mixed intervals

Today's mixed intervals went 2+ mile wup plus 3200m in 6:56/159, 6:44/167, 2000m in 8:07 (6:32)/172, 1000m in 3:54 (6:17)/176, 800m in 3:00 (6:02)/178, 2+ mile cdn.

Last Wednesday was: 7:04/158, 6:57/165; 6:36/170; 3:56/174; 3:03/176

About the same. Today, my heart rates were a little higher for the last two intervals, but I ran the 10k pace for 2000m instead of 1600 and I ran the second 1600 of HM pace significantly faster than last week.

I really felt like I grooved on the second 1600 of HM pace. I'm calling it HM pace because I'd be happy to run a half at 6:44, but I've averaged ~167 for the second mile of most of my marathons.

10 at base pace -- calf is doing fine

I took an off day yesterday. I'm thinking those things might actually be good for you. I felt a bit like the tin man this morning, but none of the aches were in my calf, which I tweaked on Sunday's long run. By the end, I could feel a bit of a dull ache, but no tugging sensation, so I think I'm good to head to the track tomorrow. I haven't quite figured out what I'll do. I'm not sure I should do anything faster than HM pace. I might swap Wed and Fri and do the long threshold runs tomorrow.

Quite by accident, I've settled into Matt Fitgerald's "Brain Training" schedule. I really like what he tells you to do, but I *really* don't like the way he tells you to do it. All the pseudo-science and marketing really turns me off. The plan is basically two workouts (with lots of mixed intervals), a long run, one off day a week, optional doubles of 20-60' four days a week plus some drills and core work. The workouts get more race specific as you approach your goal race with lots of HM pace for the marathon. It's a lot like Canova and Hudson (who he co-authored a book with), but I think it targets a slow guy like me a little better. Canova uses a hypothetical 3' per km marathoner (the US has had two in history I think -- KK and Ryan Hall) and Hudson's hypothetical guy ends with running a 2:39 marathon. I know I can use the principles, but I'd like to be led a little closer to the water.

I used "base pace" to describe today's run as Fitzgerald does, but it was basically a moderate run (Daniels would call it E pace). I did 8:27 pace (146 bpm average) -- same pace as Sunday. It dawned on me that it's a little faster than I raced my first 10 miler in April 2005.

week of 26 October

Mo - Rest
Tu am - 10.34 1:28:31 8:34 144 (72%)
Tu pm - 5.01 45:07 9:00 147 (73%)
We - 9.27 1:14:53 8:05 150 (75%)
Th- 5.48 0:52:36 9:36 135 (67%)
Fr - 10.70 1:24:59 7:56 149 (75%)
Sa - 6.00 0:55:53 9:19 133 (67%)
Su - 22.28 3:07:47 8:26 149 (75%)
This Week 69.09 9:49:46 8:32 146 (73%)

Everyone who ran MCM today should thank me for the perfect weather since I didn't run today. It was 44 degrees when I started my long run and only 54 at 10:30 when I finished.

My legs felt fresh and this was a very easy run. BUT, at about 10 miles, I took a turn and felt a pinch on the medial side of my left achilles. The pinch grew into a dull ache over time and I could feel each footfall. Fortunately, I don't think it's my achilles. I believe it's the muscle between your achilles and medial ankle (to make up a term) that you stretch if you rotate your foot out and lift your toes. Muscles heal better than tendons and I believe this is the same injury as I had in April. I was able to run through that, so hopefully I'll have the same good fortune this time.

Aside from the injury, the run was perfect. If I'd run MCM today, I'm about 90% sure I'd have qualified. I ran 22.3 at 8:25 pace and 149 bpm. My old rule of thumb was MP is 80 secs faster than my 20-mile run pace at 149 bpm (I lock in on that in these runs). On the way back from the lake I picked it up and my miles were 7:59/152, 8:17/159, 7:56/161, 7:44/162, 7:52/162, 8:06/164, 7:57/166. The last two miles are significantly uphill. I like this route because it simulates the last 2 uphill miles of the marathon I'm running and I never like to give in and slow up too much on those miles.

