running in Anaheim

On Monday, I jogged 40' or so before heading to the airport. On the plane, I read Canova's IAF marathon book I got in the mail on Saturday (more on the later). The plane was late and I ended up getting about 5.5 hours of sleep before getting up early to run before my meeting. The good news was that I had a great place to run. When I checked in, I asked whether there were any recommended running routes nearby (which almost always gets a blank stare), but in this case, I got a "sure!" It turns out the hotel is on one side of the Santa Anna "river" (man-made waterway) and on the other side was the Santa Anna River bikeway. According to the markings, I was about 16 miles from Huntington beach on the path. You could run forever uninterrupted because you went under all the bridges. These dips under the bridges were also the only "hills" to speak of.

I set out on Tuesday morning to do my 60' -- 30' out and 30' back. I thought about Canova's book and particularly what he says about slow running when I was warming up. Basically he says under 80% MP (~9:15 for me) is useless *if* you're in good condition. I'm not in good condition by Canova's standards (the examples he gives are all for a 2h08' male marathoner or 2h28' female!), but still I kind of had this sense to run a little faster. So I did.

On the out, my heart rate was only in the low- to mid-140's but it seemed like I was moving and the pace was in the low 8s. I should have noticed that I was running in the same direction that the river was flowing and that probably meant I was going downhill! I found out soon enough when I turned back for the hotel. I was 10-15 secs slower per mile. Overall it was only 146 bpm average and 8:19 pace, but my legs weren't completely fresh for the next day.

On Wednesday, I picked Canova's "long run with pace variations" (or something like that). The example he gave was 30' wup/80%MP, 7k at MP, 10' at 80% MP, 5k at MP, 10' at 80% MP, 3k at MP, and 20-40' 80% MP. His example runner is 3' per k(!), so I figured 7k was 21' or about 3 miles at MP for me, so I did 2M wup, 3 at MP, 1 slow, 2 at MP, 1 slow, 1 at MP, 2 slow for 12 total. I would have padded the beginning and end to reach my usual 14, but didn't have time. I ran 40' in the afternoon and then 40' again on Th morning (on the treadmill) before leaving for my flight.

Now I'm back and have to set my alarm for 5 am tomorrow. Not sure what I'll do considering I have the half on Sunday. Probably just 9 or 10 easy.