Tiki tiki tiki tiki tiki run (comments welcome)

[Cabius]

7/29 outdoor easy run
Planned: 3.0 miles @137-152bpm (13:13/mile)
Actual: 3.99 miles @ 141bpm (13:34/mile; 152 T+D; 12:55/mile adjusted)

Negative splits, baby!

I spent some time yesterday adjusting my pace targets to help me control my start speed. I settled on a 13:13 target for my Easy Run, or 13:53 adjusted for T&D. My goal was to target that pace for my first mile, and then hold or increase that pace for subsequent miles.

I still came out a little faster, but much closer to my target. I was able to slightly increase speed in subsequent miles while staying in my HR target range. My GAP was actually shockingly consistent across all 4 miles.



I may have cut it a bit too close in that last mile, but overall it was a much more consistent outing and a successful experiment.


I have updated pace targets across the board now, based on trying to map recent runs against my HR targets.

I've assumed my Easy Run pace should be ~9.5% slower than my Marathon pace, and my Long Run pace should be ~12.5% slower. Working backwards from my actual in-range runs, I get a marathon pace of 11:45.

From there, I extrapolated other race paces based on relative distance (with a 1.06 exponent, or 1.08 for 5k and shorter). This seems to be what @DopeyBadger's calculator does, along with other similar resources I've found. For 'Tempo' I just took the midpoint of the Half-Marathon and 10k pace.



I filled in (T&D adjusted) averages from my last two Tempo runs, for the 1 mile (the first-mile pace of the two runs) and the 5k (extrapolating the 2.25-mile and 2.5-mile runs out to 3.1, assuming a 15% slower pace for the remaining mileage).

Interestingly, I found that my speed at these distances was a good bit faster than expected, even though they were not all-out efforts. That seems fine -- I'm still focused on HR targets, and primarily want to use target paces to control my 1st-mile starting pace before adjusting. It may mean that my anaerobic fitness is greater than my aerobic fitness, and have good potential to pick up speed as my aerobic fitness improves. The effect could evaporate in a few months when this extreme heat passes (T&D > 150 every single run for the past two weeks). Who knows?

The one thing I'm not sure about is how to evaluate whether my Tempo run is too fast. If I go purely based on Zone 4 heart range, I'm right where I should be. But that may not actually be where my lactate threshold is? The runs don't feel too hard. But I should probably do some kind of test to figure that out.

And Now For Something Completely Different
I'm used to being passed by bicyclists on the Blue Line trail, but this was something else.

 

[DopeyBadger]

From there, I extrapolated other race paces based on relative distance (with a 1.06 exponent, or 1.08 for 5k and shorter). This seems to be what @DopeyBadger's calculator does, along with other similar resources I've found. For 'Tempo' I just took the midpoint of the Half-Marathon and 10k pace.

Correct, the calculator I use adjusts most values by a Riegel exponent of 1.06 and for the shorter distances 1.075 or 1.08. For the marathon, the aggressive (6% of runners achieve) value is 1.06, the 10% achieve value is 1.07, the 25% achieve is 1.10 and the 50% achieve value is 1.15.

My recovery pace suggestion is 28% slower than M Tempo.
My easy pace suggestion is 12-20% slower than M Tempo.
My long run pace suggestion is 9-12% slower than M Tempo.

The Lactate Threshold estimate is a really complicated formula to generate a pace at which the calculator thinks you could maintain for 60 min in a race setting.

=IF(AND($D$3>0,$D$4>0),(1/(29.54 + 5.000663 * ($R$6*0.88) - 0.007546 * ($R$6*0.88)^2)*1609.344/1440),"-")

Where $R$6 is an even more complicated proprietary calculation from Jack Daniels that estimates VO2peak.

Easiest way to get that LT pace is to use Jack Daniels VDOT calculator based on your HM time.

 

[WillRunForPizza]

My easy pace suggestion is 12-20% slower than M Tempo.
My long run pace suggestion is 9-12% slower than M Tempo.

Something I've wondered before: why is LR pace faster than easy? My assumption would have been that LR pace should be the same or slower if the goal is just distance, so I'm curious about the distinction.

 

[DopeyBadger]

Something I've wondered before: why is LR pace faster than easy? My assumption would have been that LR pace should be the same or slower if the goal is just distance, so I'm curious about the distinction.

