More Training....

Well this week has been a really good week for me. After Calgary, I was getting a little nervous that I wasn't progressing as fast as I should be at this time of year. However, since I got home I have had atleast 4 breakthrough sessions this week!!! It must be the nice thick BC air! Tuesday was the usual PIH workout, where we did 1million x 200 repeats in a parloff relay. Gary and I rocked it, coming behind only Shane and his running partner! I really enjoy running with Gary, cause I know he thinks the same way about intervals as I do (ie lets suffer as much as possible to get better).

I felt so strong as a runner that night! It was great to get back into some sort of form! Our swim workout on Weds was a 1500m time trial, but was called something else to not scare us too much this early in the season! I started second in my lane, and after about 8 laps I was getting frustrated with the pace of the guy ahead of me, so I jumped ahead. What I didn't realize however, was that I was just enjoying the draft, and that was the reason I was feeling like I wasn't working as hard. As soon as I pushed ahead, I felt the full weight on the water! The guy I passed obviousely wasn't too impressed, so he stayed on my toes the entire way! I really didn't mind that much though. If it was in a race, I might have kicked a little harder, but I don't mind it when I know the people.

I finished in 23:32, which is about 2:30 to 3:00 faster than my PB last year!!! Good to see such improvements this early in the year. My splits were something like 8:11, 7:54, 7:11, so it was nice to see the negative splits!

Thursday was a "kick the crap out of you" swim, but again, if it makes me better, I'm not complaining! I was put in the fast lane (probably not due to me being fast at all, but so that my usualy lane was not as clogged up with people), and we had to do 20 x 100 repeats on 1:35, which should allow for about 10s rest. Well, I definately cannot hold that pace, so I knew I was in for it!!

For the first 12, I had about 8-10 seconds rest each repeat, but I was barely hanging on by the end, managing to get about 2 breaths by the 16-20 reps. I was proud however, that I did stay on 1:35, even if I almost passed out!! That was the kind of workout wherethat will ensure that I will get faster this year!!!

Today (Sat), we had our usual beaver lake run, where our MS was 4 x 1mile repeats. Sounds easy, but I assure you it was not. I told Dan that I was gonna push us hard today, and I immediately wished I didn't say that! Of course, on the final interval, we had an epic sprint to the line, where I shot off at about 100 yards to go, and then Dan caught up with me when I died with about 50 yards to go, and then I shot off again to take it! I needed about 5 minutes to make sure I wouldn't puke, but all in all it was a great run. Finished off with a 5:18 mile. More updates to come.