FFI #2- 0.26 mile, 174bpm max; 100m recovery; 0.75 mile, 6:38-172bpm ave; 200m recovery; 1.25 miles, 6:56-170bpm ave. Head Wind
This was a tough workout! I would have liked to been faster on the 2nd set but strugled. Not sure why but I didn't eat as well as I should have at breakfast, didn't sleep well last night (dog woke me up several times), head wind...?
1 mile warm up, 9:14-129bpm. 4 at 1/2 mary pace, 6:47-168bpm. 0.8 cool down
Pace miles splits:
1 6:46-161bpm
2 6:47-169bpm
3 6:46-171bpm
4 6:46-173bpm
I kept my pace close to goal (6:46) but I was working too hard and I was getting tired as can be seen with my rising heart rate. I cant imagine keeping this pace for 13.1, especially with some of the little hills at Painters. Hmmmmmm.....
NEW PICTURE at left. It's our white Christmas of a few years ago. The mountains are shades of gray and the valley floor is white. Went spent xmas camping in Death Valley. I know what your thinking but don't worry, Santa found us.
It was the dark of night when I drug my sorry butt out of my nice warm bed.... I
suited up in some toasty tights, related running apparel, and my headlamp; ate a
gel for breakfast; and jogged a warm-up mile to the starting line of Our Lady of
Lourdes' 20th Annual Leprechaun Lope 5K. It was dark and chilly but it wasn't
crowded. It seems I was the only one to show up 3 months early for this race.
But my training plan called for racing a 5k and that's what I was going to do,
even if there weren't any in this part of the valley on this day.
The
race starts just east of the capitol and runs around City Creek and then back
down to end in Memory Grove. I lined up in the very front, right on the starting
line, or at least somewhere near where it will be in 3 months. The voices in my
head yelled "go" and I was off. This course starts with a short but steepish
incline followed by a mile of gentle incline, then a half mile of a bit steeper
incline. After the turnaround it's all down hill to the finish. I started strong
and took the lead. I held the lead for the whole race to finish 1st in my age
group, 1st masters runner, 1st male, and 1st overall. Unfortunately I was also
last in my age group, last masters runner, last male runner, and last overall.
Here are my splits: mile 1 - 6:46-171bpm uphill. mile 2 - 6:41-171bpm
steeper uphill followed by steeper downhill. mile 3 - 5:58-175bpm bombing
downhill. mile .1- 5:46-177bpm
And now the punchline, my final Garmin
time was 20:00! Exactly the same
as my 5k PR and exactly they same as Huans' Garmin time at his Turkey Trot. I
still haven't run a sub 20 5k. Hoping that I hit the stop button a second too
late, I tried to check the official results but they won't be posted for another
3 months!
Note: I'm not sure if this course is faster or slower than a flat 5k. On
an out and back course I don't think you can recover speed lost going uphill
when going downhill. However this course has a net elevation loss, so it very
well could be faster than flat.
I was not very motivated so I ran trails, which are slower, steeper, and more inspiring. Legs heavy but I did find a bit of second wind toward the end of my run.
Planed- 3x1.5miles @ 6:30 pace with .25 mile recovery.
Actual- .5 mile "warm up".
1.5 miles, I couldn't keep it anywhere near pace. I was at 6:53-163bpm. It was
snowing hard enough that I couldn't see very well. The snow was sticking
well enough that the trail was slick and snow packed. My legs felt
heavy. I was unmotivated. I felt tired all day.
.25 recovery
1.5 miles even worse than the first.
.25 recovery
1.75 miles. I started running it as an interval but it sucked.
My heart rate monitor fell off and I threw in the towel when I hit a red light
with traffic at a street crossing.
I'm not sure what I achieved with this run. In retrospect I'd have been
better off doing my speed work the next day. As it is I will either run
very easy tomorrow or just take the day off to regain my composure and
hopefully motivation and speed.
As a side note, a colleague was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer about one month
ago. This is a wicked disease with an average prognosis of 3 to 6
months. He started experimental Chemo Tuesday and died on Thursday.
