Week 11 update - Yasso me, baby!

First, thanks to all of you for all the birthday wishes you gave. Only 4 more years and I can focus on a cakewalk time of 3:15 to get into Boston. (hardy har...)

I also want to thank my lovely wife, Jennifer, for the great gift she gave. She created a binder with all of my posts printed since I started this blog last October -- which also includes all of YOUR comments. So all your words of encouragement have been captured in hard copy. Not to mention Jamie Cullum concert tickets for downtown next month. Sweet.

I was leafing through the book last night. It's really remarkable to see how far I've come just since last fall. Back then, 25 mile weeks were near-heroic for me. I've not tasted sub-30 in 4 months, but I suspect I would see it as a failure.

He doesn't know it, but it was Zeke who gave me a "gentle push" after I hit the wall towards 3:31 in Tampa in February. (Read Zeke's comment to my Tampa race report). Now, here I am tearing up the Pfitz program. Thanks for the push, Zeke.

OK, on to business...

Monday, 8/28 - 6 mile recovery with 6x100m strides

School is in session and the traffic is crazy! I did six miles recovery. The route was the all-too-familiar up 248th to 119th and back. Ran barely sub-9 pace. Blah, blah, blah...

Tuesday, 8/29 - 12 miles total - YASSO REPEATS

I decided to very slighly deviate from Pfitz's plan because I was unable to get in my VO2 max workout last week. The program called for 12 miles with 7 miles at LT. Since I have already done a couple of races and other LT workouts, I decided I wanted to focus on faster intervals. I had heard a lot about Yasso's and how some swear by them, so I wanted to give them a shot.

The first challenge in doing interval work on the track is actually finding an open track. I drove to Plainfield North HS. Damn... track is locked up. I then drove to Central. F*&#! Locked again. Do they want me to climb fences? I wanted to be civil and respect the property.

Note to self: Call the local Athletic Director to get an explanation and solution. I pay my taxes, dammit!

As I fumed, I headed out on a 5-mile EZ'er on the nearby bike path. I was resigned to the fact that I would need do some guess work to get to LT pace, or just do the speed work with the CARA group later that evening.

Well, as luck would have it, I had just finished my 5 and was getting ready to drive out. Then some dude walked over to the locked gate and opened her up. "Yes... Yasso, here I come...."

I knocked out eight Yasso (800m) repeats with the usual recovery 400m lap in between. Since my MP goal is 3:10, I was trying to make sure I ran the 800m in 3:10 or less. Suprisingly, I was a bit fast. I was running most of them in 3:05-3:07. For the recovery laps in between, I was doing a slow jog/walk thing at just about 2:50.

I was psyched. Amazed, actually, that I could run these splits with relative ease, especially after running a decent 5-mile warmup. I cooled down with an easy four laps on the track at 8:00 pace.

Oh yeah, and I didn't get to work until 8:30.

Wednesday, 8/30 - Rested

Rest of week plan:

Thurs: 12 miles EZ. Fri: 5 Recovery. Sat: 20 miles LONG. Sun: Rest - 55 MILES COMPLETE!