Because depending on the training plan philosophy, not all view the goal of the long run simply as accumulating distance. Some training plans view it as a workout in of itself and thus it has a matching difficult pace. They use the long run for the purpose of specificity towards performance in the marathon. The faster pace will keep you in a similar muscle movement pattern and similar posture as to when you run your marathon. While other training plans mesh the two paces (easy and long run) into one with little distinction between them. Sometimes, but not always, the focus is like you said merely towards time on feet/distance.

Whereas easy paces need to be kept truly easy since their simple purpose is to add a small stimulus which can elicit active recovery and boost important endurance adaptations. Do easy runs too fast and they cause you to do more of a workout than active recovery. If you do 60 min at a quick long run pace, you're unlikely to feel like it was a zero effort endeavor. If you do 60 min at a truly easy pace, then you'll come home feeling like you didn't do anything and possibly stronger than when you left.

As an interesting bridge to my current training plan using Canova's training philosophy, he believes in both methodologies of the long run. In the weeks of 20 to 10 weeks prior to the race the goal is a long slower long run with primarily a goal of time on feet/distance. But once you get inside 10 weeks, then the long run's intent changes to specificity for the marathon itself. So the duration becomes shorter, but the pace becomes more and more aggressive towards marathon tempo. So I will peak in distance/time in Week 12 to go (21 miles, 3 hours. 8:24 pace) and then my long run duration won't go over 2 hours but the pace quickens first to 7:44 and then 7:23 (with theoretical M tempo being 7:02) over the course of the last 12 weeks.

 

[Cabius]

2022-07-30 End-of-week Summary
This week I completed 21.0 miles against my plan of 20.0 across six runs.


This was a good week overall! I hit my miles and stayed within my HR targets for each run. I've also overcome the prior week's pace doldrums, and have a better sense of my current fitness level. It's not as bad as I feared.

As I've started to get a sense of what paces my HR targets usually correspond to, I've been able to tweak my pace targets. This is helping me pace myself out the gate, so I don't slow down as the run goes on. I'll make adjustments as I run, but that gives me a better baseline pace while I warm up.

I've felt good about each of my runs individually, but started to feel really worn out by the end of the week. My resting HR has crept up quite a bit (from 50-55 to 60+ yesterday, and I was feeling sleepy, irritable, and just plain worn out. I changed today's 3-mile Easy Run (13:13/mile) to a 2-mile Recovery run (at 15:29, more of a lumbering stroll).

I overran my plan by 2 miles over the past 4 days, which I'm sure is part of my problem. Maybe I just went too hard in my Tempo run, and didn't give myself time to recover -- I actually ran an extra mile on my Easy Run the next day.

But also, my plan ramped up pretty aggressively to begin with. I was running 12-15 miles/week as recently as late May, which was what I used as a baseline for my plan, but I only averaged 6-8 miles/week in June and early July, before running 19 and 21 miles in the last two weeks. Both in total mileage, and in days per week, I made a big jump.

So, I'm revising my plan for next week, both to give myself more rest and recovery time, and also to reset my weekly mileage at a lower base. I'll step it back and then ramp up from there.

The Week Ahead
Next week, I plan to complete 15 miles across 4 runs. (Purple indicates that I will be traveling, and my normal running routine may be disrupted accordingly.)


Before revision, my plan called for 21 miles next week. I'm dropping my Long Run from 7 miles to 6, shortening each Easy Run by a mile, and removing an Interval day altogether to give myself more rest. I'll revise subsequent weeks, using this as my starting point, assuming it goes well.

I still have 8 weeks before my "B" half-marathon, after which I'll have another 15 weeks before the WDW Marathon. Plenty of time.

 

[azrivest]

I like your spreadsheets

 

[SharonRunsDisney2023]

My PRs are getting 'chorter and 'chorter.

(And what darlin' people I have runnin' next to me.)

Oh, look at all the people!

Welcome to Caleb's Enchanted Tiki Run.

About Me / Race History
As of summer 2022, I'm in my late-30s and live in the Dallas, TX area with my wife and three kids, the youngest of whom is only a few months old.

I had never been athletic in my life -- in fact I'm not sure I ever ran a single mile in my entire life -- until the spring of 2019 when I signed up for my first RunDisney Half-Marathon.

We'd been to Walt Disney World a couple of times by then, and my wife said that she wasn't sure about making it an annual tradition. There are so many other places we could go, she said. Maybe we should skip a year or two, she said.

Hmm...

I had heard about the WDW Half Marathon from the WDW Radio podcast, and listening to runners talk about running up Main Street USA sounded absolutely magic. At the same time, I was 5'11" and 215 pounds, and we'd talked about how I really needed to get in shape. I figured that WDW is the only think I love more than I hate exercise, right? Maybe that would be enough motivation to get some running shoes and get in shape.