69 was pretty decent mileage for the week with a complete off-day on Monday. I didn't get in the second double I was hoping for to push me over 70 for the week, but that's all right. I'm probably better off.

a couple of good workouts

Wednesday

After a day off on Monday and a moderate Tuesday, I was ready to do a workout on Wednesday and felt a little more spring in my step, so I decided to try some faster running again. I tried a workout from Matt Fitzgerald's Brain Training book. The workout is 2@HM, 1@10K, 1k@5k, 800m@3k with 400m rest. (I also did 2 miles wup + 2 miles cdn) The workout is basically in between the 4M@HM + 2M@10k and the 10k->1500m pace ladder interval from Hudson's book.

I didn't have much of a plan on pace. The math was easy for 6:56 pace (52 per 200), so I shot for that. It was dark for the first mile and I couldn't see my watch well, but hit 7:04. The next 1600 was 6:56. After that, I just tried to take a couple of second off per 200 for each subsequent interval and they were 6:36, 3:56 (6:19), and 3:03 (6:08).

As it turns out, the paces were pretty damn close to what McMillan would predict from my 68:49 10M race in the spring. McMillan says 6:05, 6:22, 6:36, and 6:59 for 3k, 5k, 10k, and HM. I ran 6:08, 6:19, 6:38, and 7:02 per mile.

Thursday

I did a very easy 5 and some really short drills. Like 3 x 10-15 seconds of skipping, high knees, butt kicks, and strides. It's amazing how awkward skipping was the first time and how natural it was on the third set.

Friday

I figured Fitzgerald worked so well on Wednesday, I stole his HM pace cruise intervals. He actually builds up to 2 x 4.5 w/800m by this point in his schedule, but I settled on 2 x 3 miles -- sounded plenty hard. I shot for <= 7:00 per mile. After a 2+-mile wup, the first 3 miles went 7:00/157, 6:53/164, 6:53/165. This was very easy. My marathon heart rate average 172. Knowing that 6:52 is 3-hour pace, I had the notion that someday I might actually run sub-3 (not this time!). The next three were pretty routine also, although the heart rate continued to climb: 6:54/163, 6:56/167, 6:56/169. Another 2+ miles for 10.7 total and 7:56/149 bpm pace overall.

***

I'm really interested in seeing how my long run goes on Sunday. I'm thinking of throwing some goal MP in there to see how it feels. To get an accurate reading maybe I'll run on the Mt Vernon bike path. There are a few permanent markers (4k and 10.5k) from races they hold there. I could do 10.5k out, 10.5k back easy, then 4k out and 4k back at MP.

***

I need to stop eating! I'm 2 pounds up from my low a week or two ago. If I weren't running well, it would upset me a lot more. I'm considering weight training to help me keep the pounds off. I can't run any more than I do and counting calories is too damn hard.

took a zero today

Slightly complicated logistics (probably would have had to run on the treadmill) combined with the realization that I probably ought to take a complete day off some time (my last was 23 Aug), and a vague recognition that 23 miles is a pretty long distance, motivated me to take the day off from running. Slept until 7am!

week of 12 October

Congrats to Mindi on a great race! I know she must be thrilled with her time and negative split. It's always good to exceed expectations.

Mystery coach, bless his soul, sent me a new chart based on my workouts from last week. If I'm reading correctly, it reflects a 10 secs/mile pace increase.

