20141029 Run

4.1mi, 37:19, 3mi tempo
8:51, 8:41, 8:43 splits

This run felt pretty good, too. My heart rate was awesome coming out of the gate, albeit, I was going at a snail’s pace. This was going to be a 3mi tempo, and knowing there was this ugly hill on the way back, I decided to keep it relatively mild. Decided on a sub9 pace around 8:50. The first 2 miles felt great, but I don’t know what it is about this stupid 2% hill coming back. Perhaps it’s more than 2% and I calculated it wrong. Either way, it sucked. Still managed an 8:43 pace out of it.

Gotta love douche bag teenage drivers who don’t observe the rules of the road. Try going around the roundabout next time, dick, and don’t try to stare me down as if you weren’t doing anything wrong. Above all that, it was right at the very end of the 3rd tempo mile when I was pretty much dying.

20141024 Run

4mi, 38:10
2mi tempo splits: 8:39, 8:23

I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do today..I was initially thinking of doing some mild hills around my neighborhood. I got a little gun shy, so I just went with the 2mi tempo. Not as good as earlier this week, but I’ll take it. I think my body is adjusting to the load; I’m at 36+ miles for Oct (24mi of it being this week), and been piling on the mileage (relatively speaking to my fitness level) in the last 2 weeks.

This may be my last run this week, but we’ll see.

20141021 Run

4mi with a 2mi tempo
http://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/617296075

Splits: 8:33, 7:56

Tempo runs these days aren’t quite what they used to be, but I’ll take this one. Looks like my stride length increased during the tempo (1.06m, 1.13m) with a 180ish cadence (stride frequency, SF). I’m going to keep an eye on my SL and SF during my training; mostly because I’ll find it interesting. Ultimately, my body and fitness level will dictate all of those values.

Anyone who’s reading this, and knows me, may be wondering what the heck I’m doing blogging about running again. Well, it turns out that I registered for the 2015 Colfax Marathon. I think writing about my adventures again will help me stay on track this time.

Watched some Max King videos today.

2011-03-03 – Tempo

3.5 mi (tempo), 26:41 min (7:40, 7:41, 7:33), 173 bpm, beautiful day, slight northernly wind
6.88 mi total, 58.25 min, 168 bpm
Campus Middle School (track)

• First time running tempo on a track before
• Felt great holding sub 8’s with room to burn
• Breathing was on-par
• Had energy for 4 mi but played it safe and made sure I had enough to get back (1.7 mi back to the office)
• If I keep this up, I may be able to run a 31 min 7K.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/71077826

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/71077821

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/71077817

Thursday Tempo

8.64 mi, 1:06:24, 7:41 min/mi

• Nailed it!  Goal was 8 mi @ 8 min/mi…I’m 4 for 4 on my training runs this week…which I consider my most important training week for my marathon in just under 4 weeks.
• 170 bpm avg but felt great…breathing was always under control and didn’t feel super hard… it only became more pronounced during the small climbs.  And, instead of “recovering” after the climbs, I kept the effort consistent which got me around mid-to-low 7 pace
• I’m starting to find my niche again in running…ironically, it’s got some Pliska in it…but feels good and natural to me… and more important, efficient.  It’s got some bounce in it and the strikes seem very hard but it works.  I imagine my cadence is right around upper 160.
• All I could think about was sub-8… nothing else entered my mind.  And, every time my watched clicked off a sub-8 mile, it just fed me to keep it up.  I wasn’t sure how I would fair with the hills that have historically kicked my ass since changing jobs here… but today, I owned them.  There were only two times that I held a low-8 pace but it didn’t last long… I just switched back to my stride
• I thought about experimenting (with my stride), specifically, lengthening my stride whilst still striking under my center… but I ditched that… everything was working today.
• Nice and cool…57 when I left, and 68 now.  Stiff breeze at the 4 mi mark and kept on me for the duration…I imagine it was 5-10 mph headwind…which didn’t help my uphill efforts
• Lots of runners out today… at least 6 by my count
• Saw a snake on the bridge again… this one was a baby one though and it uncurled after I passed it.  Cute.
• Chaffed nips…no bueno… I can still feel them.  Maybe I’ll be hunched over for the rest of the day 🙂

Up Next: 10 mi on Saturday, 8 min/mi

Thursday Tempo

10.27 mi, 1:29:55, 8:41 min/mi (moving pace)

• Found a good rhythm in my stride and held it for as long as I could… this rhythm had me at around 170 bpm and mid 8:30’s and sometimes below
• Every time I had a nice downhill stretch, I was already dreading it on the way back… man, Cherry Creek has some really tough hills… I had 4 huge battles on the way back
• Saw a snake and almost pooped my pants… the dude was just hanging around on a wooden bridge
• Took a wrong turn so doubled-back (~2 mi mark)… I knew that wrong turn was there… but it was hard to tell when I was actually there…it actually looked like the right turn at first
• Super nice dirt trail… my run was approximately 70% all dirt… soft, but packed hard enough that minimizes the slip…. lots of horse apples, too.  My route took me all the way to Peoria…holy crap!  On the way back, I could see that cement bridge that sticks out from the damn… and it looked FAR AWAY!
• Got back and our building is having a little get-together with the other buildings to promote products… they had lemonades and such, so I went straight for that… I can’t say that I’ve ever had a lemonade right after a run… it was soooo refreshing!
• Lot’s of ‘hoppers… and they’re really starting to annoy me…one flew right onto my HR monitor and made a sound like one of those dog-clickers (for obedience training)…it was hilarious… im sure that left a bruise on him
• Goal was 8:00 min/mi but there’s no way… either I’m just not cut out for that at this point, or it’s just more difficult over here.  It’s most likely the former… I have to start considering changing my goal time for October… but staying on the same training plan.
• Oh yeah, it was hot.

Thursday Tempo Run

4.17 mi, 33:48, 8:06 min/mi

• Goal was 5 mi tempo but I miscalculated my (new) route
• Hot, hot, hot
• Started out too fast…I need to take care of the rolling hills around here… they’re killing me
• Hit 181 HR, and that’s when I said ‘enough’ before I croak on the side of the road… took it easy on the way back but settled into a low 6 for the remaining minute
• Did I mention it was hot?