So my wife agreed that we'd go back to Walt Disney World in 2020 *if* I signed up for the half-marathon, and the rest is history!

2020 Half Marathon
I had no clue what I was doing, so I just started running through the greenbelt park near my house a few minutes at a time. I still remember how proud I was when I ran an entire mile at one time! A few weeks later, I was going 5k, then 10k, as I built speed and stamina.

I had a bad tendency to run flat-out every time I laced up my shoes, which meant I wasn't as consistent as I should've been, but nevertheless from an absolute couch potato start I got into good enough shape to cross the finish line just under my 2:45 goal. (Okay, that was a backup goal. I was *hoping* for a sub-2:30. But I was still happy.)

View attachment 685506

The highlight of this race for me was running up Main Street USA. That was the moment I was looking for, the reason I signed up and spent hundreds of hours training for this race. I'm not embarrassed to admit that I started absolutely bawling the moment I turned into Town Square, and didn't stop snotty-ugly-crying until I passed under the Tomorrowland bridge. It was so, so worth it.

We Don't Talk About Covid
I kept training after that half-marathon, and was really getting into pretty good shape, with a 1:01:26 10k race in February, and a 2:36:48 Half Marathon in April -- the latter a virtual race on my own.

But as Covid dragged on, and as my workload exploded that summer and fall, I struggled to exercise with any consistency. I regained most of the weight I had lost, and lost many of the gains I had made in pace and endurance. I ran the 2021 virtual half marathon, but at 2:49:40 it was my worst time to date.

2022 Marathon
Undeterred, I signed up for the 2022 marathon anyway. This time, I did "just" the full marathon. And I finished, barely, with a 6:17:33 time.

My training honestly went pretty well from August 2021 onward. I learned from the folks on this forum that I should "train slow to run fast" and was getting our 4-6 days a week. 6-mile easy runs were becoming routine, and while I wasn't particularly fast, I felt good.

Then, 4 weeks before marathon weekend, I completed a 20-mile long run (5 hours!) and came home with a sore and swollen right foot. A few days rest and a trip to the podiatrist told me that I likely hadn't broken anything, but had developed posterior tibial tendonitis. I was told to rest my foot until the marathon, and that while it may well recur during the race, I wasn't risking long-term injury in doing so.

So after a 4-week "cold turkey" taper, I ran the first 18 miles of the marathon, and limped the last 8.

I felt pretty lousy at times...
View attachment 685507

But I finished.
View attachment 685508
(Also pictured - @marty3d)

2023 Marathon
I took a few months off to let my foot recover, other than some exercises that my podiatrist gave me. During that time I've focused on flexibility and weight loss -- on the theory that everything about distance running is easier if I'm hauling less of my own fat butt around. I've dropped back down below 190, with a goal weight of ~170 by the end of the year.

I added running back in starting in April 2022, and now I'm signed up for "just" another full marathon in 2023. I've learned a lot in the past few years, both from experience and from the helpful folks like @DopeyBadger on these boards, and I'm excited to run -- not limp -- across the finish line next year!


Training Style
I typically run 3-5 times a week, and will ramp up to 6 days/week over the next few months of training. Each run has a purpose in my training plan - mostly easy miles, with a weekly long run and a few shorter Interval and Tempo runs mixed in.

When running I primarily focus on heart rate rather than pace to make sure each run does what it's supposed to do. This was a hard lesson for me to learn, but I do this to resist the urge to run faster than I should, especially in brutal Texas summer heat. I have a tendency to be disappointed in myself if I can't maintain a target pace, either because of weather or because I'm having an off day, so focusing on heart rate is helpful for me here. I know whether my run was really an "Easy" run regardless of how fast I went.

I prefer to run outdoors. I live next to a set of greenbelt parks that afford many miles of paved walking/running/biking trail, which is where I usually go out. It's pretty easy to build routes from 3 to 8 miles on those trails, with some residential neighborhood areas mixed in for longer distances. It's mostly flat with some gentle slopes, but there are a couple of hills in the mix if I want them. All in all, it's a pretty ideal place when the weather is nice.

HA! HAHAHA! Weather?? Nice??? Oh you poor sweet ignorant baby. You wee bairn. This is Texas, and it is summer. "Nice" is 80 degrees with a 70-degree dew point at 6AM. And that's if you can go out in the morning -- with an infant baby still not sleeping through the night, that can be difficulty. At night, it's 90+ degrees outside at 10PM. So I've also joined my local LA Fitness, but I hate running on treadmills. Please let this part be over soon.