Without further ado here are the stats for the week.

| Date       | Dist (mi) |     Time | Pace | Avg. HR   |
|------------+-----------+----------+------+-----------|
| Monday     |      6.20 |  0:57:42 | 9:18 | 124 (62%) |
| Tuesday    |      9.31 |  1:21:07 | 8:43 | 138 (69%) |
| Wednesday  |     12.09 |  1:49:05 | 9:02 | 133 (66%) |
| Thursday   |      5.40 |  0:49:15 | 9:07 | 136 (68%) |
| Friday     |     14.31 |  2:01:38 | 8:30 | 148 (74%) |
| 6:23 AM    |     11.33 |  1:34:03 | 8:18 | 150 (75%) |
| 6:22 PM    |      2.98 |  0:27:35 | 9:16 | 141 (70%) |
| Saturday   |      5.38 |  0:49:25 | 9:11 | 138 (69%) |
| Sunday     |     22.51 |  3:17:03 | 8:45 | 152 (76%) |
| This Week  |     75.19 | 11:05:15 | 8:51 | 142 (71%) |
| Last Week  |     71.62 | 10:29:29 | 8:47 | 141 (71%) |
| This Month |    203.00 | 30:01:42 | 8:53 | 140 (70%) |
| Last Month |    278.72 | 40:44:19 | 8:46 | 143 (71%) |

My heart rate was inexplicably high on Friday PM and Saturday. I brushed off Friday because I never run well in the afternoon and the HRM messed up the first mile. Nevertheless the last mile of that run was 9:27/136, which isn't good. Then Saturday, was OK, I suppose (the 138 avg mostly comes from a wonky HRM -- 167 bpm first split), but it still wasn't quite right.

I did 23 today. Well, the garmin gave me credit for 22.5, but the conventional wisdom (and my friend's calibrated bike) say Burke Lake is 4.6 per lap and I did 5 laps. I had to thread the needle timewise to get this one in because my wife is out of town and I had 3' 40'' between dropping the kids off and picking them up. 10 minutes from drop off until running and a 10 minute ride to pick up left 3:20 for the run, so the goal was sub-40 per lap (a little under to allow for bathroom breaks and water refills). The laps went 39:57/140, 39:39/145, 39:03/149, 38:56/156, 39:27/164.

Except for the length (22.5 versus 20), this was almost an exact replica of this run on April 13 (3 weeks before my 3:21 at Frederic). In fact, through 4 laps, my times were 2:37:35 today and 2:37:32 then. The third lap today was 38:56/156 versus 38:27/157 then. In other words, I'm the same (or maybe a little slower).

I really felt like I had lost some of my recent mojo from the beginning of this run. The HR seemed too high for the pace given my recent expectations. You have time to think while you run and my slightly runny nose, tight chest rekindled a theory about why I've drastically underperformed at MCM for 3 years -- maybe it's mid- to late-October allergies. This is almost the exact time of year that I follow a confidence-boosting workout (10/16/07) with a bad long run (10/21/07).

I do take one positive from today. Despite the fact I didn't quite have it in the pace/hr department, I didn't hesitate to head around for that 5th lap. My endurance seems pretty good.

Conditioning workout take 2

Time Distance Split time Split distance Split pace Avg. HR
0:09:15 1.00 9:15 1.00 9:14 177 (89%)
0:18:28 2.01 9:13 1.00 9:11 134 (67%)
0:27:06 3.01 8:37 1.00 8:38 129 (65%)
0:36:16 4.01 9:09 1.00 9:10 134 (67%)
0:38:30 4.25 2:13 0.24 9:04 133 (67%)
0:45:47 5.24 7:18 0.99 7:23 157 (78%)
0:53:06 6.24 7:18 1.00 7:21 159 (80%)
1:00:27 7.24 7:20 1.00 7:19 162 (81%)
1:07:45 8.25 7:18 1.01 7:16 165 (82%)
1:15:35 9.26 7:49 1.01 7:46 162 (81%)
1:24:32 10.25 8:56 1.00 8:57 145 (72%)
1:33:21 11.25 8:49 1.00 8:50 142 (71%)
1:34:02 11.33 0:41 0.08 9:09 139 (69%)

