Most years we're actually lucky enough to enjoy not one but TWO trips to Newport Beach as it's a favorite vacation destination for both Bishop's family and mine. Recently, Bishop's family starting going to the Marriott Newport Coast Villas as opposed to beachfront. It creates a very different, but still amazing, vacation. One of my favorite parts about staying here is Crystal Cove State Park. The running trail is absolutely GORGEOUS. After a quick 1/4 mile downhill run to the park (which also means a really wicked uphill finish...), the trail is slightly hilly and winds through a much more beautifully rugged landscape than I'm normally privileged to run in, complete with breathtaking views of the Pacific Ocean. Love it.
Rarely do I get the opportunity to run on my own. This morning Bishop suggested I head out while he took the kids on a nature walk (we were all up crazy early due to the time zone change) and I readily accepted his offer. Not wanting to ditch him too long I settled on one of my favorite runs, the 30/20/10. Up to now I've only done it on a treadmill so I was eager to test it outside. Immediately I noticed two problems: how do I know how fast I'm going (my Garmin doesn't pick up current speed to accurately gauge a 10 second sprint pace), and what is the best way to time those 10 seconds? Despite my aversion to treadmills these two measurements are right in front of my face during a treadmill 30/20/10. I decided to not worry too much about actual speed and go more on exertion as that's generally a good guide for myself; the timing, however, was lots trickier. I set a 10 second repeating timer on my normal timex watch and ran 3 cycles at my base pace, 2 at a higher one, then sprinted the last one. This worked pretty well, but I kept forgetting how many cycles I had counted so sometimes my mid-pace sprints were longer than 20 seconds or my base pace was only 20 or sometimes 40 (though my all out's were NEVER more than 10 :). I started trying to count them by tens, you know, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse style: "Count by tens with me kids! 10...20...30 - faster! 10...20 - RUN! and Done!" This was better. Though I still found I was off sometimes because I'd forget which beep on the watch meant which word...it's even more confusing as I write it, so obviously this was not a good system...yet.
Before I alleviate the suspense of revealing my golden method, allow me to deviate to the fact that any digital clock I am in charge of setting will be set on military time. I've done this since junior high. And no, I've never served in the military. I really have no idea why I started doing it, actually. And the way I read military time is so simple to me yet when I've explained my logic to others they usually look at me with a blank face and either a. ask why I don't just us am/pm or b. explain what is, to them, a much easier way of thinking about it. So, here goes: say the clock reads 19:00. I just take 9, subtract 2, and get 7. 19:00=7 pm. EASY. No clue why it would confuse anyone.
So, with that logic in mind I shall return to my discourse on 30/20/10 sans treadmill timer. I noticed on my repeating interval timer there was a little counter that showed how many times the 10 seconds had been repeated. Why had I not noticed that before? The answer was right there. I should do my base pace for intervals 1,2, and 3 (or until hitting an odd multiple of 3), speed up the next 2 intervals, and sprint on 6 (or any multiple of 6)! Ha! So much easier! With a glance at my watch I could tell exactly which interval I was on simply by noticing where I was in relation to multiples of 3 or 6. And yes, I know that multiples of 6 are also multiples of 3...but multiples of 6 are always even numbers which is an extremely helpful delineation in this case. So if the timer reads interval 15 I'm on my last 10 seconds of base pace, and if it reads 18 I'm supposed to be hauling as fast as I can (which is much easier to do NOT on a treadmill). Happily I discovered this method at the end of my second round of sprints, so I was able to use it for two whole rounds!
It makes perfect sense to me...but then again, so does subtracting 2 from military time.
By the way, 30/20/10 is so SO fun outside. Though the fact I was running by myself in Crystal Cove might have had something to do with it.
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