8.07 m @ Lost Creek - LT

8.07 m @ 8.38 pace with avg HR of 172

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1st mile in 8.18 @ 155

2nd mile in 8.57 @ 174

3rd mile in 8.38 @ 174

4th mile in 8.32 @ 174 - Nice consistancy here on HR/LOE

5th mile in 8.50 @ 175 -

6th mile in 8.32 @ 175 - HR still pretty consistant

7th mile in 8.08 @ 172 - Significant downhill section here.

8th mile in 8.80 @ 179 - Big uphill here, running up to my house, hence the pace/HR spike.

extra .07 in .47 (6.71 pace) @ 179 - Guess I had some energy left over!

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This was an "LT" run where I add on about 30-35 seconds onto my expected 10k time. The most interesting thing about this run is that it was raining out (and in the 50's temperature wise) but I didn't let that deter me from running. In fact, towards the latter half of the run, the bottom really fell out and I was soaked to the bone, but felt great! I had a really euphoric experience where I felt invincible out there, especially with all the cars going by and seeing the "crazy guy out there running in the cold rain."

5m - Tempo 1/3/1 on Treadmill

5 miles at 8.35 pace w/ avg HR of 164

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1st mile in 9.02 @ 150

2nd mile in 8.00 @ 166

3rd mile in 8.00 @ 168 - Not bad, managing to keep my HR down here pretty well.

4th mile in 7.96 @ 171 - HR still not too bad.

5th mile in 8.78 @ 176

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This was a tempo run where I warmed up for a mile, then did 3 miles at "ST" pace (according to the Furman FIRST program, ST = equals about your expected 10k pace), then 1 mile cooldown.

I plan to do this tempo type run (with varying distances) every Thursday all the way up to the Bridge Run.

5.50 on the treadmill (speedwork)

5.50 miles at 8.21 pace w/ avg HR of 169.

This was a speedwork session where I ran 1.50 miles warmup, then 1 mile at 7.42 pace, .75 m at 7.33 pace, .50 m at 7.25 pace, then .25 m at 7.08 pace...with .25 mile intervals of EZ (9min pace) in between. I wrapped up with a 1m cooldown.

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1st mile in 9.00 @ 150 - That HR is probably not accurate, but my HRM was not reading correctly and actually showed 103 for the first mile. I know that's not right so I just subbed 150 instead.

2nd mile in 7.85 @ 170 - This included part of the beginning of the repeats/intervals.

3rd mile in 7.70 @ 173

4th mile in 7.63 @ 177

5th mile in 8.50 @ 175

remaining .50 at 8.94 pace w/ HR of 171

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Because I wasn't ready for Speedwork on Sunday, I did it here on Tuesday instead (when I normally just do a gym/crosstraining day). Plus, I stole this particular session from the Furman "First" program I wrote about in my previous entry.

Also, I don't normally do speedwork anywhere but outside, but thought I'd try it on the treadmill instead since I have so much trouble gauging my pace (and usually overdo it as a result). And, I usually avoid the treadmill partly because it's boring but I'm also skeptical of the "easiness" of it, but I have to admit I really liked the aspect of being able to precisely control my pace. I was surprised I could adequately hold a 7.42 (7:25min) pace for a whole mile without being overly tired afterwards. I also liked this particular speed session as it gets faster and faster but gets shorter and shorter at the same time. I don't see this anywhere else on my remaining schedule though unfortunately.

The only disappointing thing about this session is that my "HR Efficiency" score (a factor of speed and avg HR) was not as high as I had hoped/wanted it to be. It was good, no doubt...but I figured it would be higher with me running on the "easy" treadmill and all. Ah well.

5.09 @ Riverfront (EZ)

5.09 miles at Riverfront at 9.43 pace w/ avg HR of 154.