Basically the same run as Tuesday but faster and longer and with some "strides." I jogged to the track the long way (4.25 miles) and did 4 miles. After 7:40 pace resulted in a much lower heart rate than the Mystery Coach predicted (148 versus 163), I thought I'd quicken the pace. 7:20 was a nice round number (55 per 200m) and happened to be below my goal MP :-)

The 4 miles (1600m) were 7:18/157, 7:18/159, 7:20/162, and 7:18/165. I was very happy with the heart rates obviously (my first 4 miles at Frederick were 7:35/160, 7:21/168, 7:31/170, 7:34/169), but was a little surprised to see it jump from 162 to 165. Some of that was tiring, but I think some was also the wind. It was semi-windy the whole time, with the wind straight down the track. (Wunderground shows it was 16 mph sustained.) On the last mile it picked up a little and running into a gust saw my heart rate jump from 160 to 168 on one straight.

After the four miles, I decided (for no good reason) to work a little on my "speed." After jogging a lap, I strided down the straights and jogged the curves (6 "strides"). Then headed back (2 miles).

Jogged 3 miles after nearly being hobbled while chasing kids during flag football.

I'll be only 6 weeks out after tomorrow, so I'd like to get back to some of that HM/10k pace that seemed to do wonders for me. I know I can't go to that well too often though. Not sure what I'll do. I'm thinking I might need to do a pure speed workout (like Rubio's 200s) on Tuesday. On Friday, I could do the same conditioning workout (sans the strides) or maybe inch up the pace.
If I could do that HM/10k workout at 6:40/6:20 (and the right HRs) in a few weeks, that would be fantastic.

AM: 11.33/8:18/150 (HRM messed up 1st mile. Said 177 bpm avg.)
PM: 3 miles/9:16/141 (goofed up again)

Progress?

My average pace in March was 8:55 and average HR was 143 bpm. So far in October, those numbers are 8:54 and 137.

Today I did 12 easy -- 9:02/133. Summer made a comeback as it reached the 80s this afternoon. This morning, when I ran, it was 63 deg and 97% humidity.

the (slow) beat goes on

The theme of good heart rates/paces continued today and I'm beginning to suspect it might reflect an actual (gasp) improvement in my fitness.

Tuesday is normally a workout day, but I kept it slow per the Mystery Coach's advice. He recommended 15-25' wup, 20' at 7:40, and 15-25' cdn as a conditioning workout. I padded the warmup a little and did 39' wup (long way to the track), 4800 meters at 7:43, 7:38, and 7:40 per 1600, and 19' cdn (direct route home).

The bottom line is that 7:40 pace was very easy in terms of effort and heart rate. Below are the splits

Time Distance Split time Split distance Split pace Avg. HR
0:09:50 1.01 9:50 1.01 9:42 150 (75%) -- HRM was screwed up
0:19:21 2.02 9:30 1.00 9:28 130 (65%)
0:28:07 3.02 8:45 1.00 8:46 125 (63%)
0:39:37 4.24 11:30 1.22 9:25 130 (65%)
0:47:20 5.23 7:43 0.99 7:49 145 (72%) -- 1600 on track in 7:43
0:54:59 6.22 7:38 0.99 7:43 148 (74%) -- 1600 on track in 7:38
1:02:40 7.24 7:40 1.01 7:34 148 (74%) -- 1600 on track in 7:40
1:11:38 8.23 8:58 1.00 8:59 134 (67%)
1:20:26 9.23 8:47 1.00 8:49 133 (67%)
1:21:07 9.31 0:41 0.08 9:06 133 (66%)

After the first mile on the track, I pretty much stuck at 148 bpm. That's very, very low for me. It's not even what I'd normally call an 80% run. It's barely in the high aerobic range. It also felt very easy. I was somewhere between 4-4 breathing and 3-3 breathing during the three laps. Mystery Coach said 7:40 should correspond to 163 bpm, but it wasn't close to that.

