Blast From The Past: Football Field Sprints

Had a great workout this afternoon which took me back a few decades to my high school football (or soccer for the US audience) training days. I jogged the mile and a half to the local Princess Anne Athletic Complex, changed into my Nike Air Zoom Waffles XC spikes and off I went. You can probably tell from the map below where I ran the intervals, but in case you can’t, I sprinted the length of one field and jogged the width…..32 times.

The weather was perfect – low 50s, no wind and a typical late afternoon sun that made it difficult to see – and made for a very enjoyable workout. Typically I don’t utilize the heart rate feature of my Garmin 405, but today decided to strap on the chest strap and see how hard I was working. The graph below shows I topped out at 170 beats per minute, with a nice gradual increase on each interval. The low points are where I stopped to change my shoes!

So, all in all a very good workout – a real confidence booster – and despite being tired towards the end I really felt fast on the final couple of sprints.

Back at the house I did another Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred (Level 2 no less!) which I’m positive is helping my flexibility and upper body/leg strength. Tomorrow I plan on taking a break from “the shred”, with the aim of feeling rested for the Hair of the Dog 5k on New Year’s Day.

Oh yes, I also did 20 sets of 10 push ups this morning with 20 seconds rest between each set. After my recent success on the Hundred Push Ups plan, I’m keen not to lose all my hard earned strength….

PS One last comment – tonight I also passed the 2400 miles mark for the year. I wonder what 2009 has in store for me?