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1st mile in 9.75 @ 148

2nd mile in 9.63 @ 153

3rd mile in 9.40 @ 155

4th mile in 9.10 @ 157

5th mile in 9.33 @ 159

remaining .09 in 8.44 avg pace w/ 160 HR

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After my "LT" run on Saturday that left me a little drained, I wasn't really up for my normal speedwork session on Sunday. So, I just subbed in an LSD or recovery run instead. Atypically, I also ran on an almost completely flat course, but I was pushing my 50lb son in a jogging stroller the whole time to offset.

My goal was to run a very comfortable pace and just see how the pace/time worked out. Obviously, the stroller slowed me down some but I'm fine with that considering how low my HR stayed. I also felt great afterwards and did some strenuous yard work later in the day with no ill effects. This was a textbook (for me) recovery run.

7.83 miles on LostCreek (LT run)

7.83 miles at 8.47 pace w/ avg HR of 170

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1st mile in 8.27 @ 150

2nd mile in 8.50 @ 171

3rd mile in 8.68 @ 173

4th mile in 8.68 @ 174 - Nice consistency here!

5th mile in 8.38 @ 172

6th mile in 8.15 @ 173

7th and remaining distance in 8.57 avg pace @ 174

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I've been reading about the Furman "FIRST" training method which claims you can improve your race time with only 3 "key" running workouts per week. Here's the link:

http://www.furman.edu/first/fmtp.htm

One of those "Key" workouts is a long run at an "LT" pace. This LT pace translates into about your 10k pace + 30 to 35 seconds. For me, that's about 830 to 835 (or 8.50 to 8.58 since I used decimal) pace at what I plan to run my next 10k at. Since I run my "long" run of the week at about 8.50 anyway, I figured I'd call this my "LT" run of the week.

(The other 2 "Key" workouts include a hard speedwork day and a medium speedwork day and I'll talk about those later.)

Despite this being my normal pace for this run, it seemed to take more out of me this time. I was more tired and sore afterwards than I normally am. This is either psychological, or maybe I just wasn't "feeling it" and pushed myself beyond what I would normally run comfortably otherwise. This was also a longer distance so that may have had something to do with it.

Anyway, I'm going to continue to do "LT" runs on these saturdays the rest of the way in my training.

5.01 miles at CH Trail/Road Mix (LSD)

5.01 miles at 8.95 pace @ avg HR of 162.

With this run, I was specifically focused on keeping my HR below 170. When I saw it exceed 170, I was committed to slowing to a walk for 5-10 seconds each time. This was fine most of the time, but the hills on this course are extreme (but short thankfully), and part of it HR-taxing (to me) trailwork, so I probably slowed to a walk 4-5 times overall.

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1st mile in 8.62 @ 157 - This was all road and was my warmup mile.

2nd mile in 8.50 @ 161 - This was mostly road, with some trail at the end.

3rd mile in 8.73 @ 161 - All trail (I think).

4th mile in 10.17 @ 165 - Mostly trail, with some hard hill sections where I walked some.

5th mile in 8.80 @ 167 - Back on the road.

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I don't think I do enough "easy" or "recovery" runs in my schedule so I was determined to keep my HR down in this run, but the speed didn't suffer too much, so I'm proud of that at least.

5.26 @ CH (Repeats/Speedwork)

5.26 miles at CH in 8.37 pace w/ avg HR of 170.

This was speedwork, consisting of 1.5 mile warmup, then 6 quarter mile repeats at 5k pace, with EZ quarter miles in between, finishing with a 1 mile cooldown.

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1st mile in 8.57 @ 150 - Warmup mile before the repeats start.

2nd mile in 8.06 @ 169 - This mile included the first of the repeats.

3rd mile in 8.05 @ 177 - Fully into the repeats here. Nice to see that time is consistant.

4th mile in 8.36 @ 179 - The last of the repeats, time slowed down here a bit.

5th mile in 8.66 @ 177 - One repeat, with the rest part of the cooldown mile.

extra .25 in 2.32 (9.28 pace) @ 177 - Remainder of the cooldown.

