What ever it takes!

Today's workout is one of those that I was actually scared last night thinking about doing.  My last tempo run I did I stated that I thought it was easier to just run the whole 10 at LT pace instead of a warm up and then the tempo.  I decided to test this theroy and try to do the workout as intended, 5 mile general aerobic run, 4 mile tempo, 1 mile cool down.  Looking back, it looks like I was able to do to days run at a faster average for the tempo than 2 weeks ago.  So I was wrong, I gave it about all I had today.  It was pretty cool though, at about 1.75 miles I felt my HR flutter I looked down and it had jumped up to 175, then it went back down and instantly I had a (second wind) it all of a sudden felt "easy" for another mile or so.  The last mile hurt, but knowing it was almost over got me through it.  Good run, I always feel really good after getting a hard run under the belt.

Distance	Time	Avg Pace		Avg HR	Max HR
1	6:51	6:51		151	165
2	13:29	6:38		144	147
3	20:00	6:31		150	153
4	26:22	6:22		153	157
5	32:56	6:34		153	157
6	38:37	5:41		163	166
7	44:13	5:36		167	175
8	49:46	5:33		168	169
9	55:12	5:26		169	171
10	1:02:22	7:10		158	170
Total Tempo	22:16	5:33		167	175
Total	1:02:22	6:13		157	175

 

Long, pretty monotonous run on the treadmill, that's about as far as I'd really ever want to go on a treadmill, although I have done 20 before.  Even though running on a treadmill is pretty boring for a long run, I argue that running in the dark isn't a whole lot more stimulating, at least at the gym there are other people to watch and talk to, and TV's to watch the current news.

Had to take a quick break at 7 miles, felt much better for the remainder of the run.  About killed myself the last mile out of pure boredom just wanting to get done. 

Britt gave me an hour massage last night for Valentines day which was very nice, legs felt pretty good after a massage and some good stretching last night.

Distance	Time	Avg Pace		Avg HR	Max HR
1	6:38	6:38		160	206
2	13:13	6:35		146	150
3	19:43	6:30		149	152
4	26:09	6:26		151	154
5	32:31	6:22		153	155
6	38:49	6:18		155	157
7	45:11	6:22		154	157
8	51:36	6:25		143	152
9	57:58	6:22		152	155
10	1:04:08	6:10		155	157
11	1:10:18	6:10		156	159
12	1:16:26	6:08		158	160
13	1:22:28	6:02		158	159
14	1:28:27	5:59		158	159
15	1:34:09	5:42		159	161
Total	1:34:09	6:16		154	161

Much needed recovery day today,  I'm pretty sore after the last 2 days of  hard runs.  schedule calls for a lunch run today, but I have lunch plans with an old friend so I'm not sure it will happen.  

6 easyish miles on the TM and then 800 meter swim in the pool.  16 laps in ~20 min.  I didn't really keep track of the time and I got kicked out at 6:00 for swim lessons.  

Distance	Time	Avg Pace		Avg HR	Max HR
1	7:01	7:01		163	214
2	13:58	6:57		138	142
3	20:51	6:53		143	146
4	27:38	6:48		146	149
5	34:22	6:44		148	152
6	41:01	6:39		149	151
Total	41:01	6:48		148	152

I changed my profile picture to a very embarrassing, very incriminating picture of me taken April of 2009 in Bejing China so that every morning when I look at my blog I will be reminded of why I run.

A "brisk" 13 miler this morning, didn't really intend for it to be in the marathon pace tempo range but instead of starting the treadmill at 9 mph this morning I started it as 9.5 and progressively increased it each ~mile.  Treadmill reset and water break at mile 9.  Felt pretty good this morning, legs are actually less sore after the run than when I started.

Distance	Time	Avg Pace		Avg HR	Max HR
1	6:16	6:16		139	150
2	12:30	6:14		153	155
3	18:41	6:11		156	158
4	24:48	6:07		158	161
5	30:50	6:02		161	163
6	36:51	6:01		162	164
7	42:46	5:55		163	165
8	48:39	5:53		163	164
9	54:28	5:49		163	165
10	1:00:35	6:07		154	160
11	1:06:37	6:02		159	162
12	1:12:37	6:00		160	161
13	1:18:27	5:50		162	163
Total	1:18:27	6:01		158	165

 

When I went to bed last night for some reason I thought today was a 10 mile run, when I looked at my schedule this morning I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was just a 6 mile recovery.  So a nice easy run, after that I couldn't decide between lifting weights or swimming.  Decided that the pool would feel better on my sore legs and opted for swimming.  16 laps in ~16 minutes, yea!!  I swam non-stop with flip turns at every length, which I've never done before.  I'll usually stop and turn around after each lap.

Distance	Time	Avg Pace		Avg HR	Max HR
1	7:12	7:12		155	187
2	14:20	7:08		134	138
3	21:18	6:58		140	144
4	28:06	6:48		146	148
5	34:47	6:41		149	153
6	41:17	6:30		153	155
Total	41:17	6:52		146	155

 

I noticed a few Saturdays ago that Sasha was looking for a running partner so I decided it might be fun to give him a shout out and see if he was interested in letting me run with him today.  Our Schedules didn't quite workout since I needed to be home by 8:45 for babysitting duties and he didn't want to go earlier than 7:00.  So This morning I woke up drove out to his house at 6:00 and ran the Provo River Trail up to University Ave and back by myself.  I took it pretty easy cause I didn't know how bad Sasha was planning on beating me up.

Met Sasha at 7:00 and went the other way on the trail out to the lake.  He asked me if I was up for a 5 mile Tempo run, I said I was, so at 2 miles in we hit the trail and set off at sub 6:00/min pace.  Felt harder than I thought it should from the start and about 2 miles into it he told me we were going to cut it short since I was dropping below 90 sec 1/4's.  :(  Turns out he was giving me a little fitness test so he could evaluate my fitness level.  He wasn't to hard on me though and cut me a little slack since I was already 9 miles into the run when we started.

When I asked him to run this Saturday I also asked him if he could go over my training and let me know what he thought, so we discussed his views on my running, I actually expected to hear most of what he said, basically I run my base miles to fast.  I already knew that I suppose but just really enjoy running faster, I think it's cause usually I run alone and running faster keeps my mind occupied, if I'm running with someone else it's easier to slow down and just talk.  So anyway, here are the things I got out of his advice.

1. Run base miles slower.

2. On tempo runs if I can't maintain sub 6:00 pace stop the tempo and jog.

3. No more short 6 mile runs.

4. I expected him to tell me I was too fat, he didn't seem to concerned that I weigh 25 lbs more than him and we are roughly the same height.

5. He did tell me I have a really efficient stride, which I kind of knew but it made me feel good to hear from someone else.

Had a really great run this morning, thanks a lot Sasha for the advice.  Oh! and the weather was perfect, really quite warm.

Split the runs up, even though there was only a 10 minute break in between I felt it was really 2 seperate workouts. 

Distance	Time	Avg Pace
1	7:03	7:03
2	14:04	7:01
3	21:20	7:16
4	28:23	7:03
5	35:32	7:09
6	42:36	7:04
7	49:41	7:05
Total	49:41	7:05

 

Distance	Time	Avg Pace
1	7:43	7:43
2	15:21	7:38
3	21:09	5:48
4	27:16	6:07
5	33:48	6:32
6	42:19	8:31
7	50:39	8:20
8	57:59	7:20
9	1:05:43	7:44
10	1:13:41	7:58
11	1:23:31	9:50
Total	1:23:31	7:35