I really don't do much cross-training at all. I know that I should. I don't. When you're as slow as I am, running 5 or 6 miles is a major time commitment, and it's all I can do to build up to 35-40 miles a week without completely neglecting my family. (Plus, I hate exercise. Rememeber, that's why I picked RunDisney in the first place!) The one exception is stretching exercises from YogaBody to improve flexibility and reduce risk of injury. I do the whole range of exercises, but tend to focus most on the legs (esp. hamstrings and hips).

I use Strava for run tracking, with data from my Apple Watch. (I have a chest strap heart rate monitor as well, but as the results are typically very close to the Apple Watch I don't often use it.) Strava is how I track progress during a run, as well as keep track of trends and PRs. I do copy race information into a Google Sheet as well so I can build more trend data than Strava has built-in.

I run in Nike Pegasus Zoom series shoes, though I will look into insoles or orthotics to help with my low arches to prevent recurring tendonitis.

I pay a lot of attention to my VO2 Max as estimated by my Apple Watch. This was a big focus for me in the spring and early summer before I started marathon training in earnest, with HIIT runs once or twice a week. I have no idea if the estimates are very accurate, but I figure that the trend is going to be directionally correct, and it jibes with the changes I see in my own performance over the past few. I threw myself a little party when I graduated to "below average," and have been glad to see that progressing.

My VO2 Max chart as of July 2022
View attachment 685509

I also have the AirFit Pro breathing device/app. That's probably overkill at my level of fitness. I asked for advice on this forum, and the responses said it was unnecessary and dumb, and I bought it anyway. It's like my tattoo says: NO REGERTS!


Goals
I'll track fitness goals in this section. As I complete goals, I'll edit this post and cross them off this list. I may also add new ones over time, but I suspect that some of these will be lifelong white whales!

• 1 mile - PR 8:38 (March 10 2020)
  • Any time 13:00 (June 17, 2019)
  • 1 mile < 10 min
  • 1 mile < 9 min
  • 1 mile < 8 min
• 5k - PR 29:48 (Feb 29, 2020)
  • Any time 43:17 (August 6, 2019)
  • 5k < 30 min
  • 5k < 25 min
• 10k - PR 1:01:26 (Feb 29, 2020)
  • Any time 1:17:25 (August 24, 2019)
  • 10k < 1 hr
  • 10k < 55 min
• Half Marathon - PR 2:36:05 (April 25, 2020)
  • Any time 2:44:48 (January 11, 2020)
  • Half Marathon < 2:45 2:44:48 (January 11, 2020)
  • Half Marathon < 2:30
  • Half Marathon < 2:15
  • Half Marathon < 2:00
• Full Marathon - PR 6:17:33 (January 9, 2022)
  • Any time 6:17:33 (January 9, 2022)
  • Full Marathon < 6:00
  • Full Marathon < 5:30
  • Full Marathon < 5:00
• Weight Goals
  • < 210 pounds (June 2019)
  • < 200 pounds (August 2019) (March 2022)
  • <190 pounds (April 2020) (July 2022)
  • <180 pounds
  • <170 pounds

Thanks for Reading
So that's me! I'll share details of my 2023 Marathon training plan in a follow-up post, but in the meantime: thanks for reading, and for all the advice these past few years.

I'll be using this journal to post mostly-weekly updates on my progress. I welcome any comments, corrections, or notes of encouragement as I fight the long losing battle against the one enemy who will take us all down in the end: death.

That is a great read....so inspirational. You had me at "I had never been athletic in my life -- in fact I'm not sure I ever ran a single mile in my entire life -- until the spring of 2019 when I signed up for my first RunDisney Half-Marathon". Sounds like the situation I am in when I signed up for the 1/2 a few months back!

 

[Cabius]

That is a great read....so inspirational. You had me at "I had never been athletic in my life -- in fact I'm not sure I ever ran a single mile in my entire life -- until the spring of 2019 when I signed up for my first RunDisney Half-Marathon". Sounds like the situation I am in when I signed up for the 1/2 a few months back!

Thanks! I must admit, it feels really really weird to actually want to exercise, but it's been the best thing I've done in the last decade (other than the three kids). Good luck!!

 

[Cabius]

2022-08-06 End-of-week Summary (late)
This week I completed 11.0 miles against my plan of 15.0 across three runs.


