5 miles on way back from YMCA

5 m at 8.57 pace w/ avg HR of 166

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1 - 9.10/155 - (8.18/167)
2 - 8.43/166 - (8.43/172)
3 - 8.50/169 - (9.03/176)
4 - 8.43/166 - (8.43/180)
5 - 8.38/177 - (9.22/185)

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The parentheticals are the times/HR from the past Saturday's run which was on the same course (just about - the last mile was a little different, I ran up the hill to my house in this run whereas I looped the flat clubhouse driveway this past saturday).

This is pretty interesting on a few points:

* The difference that about 10-15 degrees in heat can make.
* Miles 2 and 4 were at the exact same pace, but with wildly different HR.
* I was running much faster over the last 4 miles on average, but with much lower HR.

I think it was also helped by that slow first mile warmup. Lesson learned there.

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.

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.

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.

5 miles @ TSFG

5 miles in 41.46 at 8.29 pace w/ HR of 174

1st mile in 6.82 @ 157 HR - Uh oh, I'm in trouble. That's way too fast to start out. By my record that's the fastest mile I've ever run. Not a great way to start out an easy 5 miler, even if it's aided by being mostly downhill.

2nd mile in 8.48 @ 176 HR - Not paying for it too much yet, at least not pace-wise, but that HR is spiking. Alot of this was still downhill though. All of this mile was in the new section/subdivision that I tried out for the first time.

3rd mile in 8.27 @ 173 HR - Okay, this is just plain screwy as my speed increased? I guess this was the remainder of the big downhill section as I turned around shortly after finishing the 3rd mile.

4th mile in 9.27 @ 179 HR - This is where I start to pay. Long stretches of uphill and I am really struggling. I even walked a few segments. HR was pushing 190 in spots.

5th mile in 8.62 @ 181 HR - I started to get my 2nd wind here and the last half mile honestly didn't feel that bad. I'd say I probably ran the first half of this mile in 9+ min pace, with the second half around 8 min pace. Not very consistant but I started to feel significantly better, despite that really high HR.

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This was supposed to be an easy run, but I obviously screwed that up by pushing it too much, a bad habit of mine. Just like last time I ran this course (1/7/09), I've got to start taking it easy on the first half.

6 miles thru H Forest

6 miles, the first 1.50 was on the road from my house to the trailhead, then 3 on the trail, then 1.50 back home.

1st mile in 8.25 @ 143 HR - This was on the road and almost all downhill. Pretty easy going.

2nd mile in 8.85 @ 170 HR - The first half of this was on the road (uphill) and the 2nd half was on the trail. That's why the pace and HR spiked.

3rd mile in 9.40 @ 171 HR - Talk about pace spiking! All of this was on the trail. I didn't really expect it to slow me down this much, but wow.

4th mile in 10.47 @ 173 HR - More of the same, I was really slowing down and my HR was getting up there.

5th mile in 10.17 @ 174 HR - The second half of this mile was back on the road and downhill. That tells me that first half still on the trail was SLOW.

6th mile in 8.08 @ 175 HR - Fast road running. At least I had something left over, even though I'm pushing that HR pretty good there.

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Not sure what really happened here. I ran pretty much this same course last April with consistent 8.58 splits each mile. And that was all trail. Oh well, at least I got a good HR workout out of it. I'll skip the interval/repeat work tomorrow and count this as that instead.

3.52 m @ TSFG

Overall - 3.52 miles at avg HR of 161

1st mile in 7.72 w/ HR of 112 (don't trust this figure). Felt great, apparently because I was massively running downhill with a huge tailwind (see below).

2nd mile in 8.13 w/ 174 HR. Again didn't feel too bad quite yet.

3rd mile in 9.27 w/ 181 HR. I'm sucking wind here. Huge tailwind and lots of hills just took it right out of me. I even walked a few times which I really never do.

.52 miles in 4.62 w/ 181 HR. More of the same in the 3rd mile. I'm wiped.

Gotta remember on this course to take it more easy in the beginning.