4.10.09

Thought I was going to have to resort to the treadmill this morning. There was huge thunder this morning that shook the entire house and woke me up. I was planning on running this morning before the storms came in, but they were already here and it was raining really good with some occasional lighting. Fortunately it cleared up around 10:30 and I quickly strapped on my heart rate monitor and shoes and got out the door.

The sun was bright and there really wasn't much wind to contend with, well at least for the first part of the run. The roads were nice and wet and all the kiddies were outside playing - must have been a day off of school for Easter weekend. One kid recognized my "run for the schools" shirt. I stopped and said hi and he asked if there were any more races. I directed him to the knoxville track club website and told him it listed all the races coming up, said have a good one, and off I went. Maybe he'll check it out, probably not, he looked like he was maybe a freshman or middle schooler. So the run went on and I noticed my HR was a little higher than normal, but just by a few beats. Who knows how accurate it is, but it's probably right. I didn't really feel like I was working too hard for an easy run, but I just couldn't get it down like yesterday. I'm not going to go theoretical, but it could have even been the humidity or even just running in the morning, no telling.

Either way the run was relaxed and felt good. My left calf is still pretty sore from the calf raises, and the left hip was the same as yesterday. If it doesn't improve I'll continue holding off on speedwork, even though I don't really want to. I also decided to skip the accels again because of it. My main goal is the 10k in May, so I've still got time to get in speedwork, no worries. The mile race I have coming up I just need to go into it without any pressure, so sub-5 isn't really the main goal anymore. Granted it would be great, and I hope I do get it, but I'm not putting any pressure on the race. Don't get me wrong, I'm going to run it hard, and maybe even whip out the scissors, but I'm not going to expect or worry about the time. It'll be a fun race, I just want to enjoy it.

10:41am. home. 63 degrees 74% H SSW 15mph
1:13:14 (10.96), bf 1285
AHR 164/ MHR 173

4.8.09

Good run, let me tell you about it. The agenda was for one hour and twelve minutes today, which is 9 miles at 8 minute pace. I still use 8 minute pace for my miles just out of habit I suppose, as I'm probably running low 7's maybe even 6 minute miles. Either way I just run for time, so the longer the better. I recently advised someone on twitter to increase their daily run by 5 minutes a day every week. Starting in September, that is exactly what I did. Well sometimes I increased it more, but the theory is solid. Looking back I was only running 40-50 miles and averaged about 40 minutes on my daily runs. I went from that to being able to run 1 hour and 30 minutes for my daily runs months later. The key was simple consistency.

Now that I have that base under me, I'm shifting focus. I'm no longer worried about time, it's important to get those medium runs in (close to 2 hours) but because I no longer have a marathon to prepare for, my focus is on speed. So I'm kind of having to shift gears a bit and here is what I'm thinking... Speedwork at least once a week, when feeling good add shorter session two or three days from the first consisting of 400's or shorter - building raw speed. My main workouts will be ladders or repeats, but the focus will be on speed endurance, pushing the lungs and heart to the maximum. On speed days I also will have a core routine, and repeat it once on the weekend. In addition to core I will also be doing form drills/accelerations.

That is a lot to adjust to, considering for the past six months my main goal has been "run longer each week". A lot more complex now, and a lot more "extra" time in addition to running, but I know it is what I need to do.

So I wore my heart monitor to sleep last night just out of curiosity. My average HR was 57 as I slept, although I did wake up to yell at the meowing cat around 5 AM and noticed it shot up to like 88. It's kind of cool to sleep with it on because it records the hours as well, so I knew exactly how long I had slept. Since the cat woke me up, I just stopped it then at 5 hours 53 minutes. So almost 6 hours, which is horrible for me. I need 7.5 to function perfectly, but honestly today I felt really good and was only tired a bit before noon.

During the run I noticed a pretty solid low 160-165 range, 170 into the wind, and ~175 on the HugeHill. I'm not really sure how good that is or whatever because like I said, I've not worn it much since I got it so I haven't a lot of data to compare to. But that's all gonna change. I like wearing it a lot, but I really do look at the HR on the watch readout too much. I know how people with garmins must feel now. It wasn't really a bad thing, because I was really curious to know what the HR was. The bad part is that you can't "upload" the data to a computer, and the only data stored is max HR, and average. That's all fine and well, but really a graphed out chart of HR data would be ideal. Well I got it for Christmas and it works, so it will have to do for now. I'm very happy to have it, so don't take that as complaining, I'm just stating it as fact.

I felt really good on the run today. Comfortable, yet giving good effort. It never felt too hard or too easy, pushing just enough. It was nice outside which helped, and a little windy too, so I was cooled off for the most part. I had wanted to go for 1hr 12 as I said, but I just felt so good I kept on going. I kind of wanted to keep going even more, but the effort was there and I saw no need to really do a whole lot else and ended the run on a good note. Runs like that are great, because you are enjoying it and not trying to just punch the card, like a timeclock at work. Really great run. I felt really strong, I think the core work and exercises I've been doing are ALREADY paying off, which is amazing. I just started with my core circuit, although I've been working on sittups/leglifts for about a month now. It's starting to pay off, and when I start dropping my pace next week I really think it's gonna support that.

Wow I didn't mean to ramble on there, I was just in the zone I guess. Tomorrow looks like another day of 1h12, with form work and accelerations. Until then, have fun on the run :)

4:30pm. home. mostly sunny 62 degrees 32%H WSW 14 mph.
1:22:24 (12.54), bf 1267
AHR 163/ MHR 179
sleep AHR 57