I was once again fighting off a cold the weekend prior, which caused me to miss my long run. Then I had several work-until-2-AM nights this week in advance of some important presentations. I got a few runs in, but then had to travel out of town over the weekend which limited my ability to catch up. Thankfully this was the week that I was planning to scale back my mileage, so if I had to lay an egg, this was the week to lay it.

I did make up my Long Run towards the end of the week, knowing that my weekend travel plans meant I had a few rest days coming up anyway. I was glad to get some miles in, but this run was rough. I hadn't been getting enough sleep, and didn't bring water along with me (there's a drinking fountain halfway along my route). My adjusted pace was still 1 min/mile slower than my pace target in order to stay in my HR zone -- and I optimize for HR rather than pace in my training runs. I ended up cutting it a mile short.

I'll start ramping up mileage from here. When healthy and rested, I've been generally pleased with my pacing a consistency over the past few weeks.

Weight Loss Update
In other important news: My weight on Friday morning was my lowest since before I got married over a decade ago!!!

At 187.2 I still have a way to go before I hit my marathon goal of 170, but I'm trending in the right direction.

 

[Cabius]

8/9 outdoor long run
Planned: 6.0 miles @137-152bpm (12:44/mile)
Actual: 6.5 miles @ 145bpm (13:24/mile; 154 T+D; 12:45/mile adjusted)

Making up for last week's rescheduled blerg of a long run, I got 6.5 great miles in this morning! I stayed solidly in my HR zone and hit my (adjusted) long run pace target. I brought water and fuel (a pouch of Gu before I started, a packet of Gatorade chews halfway through) and that made a huge difference.

I started out slow -- my first mile was actually my slowest, at just below my pace target. I wasn't wildly consistent, but I didn't slow down sharply as the race went on, and actually picked up the pace slightly in my final mile and a half.



This was definitely a workout, as maintaining that pace across that distance did start to push my heart rate toward the top of my target range. But I feel great!

My Apple Watch's estimated VO2 Max for this workout was 37.5, which is a new high for me! (My previous peak was 36.7 in April 2020, when I set my HM PR, and more recently had fallen to 31.9 in April of this year.)

 

[avondale]

8/8 outdoor long run
Planned: 6.0 miles @137-152bpm (12:44/mile)
Actual: 6.5 miles @ 145bpm (13:24/mile; 154 T+D; 12:45/mile adjusted)

Making up for last week's rescheduled blerg of a long run, I got 6.5 great miles in this morning! I stayed solidly in my HR zone and hit my (adjusted) long run pace target. I brought water and fuel (a pouch of Gu before I started, a packet of Gatorade chews halfway through) and that made a huge difference.

I started out slow -- my first mile was actually my slowest, at just below my pace target. I wasn't wildly consistent, but I didn't slow down sharply as the race went on, and actually picked up the pace slightly in my final mile and a half.

View attachment 692181

This was definitely a workout, as maintaining that pace across that distance did start to push my heart rate toward the top of my target range. But I feel great!

My Apple Watch's estimated VO2 Max for this workout was 37.5, which is a new high for me! (My previous peak was 36.7 in April 2020, when I set my HM PR, and more recently had fallen to 31.9 in April of this year.)

You nailed that one! Way to go!

 

[Cabius]

8/10 outdoor easy run
Planned: 3.0 miles @138-152bpm (13:05/mile)
Actual: 3.0 miles @ 138bpm (13:24/mile; 147 T+D; 12:54/mile adjusted)

Let's not bury the lede: it was actually nice out this morning!! This was the first T&D under 150 in the past couple of months, and it felt wonderful. In the past few weeks I've run when it was 96 degrees and when it was 76 degrees, and I gotta tell you: I'm a big fan of 'cool' weather. (Lord help me that 76 degrees counts as 'cool'!)

This was a makeup easy run since I took a rest day on Monday. I definitely stayed on the easy side of things since I did my long run yesterday, but with the drop in temp I couldn't pass it up. It definitely felt easy.

My right foot has started to bother me a little. This is the one I injured in my marathon training last year, and then re-injured on marathon day. Per my podiatrist, I'd developed tendonitis due to the muscles that support my arch just getting exhausted and giving up. It's not too bad or painful, it just feels a bit tired. I have flat feet in general, but my right foot is the one that gives me problems. I think I broke this foot one time in college, but never actually had it looked at. Also in high school I got a really bad cut on the arch of my foot that went through to the bone. So, like, I'm not surprised that this foot has a hard time keeping up with Leftie. (I know what you're thinking: this guy really needs to get into long-distance running!)

