Teach me how to tempo, teach me, teach me how to tempo

Technically, I've been in Marine Corps Marathon training for two weeks. I truly hope the way habits start aren't an indication of how they will end because the first week of training was interrupted by a trip to Dallas where (a) I had no access to hills or a track and (b) it was hot as hades.

And while I had packed running gear, that was two too many obstacles in my way.

I did manage to squeeze in one, very short, very slow "historical running tour" led by the Hyatt Running Concierge (amazing program, look it up!).

#tfw you’re at a sorority conference and went to bed at midnight but get offered a 6:00am group run through downtown Dallas. #yolo #imtired

A post shared by Selina (@see.sel.run) on Jun 28, 2018 at 7:51am PDT

And now I find myself at the start of some serious training plan. The plan has me running five days a week. Two days are speed, two days are recovery and one day is the long run. I'd like to be able to keep to my three times a week body pump class and two times a week yoga, but that sounds very aggressive.

via GIPHY

In any case, I am ADDICTED to track workouts. I have always been terrified of them, mostly because I've been afraid to fail. I've been scared of being able to maintain such fast paces without feeling like puking or burning out. I have found that the paces are great (if difficult to maintain) and while I am tired at the end, I'm never totally depleted (maybe that means I am still not running fast enough). Track workouts have been such an easy to way to get in high quality mileage.

The Workouts

Week 1

Tuesday
800 meters at 10k pace, 2 min recovery
(2x) 400 meters at 5k pace, 90 second recovery
(4x) 200 meters at 5k pace, 60 second recovery
(2x) 400 meters at 5k pace, 90 second recovery
800 meters at 10k pace
Sel's Take: A great intro to track work! I loved it!

Thursday (oops, I skipped it)

1.5 mile Tempo run, 7-minute recovery
Long hill at 10k pace
Shorter hill at 5k pace
Shortest hill at Mile pace
Repeat hill sequence 2x
Sel's Take: Not a hundred percent mad that I skipped hill work. I honestly don't know where I'd find hills of varying difficulty here in the Presidio. 

First track workout of the training season! Follow @see.sel.run for the #mcm #marinecorpsmarathon training shenanigans.

A post shared by @ selandthecity on Jun 26, 2018 at 3:45pm PDT

Week 2

Tuesday

600 meters at 10k pace 

500 meters at 10k pace 

400 meters at 5k pace 

300 meters at 5k pace 

200 meters at 5k pace 

100 meters as fast as you can

Repeat entire interval sequence in reverse order, 90-second recovery between each interval.

Sel's Take: Wow! Fun and hard! It was hard to keep to my 5k pace, I ended up running way faster than that and paid for it. By the second 500m, I was ready to die. I *did* run the 100m in around 16 seconds, and that's not Olympian ready but I can dream!

Thursday

1 mile at Tempo pace

(2x) 800 meters at 10k pace 

800 meters at 5k pace 

(2x) 800 meters at 10k pace 

90-second recovery in between each interval
Sel's Take: Ask me after today. Sounds terrible after Tuesday track and Wednesday race (see next post).