I don't think I'm overcooked or I wouldn't recover so well. Note how low my cooldown heart rate was at a pretty decent pace. I think/hope that backing off on the threshold stuff for a little bit and working on turnover will get me fresh again. I'll probably inch up the pace on these conditioning runs. I'm a little afraid of giving back what I've gained recently by backing off too much. I probably shouldn't be running 6:40 like I was, but 7:40 seems too slow.

The knee is still giving me trouble, but I did some light stretching before, during (at stoplights), and after my run that seemed to help a little.

feedback from the Mystery Coach

Perplexed by my inability to "go fast" in this workout, I emailed the Mystery Coach in the hope he might be able to figure out what went wrong and how to "fix it." MC kindly provided a detailed response, including this chart. The chart has times across the top indicating the length of time the heart rate and paces below can be held. There's a range of paces that bracket my current fitness on line 9. From the first column, I should be able to run 6:11 pace for 12:33 with an associated heart rate of 197.

MC believes my inability to get my legs to go fast comes from the inability of my upper level muscle fibers to generate the force needed to drive you HR up because they have not been activated (lack of leg speed work) or because they were not conditioned properly in the base phase. He suspects my running ahead of my maximum lactate steady state (MLSS on the chart) has undermined my condition and recovery, exhibiting a disconnect between HR and running pace.

MC suggest I do some 15-60 sec accelerations with a lot of rest -- 1-2 minutes worth every 15 minutes. On the conditioning end, start with a 20 minute steady run at about 7:40 pace (HR should be about 163) with a 15-25' and cool down. This could be the day before a longer slower run (75-100 minutes).

For at least a few weeks, I should stay out of the red and orange zones (except for the accelerations).

His advice is pretty similar to my intuition. Although I've been enjoying the absurdly low heart rate (my run today was 6.2 at 9:19 per mile and 124(!) bpm average), I can't quite believe the low heart rate reflects my real fitness. I think I need to cut down on the LT pace until I get some semblance of normalcy. What he suggests is actually pretty similar in spirit to a couple of the Joe Rubio workouts (continuous "80%" runs and 200m intervals) I was doing early in the summer.

I do have to disagree with line 9 on the chart though. I really think I'm in better shape than that, which makes me ambivalent about changing what I'm doing. I think all this HM and 10k pace got me in better shape, but I recognize there are diminishing returns there.

week of 6 October

• Mo - 5.30 0:45:48 8:38 139 (70%)
• Tu - 11.60 1:38:02 8:27 147 (74%)
• We - 9.30 1:25:23 9:11 133 (66%)
• Th AM - 5.60 0:52:51 9:26 133 (66%)
• Th PM - 2.98 0:27:55 9:22 132 (66%)
• Fr - 11.25 1:28:44 7:53 158 (79%)
• Sa - 5.33 0:50:45 9:31 130 (65%)
• Su - 20.25 3:00:01 8:53
• This Week - 71.62 10:29:29 8:47 141 (71%)

On Saturday, I got in 5 easy before my son's flag football game. His team scored at TD with 4 secs left to tie and made the conversion to win! After the game, we drove down to Williamsburg for the weekend to visit colonial Williamsburg and Yorktown. By prior agreement, I was able to get in my long run on Sunday :-)

I agonized over where I was going to run and ultimately decided to run from the colonial area to a trail I read about at the Waller Mill resovoir. Unfortunately, my replacement from Garmin didn't make it before we left (of course it was on the doorstep from Saturday afternoon until today) so I just ran 3 hours. I attempted to do the lookout trail at the park, but after scaling a couple of hills, I realized this wasn't a jogging trail and I just might snap my gimpy knee off. I also found a nice bike path that was about 2 miles long and shaded. I ended up doing a couple of out and backs on the bike path before heading back. Some guesswork and gmap-pedometer puts my distance at 20.25 (8:53 pace). Most was at ~9 min/mi, but the last 7+ were about 8:40 min/mi. (I don't have a HR because I forgot my chest strap.)

