6 miles at the Dam (Tempo)

6m at 8.54 pace w/ Avg HR 166 (Zone 3, 85.3% of max)

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8.70/151
8.48/163 - Thus concludes the warmup, which of course, was faster than it should be.
8.05/168
7.82/176 - Hitting 10k pace here, with the subsequent spike in HR.
8.68/172 - Trying to cooldown.
9.48/169 - Ditto

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Felt like this run had a high LOE. Wasn't jazzed about it to start with and that followed through the run, despite the fact that I turned in some decent numbers in the middle tempo portion. I think I'm overdoing the speedwork again and I need to either change this Thursday run to a true Easy workout, or do that with the Sunday run. Despite the fact that the pace I'm running Saturdays is "easy," it's still a long run so that's stressing my system in itself. I think I'll start doing the Sunday runs as easy and stick to the FIRST plan for Tues/Thurs/Saturday.

5m at the Dam (Tempo)

5 miles @ 8.38 pace w/ avg HR of 167 (Zone 3 or 85.5% of max HR)

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8.77/152 - A little too fast for a proper warmup.
8.18/161
8.00/170
7.70/179 - The heat & humidity finally got to me and spiked my HR. Nice pace though.
9.23/173 - Even this slow cooldown couldn't bring my HR down to Zone 2.
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This was a bit of a rough morning. Things didn't go as planned, had to back to the house TWICE for things I forgot, etc. So, I didn't arrive at the running spot until late and decided to bag the 6 miler and do 5 instead. Wasn't entirely motivated to run either which helped that decision.

It was hot and humid out, much more humid than my run here last Thursday. I wore shorts and a short sleeved tech t and both were completely soaked by the end of the run. Seemed like there was a headwind in both directions too...hate when that happens.

Took me forever to cool down too and I was still sweating while trying to work at my desk a full 30 minutes later.

Oh well, I got the miles in.

6m Tempo @ 8.39 Pace on LM Dam

6miles at 8.39 pace w/ avg HR of 167 (Zone 3)

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8.67/151
8.42/165
8.25/166
8.22/172
7.97/176
8.78/174
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I got up early and took the girl to daycare as soon as they opened and was at the dam by 650am, ran toward Lexington for 1 mile in order to add 2 miles to the normal dam 4 total. Unlike the dam, there were some rolling hills on this first section and it took a while for my legs to respond. They were a little stiff and flopping a little I thought. At this point I had worried about whether I had locked my truck and with reported break-ins in the area I thought I might stop and check on the way back. Decided against it when I got there though.

By the time I was on the dam I was in a groove and at that point where I was hurting just a little but knew it was just right for a Tempo run. The 5th mile was at/near my 10k pace so that was encouraging.

I really aimed for a 1/4/1 here with clear warmup and cool down miles. Could've done a little better I guess, but at least there's clear demarcation between the WU/CD and the tempo work.

Temp was about 70 and I was okay with my running tank and no hat/sunglasses. Shirt was soaked at the end and I didn't cool down fully until an hour later at my desk.

4.86 miles in CH - EZ

4.86 miles at 8.82 pace w/ avg HR of 162

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GPS batteries died on me mid-run (I had to measure the distance via Gmaps Pedometer) so I don't have individual mile breakouts.

Basically I did a long warmup of about 2 miles, then did a 1mile+ at my planned 10k Pace (what felt like it anyway), then a 1mile+ cooldown.

The neighborhood is hilly and my HR was getting up there a few times, and I broke into a very good sweat, so I'm a little surprised (pleasantly) that that avg HR is so low.

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This was the last training run for my BridgeRun "season." I can't say it was exactly confidence-inspiring but it was supposed to be slow and easy and I just tacked on that tempo session in the middle on a whim.

The shin splints I recently wrote about didn't flare up again thankfully. I'd say the cure was a combination of 48hrs rest, the Naproxen Sodium (i.e. generic "Aleve") I've been taking, and the fact that my Brooks Adrenaline ASR's don't give me as much trouble in that area as my other rotation shoes, the Mizuno Inspire 4. I plan to run the race in the Brooks, partly for that very reason.

Oh, I also listened to a motiontraxx (http://www.motiontraxx.com/) podcast (the 180bpm one) for the first time and, while I liked it, I don't think I'm going to use that Playlist for my race this saturday. I think I'll stick to my tried-and-true songs instead. The motiontraxx seemed to mess with my pacing and actually slow me down. Makes sense, since the host said that the beat was set for "about a 9 to 10 min mile 10k" which is considerably slower than I plan to run the race. It'll be great for long training runs (maybe marathon training?) in the future though.

