How to use someone

First, an advertisement for my favorite work-out. Perhaps I am feeling particularly partial to this work-out bc I NAILED it today but this has always been one of my favorites. It's ideal for the runner who is training for 5 km - 1/2 marathon distances. There are 5 intervals in a ladder that work both VO2 max and lactate thresh hold and it goes a little something like this:

warm-up.
1 km @ 5 km pace
2 minute jog
2 km @ 10 km pace (variant 1.6 km @ 10 km pace)
2 minute jog
4 km @ 1/2 marathon pace (variant 3 km @ 1/2 marathon pace)
2 minute jog
2 km @ 10 km pace (variant 1.6 km @ 10 km pace)
2 minute jog
1 km @ 5 km pace
cool-down

It provides 10 km of quality or 8.2 km for the shorter variant. Today I did the shorter variant and it felt amazing. I managed:

3:43 (18:35 5 km pace admittedly faster than I am capable of right now)
6:25 (39:52 10 km pace, hopefully slightly slower than where I am at right now)
12:37 (1:28:44 1/2 marathon pace, ha! don't think I could run 13.1 miles consecutively right now)
6:21 (39:28, hopefully my 10 km pace)
3:44 (18:40 5 km pace)

This work-out made me feel fabulous and far fitter than my race on Sunday made me feel though of course Sunday's race was "real" whereas this was virtual running on the treadmill (at 0.5%).

Speaking of Sunday's race, I had some more thoughts. First off, there has been discussion on another blog that I frequent regularly regarding the effect of body weight on performance. Well, I have lost 18 pounds since my last 5 km and this seems to have translated into a 6 minute 33 second improvement in my time :).

Here is the difference in (albeit stolen) pictures:

BEFORE

 AFTER

Ironic, my running posture is so much better in the 9 months pregnant photo. You can practically put a chair under my butt in the second one, I am basically sitting.

In case anyone is still reading this incredibly vain post, here is my favorite photo of me from Sunday's race:

 Yes, that is a photo of me! I am sandwiched between runner number 256 and 383. If you look closely, runner 256 has 4 legs, 2 of them are mine. There was a serious headwind and I was drafting off of #256 so hard that I [crude joke omitted]. THAT is how to use someone. Which being me, of course I now feel guilty about. I did take the lead 2/3 into the windy stretch but alas #256 did not come with me. So, thank you runner #256 for your excellent wind blocking services, next time the wind is on me. I promise.

Finally, here are my very favorite photos from Sunday:

You never know where you might find milk so it doesn't hurt to look everywhere!