In other news, a high school friend of mine surprised both of us by getting within 90 seconds of his PR. That's really something when your 1) 37 years old and 2) ran sub-2:45 in your late 20s. He's running Boston in the spring and I'm hoping to make it there with him.

I couldn't run faster than 6:30/mile...

...if I fell off a cliff.

This was another weird one today. The plan was 4@HM, 1 mile jog, 2@10k.

- Jog 2.25 miles to the start line of the track.
- The 4 "miles" (1600m) went 6:43/166, 6:39/172, 6:37/175, 6:39/176. As I said before, my avg HM heart rate is 180, so this was quite a surprise. I had planned to hit the first 200m at ~51-52, but hit it at 50 and then it was just 50s the rest of the way. Really this was quite easy.
- Jog a mile - 9:05/148. HR recovered well.
- I was supposed to do 2 @ 10k and I tried. I really did! I though I'd hit the first 200 at 47-48 and I saw it tick over 47 to 48 as I crossed the line. Perfect I though. Then the next 200 was 50 again. Crap. I thought maybe I'd increased my breathing rate and went from 2-2 to 2-1. I saw my heart rate go down, but I didn't get any faster. The first mile was 6:36/173. I was trying! On the second mile, I stopped looking at splits and tried to relax and move my arms and legs fast. 6:47/175. Ugh.

I realized I wasn't far off an 8k PR through the 4 miles. My PR is 32:45, which is 6:33 per 1600 meters. During that race, I averaged 187 bpm over the last 4 miles. I'm not sure what the deal is. Maybe its just the marathon training that's made me slow, but strong. I feel like I could crush my 10 mile PR (6:53 pace) but probably couldn't touch my 5k PR (6:23 per mile).

I did 3 miles ez tonight (I can't double tomorrow like I wanted to).

doubles

Doubles... I think I'm going to have to start doing them. My keys for 3:15 are 70 mpw and 155 lbs. Adding intensity has made the former harder. Hudson says 70 mpw is about the most you can do in singles. For me, because I'm so much slower than Hudson anticipates, that point is probably less. I've been trying to do 10+ miles w/ a workout on Tu and Fr, a med long run on Wed, an easy 10-miler on Sa, and a long run on Sun. I think the Fr, Sa, Su stretch is probably taking a lot out of me. If I made Saturday, and possibly Wednesday, into doubles, the schedule would probably be a lot easier to handle and let me consistently reach 70 mpw while keeping the workouts. I hesitate on doubling Wednesday though, since I have a deep attachment to the mid-week medium long run. If I'm doing 10-12 on Tu & Fr though, maybe that would suffice. I really don't like doubling because of the time it takes, but I'm less than 8.5 weeks out now, so I'd only be doing it for the next 5 or 6 weeks.

I noticed that Rubio and Hudson differ on which days to double. Rubio would have you double workout days first (Tu and Fr). Hudson has AM moderate/PM easy on Wed and AM easy/PM easy on Saturday. I lean toward Hudson only because I always feel like I'm going to pull something when I shuffle around the evening after a hard run. At 37, maybe I ought to look at that masters chapter.

I was a good boy and did about 10 minutes of stretching/core today after an easy 9.3 miles @ 9:11/133bpm.

No spring in my step?

This was the strangest run ever for me.

I had been planning to do maybe 8 miles with something at the track, which would mean I could run at home before going to work (rather than get there early and run from there). Then last night as I was looking at the menu from Hudson's book, he had what looked to be about 11 miles, so I packed up my bag at about 10:45 and tried to go to sleep. Of course, I then woke up at 4:30. Since it was so early I figured I'd just do my run at the high school track near my house.

Here was the plan: 1.5 wup + 3 x (1 mile, 1k, 800m, 400m w/200m jog) at 10k -> 1500m pace. Ouch!

