Have any of you had any mysterious jumps in your progress with you seemingly not doing anything to warrnt it?
Side tip - I think that swimming on your rest days helps you dramatically. You still get a workout but its easy on you and its active recovery.
Anyway, we did 4x1 mile repeats with 5-6 minute rest inbetween.
I got
5:23
5:32
5:29
5:19
The reason I say this is mysterious is these were actually not that hard...pretty effortless compared to the actual races. I had just gotten 18:14 for 3 miles 2 days ago, took a day off..and then pulled this off. The 18:14 was pretty hard. This was not, and I'm an endurance guy.
Anyone else have myserious breaktrhoughs?
And, some help - If I just ran those times for 4x1 mile repeats with 5 minute rest inbetween, how fast do you think I can run 3 miles? As I don't think I could've improved THAT much myseriously in a single day, I'm guessing 17:45?
Side tip - I think that swimming on your rest days helps you dramatically. You still get a workout but its easy on you and its active recovery.
Anyway, we did 4x1 mile repeats with 5-6 minute rest inbetween.
I got
5:23
5:32
5:29
5:19
The reason I say this is mysterious is these were actually not that hard...pretty effortless compared to the actual races. I had just gotten 18:14 for 3 miles 2 days ago, took a day off..and then pulled this off. The 18:14 was pretty hard. This was not, and I'm an endurance guy.
Anyone else have myserious breaktrhoughs?
And, some help - If I just ran those times for 4x1 mile repeats with 5 minute rest inbetween, how fast do you think I can run 3 miles? As I don't think I could've improved THAT much myseriously in a single day, I'm guessing 17:45?
I've always found that the 'improvement curve', so to speak, is not an even climb. There are fits and starts, quick improvements and many plateaus. It's really not "mysterious", it's pretty typical from what I've experienced myself and seen in other runners. Rather than seeing seconds steadily drop off race times, it is very normal to "get it right" and knock off big chunks at a time. The flip-side is to keep the course and when you find a regime that works for you, continue plugging on, even through the plateaus until the next improvement comes along.