaction. I LOVE his tough love! He said that my “speed was good, but recoveries, not so much”. He also said, “I’m coaching you to RUN, not to WALK!”. HAHAHA. I have a lot to work on, clearly, but am 100% game for trying. If I already wasn’t a beast at recoveries, I will be a super-human-beast after Gary is done with me!
The next track workout I was spot on the recovery paces – and happily flopped to the grass in the track infield afterwards. Uftda! These interval workouts are NO JOKE! Bring on the months to come, Gary – I can’t wait to see what they will bring 🙂
Next up: The MN 1/2 marathon on August 4th. I’m really excited to race!