After 15 minutes of jogging, I found myself looking at a locked gate outside the track. I've run in the morning here before, but I guess not quite this early. This wasn't going well at all. I jog back to the old 10 laps per mile gravel track at the elementary school.

On my weird little track, I planned to do 3 x (10 laps, 7 laps, 5 laps, and 3 laps w/1 lap rest), which would be close to the plan.

My trusty Garmin is in Olathe, KS right now and I'm waiting for Garmin to send me a new (refurb) one, so I have my Suunto T6 on. The T6, unfortunately, has the world's worst backlight implementation. Not only does the backlight stink, but I can't figure out how to make it stay on. My only choices are "Normal" (press hold a particular button to get it to come on for a few seconds), "Night Mode" (on for a few seconds when I press any button), or "Off."

I tried the first mile at what, without looking at lap splits, thought was 10k pace. When I hit the lap button, it showed 6:56 and 164 bpm (not avg, but at the end of the interval). Um, that's kinda weak. I picked it up (or so I thought), and got down to ~6:40 pace for the next interval. After that, I never got much faster. The whole thing was bizarre. Near the end of the second set, I decided to stop and just run another 30' easy, because this obviously wasn't what was intended.

I tried everything to go faster. On the last interval (3 laps), I basically did what I felt was sprinting and only managed 1:52 -- 6:13 pace. The first mile of my 5k PR was 6:00 and (6:23 pace overall). My heart rate also never really got that high. I've put the graph of my heart rate below (ignore the first 10 minutes before I broke a sweat.) I've also added lines of 180 and 185, which are what I average for my last HM I raced (9/2007) and my last 10k (9/2008), respectively. My heart rate is really quite low. I would think it was because I was tired, but in the past when that's happened, I'd expect my heart rate not to recover so well, but look how well it recovered between intervals in only 0.1 miles (usually 55'') and how well it recovered in my cooldown run. When I've been overbaked, it would usually stay very high even when I was shuffling after a workout.


For completeness, here are the splits.

• 26' warmup (average from 16' - 26' was 118 bpm!)
• 6:56/6:56/160/164 (time/pace/avg bpm/bpm at mark); .1-mile jog
• 4:45/6:47/162/164; .1-mile jog
  
• 3:19/6:38/162/172; .1-mile jog
• 1:56/6:26/165/172
• .2-mile jog between sets
  
• 6:44/6:44/167/171; .1-mile jog
• 4:41/6:41/167/171; .1-mile jog
• 3:17/6:34/170/171; .1-mile jog
• 1:52/6:13/173/180
  
• 30' cooldown (133 bpm average)

Total: 2.7 wup + 5.8 interval + 3.1 cdn = 11.6 in 1:38:02; 8:28 mi/mi;

One thing I find interesting is that the interval portion totals 5.8 miles and I ran 7:07 pace (including the rest intervals) at 164.5 bpm average. For the first 6 miles of the Frederick marathon, I averaged 168 bpm and right at 7:30 pace (I avg'd 172 for the marathon). Does this mean I should just run intervals at my next marathon? :-)

week of 29 September

The 10k stuck with me nearly all week. Even on Thursday, my quads felt trashed. By Saturday, that sharp soreness was gone, but I still felt like I was running in molasses and had aches and pains all over. Today's long run was no different. I started over 9 min/mi (hard to tell without my Garmin) and brought it somewhat under by the end (two timed laps on the track were 8:40/mile), but I felt so off, it was hard to tell how fast I was going. I cut it off at 18 miles instead of doing the neighborhood loop to bring it to 21. I planned this exit ramp as I knew I didn't feel well. The shin thing is, thankfully, gone, but has been replaced by the knee thing (this ain't going away) and something on the lateral edge of my right foot. Being a veteran of peroneal tendonitis, I recognized the pain. It's not anything like what kept me out for two weeks a couple of years ago, but I'm going to take it very easy tomorrow (0 - 45 minutes) depending on how it feels when I step out of bed.

