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steady & alactic hill sprints

January 1, 2011 (Morning)

Exercise Type: Run

Weather: 25 windy cold

Comments:
WU to miles 2 & 3 of 4 mile timed run route
2miles at a steady effort, no watch
1mile to Hartman plan for hills
12*100meter (15second) alactic hill sprints, jog down recovery (40second)
CD to home

The weather is back to standard northeast Ohio temperatures. No watch for any part of this run. decided while I was putting my shoes on that I would do hill sprints, then decided on the warmup that I would get a 2mile moderate steady effort in beforehand. I was really tired before and during this. Not sleeping lately and having at least a couple drinks the past 4 nights caught up to me, because overall this wasn't as moderate of an effort as it should have been. Still, this was a solid day and decent week.

Alactic hill sprints are basically strides on steroids. Alactic means the same as aerobic, that is, not anaerobic. Just like for strides, as soon as your breathing becomes labored and lactate starts building up in your legs, the interval is over. The jog down recovery should be full recovery, thus ensuring equally quality intervals. Thus, aerobic and alactic. It's too early in the season to do anaerobic work. The soreness that results isn't a result of lactate buildup; it's because of neuromuscular adapatation.

So basically, this kind of workout serves two purposes for me personally, though both purposes have to do with finishing a race. First, I have a decent kick for a distance runner, and hill sprints both speed up that kick and lengthen how far out you can kick in races 3000m and up. Second, since I can't outkick middle distance runners, any hopes at running a fast 1200/mile indoor and 1500 outdoor means I need to run a strong first half of the race then start kicking at the half-way point to try to take everyone else's kick out of their last 200-300meters.