Mixed Ks and 100-M Sprints

Reading "From Last to First" by Charlie Spedding while on a train back home

made me want to hit the road,

so though I was a bit tired from intensive prep for two seminars coming this Saturday and Sunday, I changed into my running outfit as soon as I got home,

and after a short warm-up run I did mixed Ks.

In mixed Ks you run at three different paces.

In my case they are full marathon pace, half marathon pace, and 10 K pace.

They are 5:20-40/K, 4:40-50/K, and 4:30/K respectively.

I change the duration of the rest after each K 

depending on the intensity.

For example, after the K at full marathon pace, I only rest 30 seconds.

But after the half marathon pace, the rest is twice as long, namely 1 minute.

After the 10 K pace, it's even longer, 2 minutes.

Three Ks make one set, and you repeat the cycle.

Today I got right into the training without pre-fixing the number of sets.

I instead went with the flow.

This is the style of training I adopted when my motivation was low.

It has the benefit of making it easier for you to get out and do the training.

If you fix the number of sets in advance when your motivation is not so high,

you feel sluggish, and in the worst case you skip the training entirely.

That's not good, so it is far better to just get out and run first,

and if you are in a good condition, you just continue your training,

and when you feel like quitting, you just quit without pushing yourself.

So far, this style seems to be working for me,

because I have been training more regularly than the same time last year

when I would use my busy work schedule as a lame excuse

for not running as much.

Anyway, I felt reasonably tired during the 5th K

so I decided to give myself one final push in the next K

which was 10 K pace,

and call it a day.

But when the 6th K was over, and I took a two-minute rest,

fatigued eased, and I had renewed motivation,

so I decided to wrap it up with one more K at comfortable full marathon pace.

Though I thought I ran the last K rather slowly, 

when I checked my time at the goal, it was under 5 minutes, almost 20 to 40 seconds

earlier than the target time probably because of a lingering effect of the previous K

which was rather fast.

Today's result is as follows:

1st K: 5:29

Rest: 30 seconds

2nd K: 4:54

Rest: 1 minute

3rd K: 4:23

Rest: 2 minutes

4th K: 5:06

Rest: 1 minute (30 seconds longer by mistake)

5th K: 4:38

Rest: 1 minute

6th K: 4:17 

Rest: 2 minutes

7th K: 4:54

Rest: 2:13

Sprint 1: 17:36

Rest: 1 minute

Sprint 2: 16:76

Rest 2 minute

Sprint 3: 16:79

It was pitch dark in the park where I did the sprints,

and I couldn't run faster because I was afraid of tripping to fall over.

So the times above were the best I could get.