Trying Something New

Henri and I tried something new today. Well, it was my idea, but he went along with it. Today we started interval training. Dun, dun, DUNNNN!

Again, I don't really care about being fast, but in an effort to wear Henri out, sometimes, it might be nice to run a little faster. I already have a running partner who is faster than I am, part two is running intervals. So, I went out and got a watch that has an interval timer and researched a plan. Here is what we decided on:

Warm up 10 minutes at steady jog

1 minute interval pace

2 minutes recovery jog

Repeat 4 times

Based on the amount of miles we run in a week, it sounded like replacing two runs a week with interval training was a fair challenge. So, we started today.

Maybe I'm kicking my interval pace up too high, reading through things again, because I feel like I have to slow down around the 40-45 second mark. That's probably not that bad, but those last 15 seconds are brutal. That's the idea though, right? It isn't supposed to be easy.

My watch is pretty cool. First of all, I'm pretty excited about the deal I got on it. I went to Dick's Sporting Goods to start, because I had no idea what all was even out there for interval training. I didn't want to have to have something in my hands, like a stopwatch or my phone. I found a Timex Triathlon watch, but it was $65. I was not really excited about spending that amount of money, so I shopped around a little, thinking I'd find one somewhere else for a little less, or some other watch, now that I knew what I was looking for. Yeah, no. Until I got to Kohl's. I was checking out the small selection of sports watches in their case. I asked the lady if there were any more and she told me there were not. I decided to walk to shoes. I had a gift card or two burning a whole in my pocket. What do I end up walking past, but more sports watches! Including the Timex Triathlon, still $65, but 25% off. Now, I don't know why, but one of these watches was out of it's box, with no instructions and marked $19.99. What? It was the same watch and it was exactly what I needed. It was purple, but I can deal with that. Yep. $65 watch for $12 with a gift card so, essentially, free! Yeah! 

Anyway, back to the watch itself, it has two interval timers so it works perfectly for what I'm doing. It beeps when it's time to switch between intervals, so, as long as I can hear it over my iPod...oh wait. I don't even need to hear it. Henri is so smart, he picked up on what was going on within two intervals. Funny, he was actually nervous of the beeping when I was setting the intervals last night. I wasn't sure how he was going to respond when we were running. While we're running, he gets it. Beep-beep-beep, run fast. Beep-beep-beep, run slow. I couldn't get the timer to stop right away after our four repetitions and he looked at me like, "Hello! We're supposed to go fast now!" I know he's smart, but sometimes he amazes me.

I can say that while I was, of course, tired after each interval and had to catch my breath, it wasn't that bad. It didn't increase our run time, but it didn't decrease it either. I feel like we could probably step it up repetition wise in a few weeks, then maybe interval pace in a few more. Of course, I could be dying tomorrow so I shouldn't get ahead of myself.

Also, we still sprinted at the end and I won. I'm sure he let me win this time, unless I actually succeeded in wearing him out. Nah, he let me win. What a good puppy!