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Looking back, I ran the repeats a little too fast and couldn't hold the pace as a result. The first 3 were all sub 7 minute pace (with the 3rd actually at a 6.48 pace), with the final 3 average more closely to about 7 minute pace. The pace was supposed to be "5k pace minus 10 sec" so for me that should have been no faster than 7.50 pace.

Oh well, I should be glad I pushed myself harder, right?

7.10 @ Lost Creek

7.10 miles in 8.48 pace w/ HR of 168.

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1st mile in 8.45 @ 150

2nd in 8.50 @ 171

3rd in 8.48 @ 169

4th in 8.32 @ 175

5th in 8.55 @ 172

6th in 8.55 @ 167

7th (and extra) in 9.38 (8.53 pace) @ 171

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This was a good solid LSD. Pace was consistent, the HR got up a little more than I'd like but this is a hilly course so that's expected. Temp was in the low 50's and I don't recall any wind factor.

3.46 @ TSFG

3.46m at 8.36 pace w/ HR of 162

1st mile in 8.48 @ 150 - After my last few runs on this course, I am reeeeeaally trying to keep my pace down on this first mile or so. 8.48 is still pretty fast. At least my HR is flat.

2nd mile in 8.20 @ 157 - Most of this mile was still downhill, so that would explain the pace increase.

3rd mile in 8.56 @ 174 - Okay, this was after the turnaround point so all of this was uphill, steep uphill, so that's why the HR suffered. I even tried to moderate my HR by taking brief walking spells. That, along with the fact there was a good headwind hitting me, I think this is a decent pace.

Remainder .46 at 3.70 @ 176 - HR continues to suffer through these uphill sections.

I do this thing where I calculate my pace together with my HR to come up with a "HR Efficiency Score." Basically, it's a measure of how fast I can go while keeping my HR in check. This run scored pretty high on that scale, so that makes me feel a little better after the past couple of sub-par runs I had.

Taking Today Off - Doing the "Easy" runs

I normally take Mondays off as a rest day but I had planned to do the gym instead as the rest of my week's schedule is screwed up (big event on Wednesday will preclude me from running that day so was moving my gym up from Tuesday to Monday and my run from Wednesday to Tuesday).

Anyway, I'm still a little sore and tired from the weekend so I think it's a good sign that I need some rest.

One of the big things I learned in training last year is that you have to take those "easy" runs as just that, "easy." I have this bad habit of getting out there and watching my GPS and thinking I can run harder, that I need to run harder every time out in order to meet my goals. Not only does that make it where you dread the run beforehand, but it doesn't give your cardio system the proper workout. You don't need to "redline" your cardio system every time out...it's actually better to give it a mild workout most of the time, saving the "redline" for speed sessions.

I had been ignoring this advice for years and would wind up completely burned out on running by the time the event had come. Then I wouldn't want ANYthing to do with running afterwards. Last year, I changed my strategy and in the last month of training started doing true "easy" runs when I was supposed to and I was much fresher for the 10k event, setting a PR as a result. Probably more importantly, I continued to run afterwards and even did another 10k 2 weeks later.

This year, I've found myself slipping into those old habits, especially on Saturday LSDs, and I need to nip this in the bud from here on out. I'm wearing a HR monitor for a reason, I need to listen to it.

5.00 @ CH

5.00 m @ 8.66 w/ HR of 171.

Basically this was another speedwork session where I started off with 1.50 miles of warmup, then did 3 half mile repeats at 10k pace, with half mile rest sessions in between. I finished up with a mile cooldown.

The repeats broke out like the following:

1st - 7.40 pace @ 180

2nd - 7.63 pace @ 180

3rd - 8.17 pace @ 179

I was doing well on the first 2 but that last one took a lot out of me. It's funny that my HR didn't go up though, as I felt like my LOE here was much higher.

