My First Ever Speed Intervals

I am feeling good! Today I had my first attempt at speed intervals. After talking with a friend who is actually working with a running coach, I had my plan. My plan was thrown to the side though when I found the first interval too easy and stepped it up!

Training: Speed and Strength Day

First a 3 mile run with 6 1-minute speed intervals at a 10 minute/mile pace (6mph) and a 2-minute recovery at a 14 minute/mile pace (4.3mph). That got me to 2 miles and I had 3 scheduled so I ran the last one at my usual 12 minute/mile (5mph) pace.
Time: 42 minutes
Calories Burned: 290

Next, free weights and body resistance exercises inclluding biceps, triceps, chest, back, deltoids, squats, lunges, hamstrings, glutes, lower back and core followed by some good stretching.
Calories Burned: 100

So I spent a good deal of time in the gym today and got a good calorie burn - nearly 400 calories! .I feel really good. I'm laughing that on my "speed day" it took me 42 minutes to run 3 miles when I can usually run that in a comfortable 36-38 minutes and I ran it in 32 minutes at my 5k. How can this be a speed workout if it takes so long?!? But I know that the recovery periods for the speed work are slower than my usual pace. I'm also not very concerned about my times when I'm training. I know that when I race, the adrenelin and the crowd (and my competitive spirit) will help to speed me up. I also know that I'm in week 1 of an 11 week training period and if I just keep it up, running will get easier and my times will improve overall.

The speed intervals at 6mph were difficult and I found myself breathing heavy at the end of each minute. At first, it took the whole 2 minutes to recover and by the last couple of sets, I was not totally recovered in the 2 minutes. But it was not so hard that I over-exerted myself. It was just a good solid work-out... which is a very good thing since I'm going out for sushi tonight!

Nutrition totals:
Calories: 1,747 (over)
Carbs: 245g (over)
Protein: 109g (over)
Fat: 45g (in range!)
Sat Fat: 6g (in range)
Sodium: 3,500 mg (over)
Cholesterol: 82 mg (in range)

I did alright! And I quite enjoyed quite a bit of sushi. Yeah, my sodium is too high but who can eat sushi without soy sauce?? I used the low-sodium soy sauce at least. I'm very pleased that my fat intake was in range and my calories are only over by about 125 calories and that's not a lot. The scale this morning is where it was yesterday morning so the hard working out and the good choices at dinner (sashimi instead of nigiri so no extra sticky white rice) paid off.

I'm seeing a pattern in that my protein and carbs are usually over and my fat is usually under. I'm thinking about reworking my goals to account for the fact that I don't eat a lot of fats so I have to get calories from protein and carbs. I'll do some more research in the next few days about fat intake and heart disease and see how low I think I should set my fat intake. Fat is very necessary for proper body function (it's a main part of cell membranes) and for uptake of fat-soluble vitamins among other things... so I don't want to set my intake goal too low... but I know I can safely go less than 30% of my calories from fat.