Enough whining. Here's the week:

Date Distance (mi) Time Avg. pace (min/mi) Avg. HR
Monday 6.60 1:01:07 9:16 132 (66%)
Tuesday 9.30 1:18:39 8:27 140 (70%)
Wednesday 13.72 2:03:44 9:01 133 (66%)
Thursday 5.86 0:55:06 9:24 132 (66%)
Friday 10.31 1:28:23 8:34 141 (70%)
Saturday 8.30 1:15:54 9:09 135 (68%)
Sunday 18.00 2:43:51 9:06 139 (70%)
This Week 72.09 10:46:44 8:58 137 (68%)
Last Week 59.09 8:22:39 8:30 144 (72%)
This Month 278.72 40:44:19 8:46 143 (71%)
Last Month 299.35 45:24:38 9:06 140 (70%)

I finished off September as well this week and obviously bumped up the intensity. I still kept reasonably close to the same mileage. I also went over 1,000 miles on this pair of Nike Frees. I'm not sure when/if I should get new ones. I don't think these things even have a mid-sole to wear out.

I've been wildly swinging between mileage and intensity the last couple of weeks and need to find the center again (after I get my legs fresh).

One more thing. The weight is coming down. I'd say I'm within a pound of my Frederick weight. Here's a nice graph.

ain't as spry as I used to be

I strained my right shin mowing the lawn last night. (I hate %@#$#@ mowing.) This morning I bagged anything fast and did an easy to easy/moderate 10 miles. This afternoon I was the asst coach on my son's flag football team, and since we were a player short, I filled in. Well, it's hard for an old guy to chase down and de-flag 10 year-olds even without a bum shin. I think I should challenge them to 30 or 40 laps before the practice to get them good and tired, so they don't move so fast.

The shin thing seems like a muscle strain (pushing off with my toes while pushing a lawnmower uphill), so I think it will go away fairly quickly. Hopefully it's not a tendon.

slogged my way into work

http://www.mensracing.com/athletes/interviews/bradhudson.html

MR: Do you have all of your runners use a heart rate monitor?
BH: I try to instill in everyone that this is something useful, but I can't force anyone to put it on. Some people just don't like to use them. They don't like the feeling of running around with something strapped to their chest. You can learn a lot about your body from one if you use it regularly.

MR: Like what?
BH: Like if you're doing a workout and you can't get your heart rate up, your muscles are telling your cardiovascular system what to do. They're tired, maybe glycogen depleted, you might be on the verge of overtraining.

This was absolutely the case with me today. I did somewhere between 13.5 and 14 (no Garmin) and my average heart rate was only 133, but my legs felt like they weighed 100 lbs each and I was ready to be done after 45 minutes.

I've been reading Hudson's book, "Run Faster." I think it's great stuff and makes Canova's ideas more accessible. It does have some serious editorial flaws though I'm afraid. The text and the tables/schedules look like they were written by two different people. He talks about different threshold paces (60' pace, 90' pace, and 2.5h pace) but then the schedules use different terminology. Sometimes you can figure it out (marathon/half marathon is probably 2.5h pace), but sometimes you can't. The tables also aren't consistent. They should "aerobic support" runs for a hypothetical peak-70mpw marathoner in one table, but when they put the whole schedule together, it doesn't match. Hudson also says you should double if doing more than 70 miles per week, but then the schedules have the Level 3 marathoner do 84 miles in a week in singles. Of course you should craft your own schedule, but it would be nice to have something to start with that didn't violate the principles of the book.

There's also some annoying salesmanship ("In my adaptive training system...") that I'm sure is not from Hudson. It sounds a lot more like his co-author, Matt Fitzgerald.

Ok, now that I've complained, I think it just might be the best practical running book out there. It distills a lot from "Run Strong" into more of a how-to book.