The cooldown mile was slow (9min+) and I needed every bit of that slowness. This was a hard running session and I struggled.

It took a lot out of me the rest of the day too as I had a lot of lethargy and soreness. Maybe there's something else going on as I was also sneezing a lot (allergies?). Or, it could be that my LSD session the day before was too strenuous and I wasn't properly rested for this speed work.

6.79 @ Lost Creek

6.79m @ 8.42 pace w/ HR avg of 173.

1st mile in 8.38 @ 158 HR - Taking it easy here and haven't hit any hills yet so the HR is nice and low.

2nd mile in 8.50 @ 172 HR - This course has a steady uphill section in the second mile so the pace and HR suffered.

3rd mile in 8.43 @ 174 HR - Pace is steady and HR is steadily increasing, just like the elevation.

4th mile in 8.50 @ 177 HR - This was after the turnaround point. I'm pleased with the steady pace but wish the HR was lower.

5th mile in 8.38 @ 176 HR - Doing some downhills on this mile so the pace sped up but the HR remained steady (high).

6th mile in 8.27 @ 174 HR - Ditto for this mile.

Remainder in 6.80 @ 180 HR - Some steep uphills spiked my HR.

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This run was supposed to be an LSD but I pushed it a little too much I guess (a bad habit). I never felt that my breathing was any harder than "conversational" except for the very end so I don't know what happened with this. I ran basically the same course a week ago faster (8.25) w/ a lower HR (170). In the excuses department, I will blame it partly on the 3 cinnamon rolls I had about 45 minutes before starting. I'm usually a cheerios or PB&J guy for my pre-run meals but what can I say, my 9mo pregnant wife brought me cinnamon rolls in bed...how could I refuse?

Seriously, I need to take from this that I need to back off a bit on these LSD runs, more on this after my next entry.

4 miles at TSFG

4 miles EZ @ 8.48 pace w/ 161 HR.

1st mile in 8.45 @ 130 - I'm purposely trying to keep my pace down here. Most of this mile was downhill though so that's why the HR was so low.

2nd mile in 8.67 @ 170 - The reverse of the first mile, this is mostly uphill, which is why the HR spiked.

3rd mile in 8.55 @ 169 - Doing okay with the pace and HR here.

4th mile in 8.30 @ 174 - Finished up pretty strong as the course levelled out.

Decent middle of the week run for me. This is a hilly course so I got a better workout in than I would have on the treadmill. It would have been warmer though! It was 34 out and I was hitting some major headwinds that were just outright painful. I had on a longsleeve t and shorts, and my running gloves, which was comfortable when I could get some shelter from the wind at least.

4.50 of Repeats at CH

Sunday was speedwork so I did some repeats with an overall dist of 4.51 miles at 8.27 min pace with HR of 165.

I set the watch to do automatic half-mile splits.

1st half mile in 3.92 @ 116 - Way too fast, but this was mostly downhill and I was anxious about speedwork.

2nd half mile in 4.4 @ 164 - This is more like it.

3rd half mile in 4.15 @ 161 - Probably a little too fast but HR is doing great.

4th half mile in 3.68 @ 178 - First half-mile repeat at 5k pace. Solid 7.36 min pace. Would love to run a 5k at that pace. Haven't yet.

5th half mile in 4.52 @ 168 - Recovery half mile

Quarter mile in 2.25 @ 168 - Recovery quarter mile (.75 total) About a 9min pace.

Half mile in 3.73 @ 180 - 2nd half-mile repeat at 5k pace. Pace is still good at 7.46. Finishing this interval, I'd rate my effort level at a 9/10. I was hurting there at the end.

Recovery 1.25 miles at about 8.58 pace @ 172 HR - I didn't walk at all but maybe should have since I couldn't get that HR down below 170.

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It was 47 and sunny and I was perfectly comfortable in a sleeveless wicking shirt and shorts.