5 miles at the Dam - Tempo

5 miles on the LM Dam at about 8.04 pace w/ avg HR of 167

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1st mile in 8.40 @ 150 - A little fast for a warmup mile but whatever.

2nd mile in 8.08 @ 167 - A little slow for my first tempo mile, still dialing that pace in.

3rd mile in 7.90 @ 172 - This is more like it.

4th mile in 7.78 @ 174 - Finishing strong.

5th mile in 8.02 @ 172 - For a cooldown mile, this is ridiculously fast. That's okay, I took a 5 minute walk as part of my cooldown too.

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This was a 1/3/1 Tempo run where I run the middle 3 miles at ST (10K) pace.

I don't know if the GPS was off or what but this was a great run for me. It felt effortless and fluid, probably the best I've ever felt given those speeds. A couple of things were working in my favor of course: it was a mostly flat course and there was a little bit of a tailwind at times (conversely there was a headwind at times too since this was an out-and-back run).

The result was a run where my HR efficiency was the highest ever anywhere other than the treadmill.

This really gives me a lot of confidence for next weekend.

7.56m @ Riverfront

7.56m at 8.32 pace w/ avg HR of 171

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1st mile in 8.73 @ 150 - Warmup mile.

2nd mile in 8.62 @ 169 - Having a hard time finding my pace obviously.

3rd mile in 8.20 @ 173 - This is more like it.

4th mile in 8.15 @ 174 - Steadily dialing that pace in...

5th mile in 8.20 @ 176 - More of the same.

6th mile in 8.08 @ 177 - Feeling stronger and it's showing.

7th mile in 8.02 @ 179 - Probably overdoing it now.

remaining in 4.87 (8.70 min/mile) @ 177 - Not that great of a cooldown.

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This was a 1/6/1 "tempo" run where I was supposed to do a warmup mile, then six miles at "MT" pace (i.e. 10k pace plus 15-20sec), then a cooldown mile. I pretty much skipped the true "cool down" and just did a half mile slow pace and then a half mile walk to the car (not counted in the total!) to cool down.

Weather was nice, sunny and in the 60's.

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Commentary:
Had some pretty bad stomach cramps for a good 12+ hours afterwards. Maybe it was because I delayed getting some food in my stomach for awhile (had to pick up the kid from the parents and drive home to eat). So despite what I said about my OJ/water concoction below, I'm gonna experiment with having gatorade on these long (60min+) runs going forward.

Also, the Mizuno is still giving me blisters, but only on my right foot, on the inside of the ball and on the tips of my #2 and #3 toes. The nylon dress sock trick didn't help this time, so I'm going to have to figure something else out soon. I did loosen the laces a little so maybe that will help next time around.

8m Tempo at Riverfront

8 miles at 8.43 pace w/ avg HR of 171

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1st mile in 8.62 @ 150 - Warmup mile. Probably a little too fast.

2nd mile in 7.97 @ 175 - First tempo run @ 10k pace. Looks like I did a pretty good job of guesstimating my pace just by feel. 7.97 would give me a 49.41 10k.

3rd mile in 8.92 @ 168 - Recovery mile.

4th mile in 7.85 @ 178 - Another good job at estimating my 10k pace.

5th mile in 8.08 @ 180 - Fell off a little here, but it was the second half of a 2 mile tempo and the overall average is still within 10k pace. Plus there were some pretty good headwinds.

6th mile in 8.98 @ 171 - Recovery mile.

7th mile in 7.90 @ 179 - Another pretty good 10k pace mile.

8th mile in 9.15 @ 173 - Cooldown.

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This was a good tempo run session. I pretty much achieved my goals and I wasn't completely exhausted at the end. Within an hour of getting home, eating dinner, etc, I felt completely fine.

Those tempo intervals were pretty tough though, much tougher than previous ones run on the treadmill. I'm glad I did this one outside, but it makes me wonder about maintaining that pace for 6.2 straight miles. Here's hoping that the adrenaline from the race event itself will offset that.

5 miles on Treadmill (Tempo)

5 miles at 8.34 pace w/ avg HR of 165

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1st mile in 9.00 @ 150

2nd mile in 8.00 @ 165

3rd mile in 8.00 @ 169

4th mile in 7.97 @ 171

5th mile in 8.72 @ 169

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This was a repeat of the previous week's 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.

Not much changed from the previous week, other than some mild HR fluctuation.

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

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.