A dark reminder to be thankful for all that I've got.
Training plan called for 6 miles with alternating 2:00 to 3:00 minute long intervals at 6:30 pace w/ 1:00 min recovery. I substituted a 4x4 work out because I had 2 running mates join me today- 4 @ 4 minutes fast, ~2 min recovery.
I felt great. These are the days that keep me running. I think yesterday's rest really rejuvenated me. And it was a beautiful crisp day. Only a bit of ice remaining on the trail.
1.4 mile warm up.
0.62 miles at 6:33 pace 169bpm max, ~0.2 mile/2 min recovery
0.63 miles at ~6:30 pace 176bpm max, ~0.2 mile/2 min recovery
0.64 miles at ~6:20 pace 177bpm max, ~0.2 mile/2 min recovery
0.62 miles at ~6:18 pace 181bpm max
1.2 mile cool down.
I've run this workout on the same loop many times with one of the these runners, but we haven't done it in a year or so. He is quite a bit faster than me in 5 Ks. Usually I just try to keep up with him on these work outs. Today I was the rabbit and finished ahead of him every time. I would have thought he was just making me feel good, but my heart rate was also about 5bpm slower than his for the first time (we, at least used to, have about the same max heart rate).
15 miles. Because of the snow and ice I mostly stuck to plowed roads and sidewalks, but because of the snow and ice there was not much traffic on the roads. Ran down hill and past Temple Square, up Memory Grove, around and up 11th Ave.
Miles 9 to 13 were supposed to be at goal pace of 6:47 (I cheated and ran downhill):
9 - 6:46, 160bpm, a bit downhill.
10 - 6:46, 167bpm, a bit downhill.
11 - 8:15, 165bpm, half mile uphill and half mile downhill. The uphill was extra slow due to snow and ice. It was just too slick to push my pace.
12 - 6:41, 166bpm, downhill with snow and ice.
13 - 6:44, 168bpm, downhill with a little snow. I hit both lights green when running into downtown.
I really bogged down coming back in that last mile or so. I think I was running out of fuel. I only ate part of a package of sports beans and they didn't sit very well.
FFI #2- 0.25 mile, 6:10-171bpm max; 100m
recovery; 0.75 mile, 6:30-169bpm ave; 200m recovery ( wet, muddy road
to snowy trail); 1.5 miles, 7:01-171bpm ave (1mile snowy trail. then
1/2 mile on trail with only limited snow and ice, kept 6:47 pace on 2nd
section).
I felt pretty good considering these intervals are not easy. My paces
were off but this is expected when running on a few inches of lumpy, previously trodden snowy.
For this run I used screw shoes (http://www.skyrunner.com/screwshoe.htm). Those would be an old pair of running shoes on which I have put short screws into the sole. They work like studded snow tires and help the shoes grip on ice. They are not perfect but feel more stabil than just the rubber lugs and I like them better than my STABILicers.
3 min at 10k pace, 1 min recovery, 2 min at 10k pace, 1 min recovery... repeat for about 6 miles.
1.5 miles cool down.
I had trouble finding my 6:29 goal pace. Intervals ranged from 6:16 to 6:27 on trail with patches of snow and ice and 6:49 to 7:13 on the un-groomed, lumpy-snow covered sections of trail. Heart rate during intervals was 171 to 173bpm (after the first two). My recovery heart rate was 162 to 166 bpm. This workout wore me out.
16 miles through downtown, up City Creek, and back. I ran up past where the road is plowed and I had fun post-holing in nice powder that came to just below my kneecap. But that was a whole lot of slow, hard work so I turned back before I made it to the 8 mile mark. On the way back in I did a loop around Temple Square to make up for the lost 1/2 mile. I really enjoyed my run today. For those of you in warm climates, running in a winter wonder land can really be wonderful.
EZ start.
Miles 5 - 11 I alternated 1 minute hard pace with 1 minute recovery (should have done 6:29 pace but this was not possible with the hill and snow).
I'm fatigued from yesterday and thought about delaying my speed work
til tomorrow. But with the predicted snow and holiday family
activities I thought I'd better get it done before I have even more
excuses.
Goal: warm up, 4 intervals- 0.75 mile @ 6:29 w/ 200 m recovery, 2 intervals- 200 m @ 6:13 w/ 100 m recover, cool down.
1 mile warm up.
0.75 -6:26, 161bpm
0.75- 6:27, 168bpm
0.75- 6:31, 170bpm (slowed to cross road)
0.75- 6:47, 165pbm - just didn't have it in me to keep pace. It started snowing and this just slowed me down for some reason.
0.12- 5:42, 169bpm max (Garmin pace unrealible for this short of distance)
0.12- 5:47, 169bpm max (Garmin pace unrealible for this short of distance)
0.57 mile cool down.
I
stayed on the plowed sections of trail and only had to deal with
patches of slush. Though some of this slush was deceptively slick.
Not feeling 100% today. I feel like I'm fighting off illness. Plan calls for 2 sets of intervals but I did not finish the second set.
1mile warm up.
0.25- 6:10, 100m recovery
0.5- 6:16, 166bpm, 200m recovery
0.25- 6:17.
0.55- EZ.
0.25- 6:06, 100m recovery
0.5- 6:42, 171bpm, I waited to long to post this and can't remember exactly why I fell off pace other than I know I was starting to catch a cold or something and I was tired.
1.31- just running back in and licking my wounds...
I've a strange cold or some such thing. I don't feel terrible but I don't feel good. A bit of a sore throat and a very swollen uvula. My training plan called for a 10k race today but I don't feel up to either a real race or a pretend one.
12 miles through downtown, up City Creek, and back. Middle 4 miles at increased effort (not quite race effort). Mile 8 was at goal race pace of 6:47 but downhill.
Still not feeling 100%. I thought about taking a nap instead of running but decided it might only get harder to find my way out the door later in the week. Plus this should be a big training week for Painter's. I did fine and felt better after the run than before the run.
Plan called for 2 FFIs. Ran on Jordan River Parkway. Stayed on the plowed sections. Only patches of slushy ice.
FFI
#1- 0.25 mile, 6:11-167 bpm max; 100m recovery; 0.75 mile,
6:27-166bpm ave; 200m recovery; 2 miles, 6:49-171bpm ave (would have been on pace w/out U turns); 0.58
mile recovery. Some wind but not too bad.
FFI #2- 0.26 mile, 6:11-173bpm max; 100m
recovery; 0.75 mile, 6:29-169bpm ave; 200m recovery; 2 miles,
6:50-170bpm ave (6:54 & 6:46) (would have been close to pace w/out U turns). Pushed very hard at the end.
3 miles at goal pace (goal = 6:47). mile1- 6:46, 165bpm. mile2- 6:46, 174bpm. mile3- 6:47, 177bpm. ave=6:46, 172bpm. (180 bpm max).
1.7 miles cooldown.
I'm feeling better but still clearing out some phlem (gross). I was able to keep pace today despite yesterday's intervals. On the other hand I was starting to get tired after only 3 miles. Tomorrow's run is supposed to include 5-6 miles at goal pace, yikes.
6 miles at goal pace (6:47). I didn't keep the pace. 1-6:49,162bpm. 2-6:48,170bpm. 3-6:52,172bpm. 4-6:56,173bpm. 5-6:58,173bpm. 6-6:51,173bpm. average-6:53,170bpm. 6:51 would get me a sub 1:30 half. So I was 2 seconds off that pace and 13 seconds off my goal pace. On the bright side, this was after 2 days of speed work.
Exactly the same
as my 5k PR and exactly they same as Huans' Garmin time at his Turkey Trot. I
still haven't run a sub 20 5k. Hoping that I hit the stop button a second too
late, I tried to check the official results but they won't be posted for another
3 months! 