I'll give it some RICE and keep an eye on it. I may also go see a podiatrist to see about recommendations for orthotics or more supportive shoes I use the Pegasus Zoom series, which have pretty decent arch support from what I can tell but I'm sure there are better options out there. I also use off-the-shelf inserts for my non-running shoes. I'm hoping that the exercises my podiatrist gave me, combined with weight loss, and reasonable training mileage, will build up my foot strength and prevent re-injury. But it's definitely something I'll be keeping an eye on.

 

[Herding_Cats]

Not a podiatrist. My PT put me in powerstep insoles. “Low or neutral. Nothing higher than that. Get the full length ones” They’re around $20-30 on Amazon. They have helped my PF and Achilles issue a LOT since I started using them. According to him, studies are starting to show that otc insoles are just as effective as custom ones in most cases. For whatever that’s worth to you. I overheard him recommend these to at least 4 other people when I was at appointments.

 

[Cabius]

8/11 outdoor tempo run
Planned: 2.5 miles @167-180bpm (10:55/mile)
Actual: 2.5 miles @ 170bpm (9:58/mile; 144 T+D; 9:35/mile adjusted)

Another cool morning -- or at least it felt cool when I first started out! After about a mile, I turned around and started to run into the sun, and it sure did start to feel a whole lot hotter. Good run overall.

I really enjoy tempo runs, but I'm really struggling with splits. For Easy/Long runs I feel like I've gotten the hang of starting slow and maintaining a steady pace. With tempo runs, I end up starting out way too fast, or else I don't hit my target HR until late in the run.

In this case, the GAP chart tells the story pretty clearly. I started out way too fast, just because it felt so wonderfully cool. When I saw my pace, I corrected and tried to drop back down to my target of ~10:55/mile. But after half a mile, my HR still wouldn't move above 150, which is well below my target HR zone. I picked up the speed to get my HR to ~170bpm, only to slow down at about the halfway point to maintain my HR range. (That's about when I started to run into the sun, which doesn't help either.)



I think I need to start doing half- or one-mile warm-up before Tempo runs so my HR isn't starting from scratch. (I do these for sprint intervals already, but that's it.) If I finish my warm-up at 130-140bpm, then I should be able to run my target pace for the subsequent tempo run and spent most of that time in the appropriate HR zone.

My foot didn't bother me at all today. One thing I've noticed is that it tends to bother me more at slower paces. When I'm going quickly, my running motion has my moving forward, whereas at slower paces I tend to clomp straight down on my feet a lot more. That seems like it wastes a lot of energy, and it's tougher on my arches. (I think it's also why I do relatively poorly on treadmill runs, as even at higher speed I tend to use a more 'clompy' running motion there.)

 

[DopeyBadger]

I think I need to start doing half- or one-mile warm-up before Tempo runs so my HR isn't starting from scratch. (I do these for sprint intervals already, but that's it.) If I finish my warm-up at 130-140bpm, then I should be able to run my target pace for the subsequent tempo run and spent most of that time in the appropriate HR zone.

I agree. Anything at marathon tempo or faster should have at least a six minute warm-up, and there's a physiological reason. The aerobic system takes a bit to turn on, so at the beginning of the run you are running way more in the anaerobic system. It's inefficient and you're digging yourself an early hole. So a proper warm-up helps all the systems be properly prepared for a good training run.

 

[Cabius]

I agree. Anything at marathon tempo or faster should have at least a six minute warm-up, and there's a physiological reason. The aerobic system takes a bit to turn on, so at the beginning of the run you are running way more in the anaerobic system. It's inefficient and you're digging yourself an early hole. So a proper warm-up helps all the systems be properly prepared for a good training run.

Thanks! I suspected that was my problem, and appreciate your insight.

It's nice to know after all these years I'm still learning from my really basic mistakes.

 

[Cabius]

8/12 outdoor easy run
Planned: 3.0 miles @138-152bpm (13:05/mile)
Actual: 3.0 miles @ 142bpm (13:23/mile; 150 T+D; 12:49/mile adjusted)

I ran three miles. I was in my HR target. It felt easy.

I ran this a little bit too fast. I should really check my pacing before I head out instead of doing sloppy mental math, because I thought I was supposed to run 13:20 and it was really more like 13:40. I still stayed in my HR range, and my splits were pretty consistent (13:13 | 13:21 | 13:19), it was just that my HR was creeping up during the last mile.

If this was a long run I would've had problems maintaining my pace -- but then I wouldn't have run a long run (a) without fuel or (b) the day after a much-too-fast tempo run, so I think this run did what it needed to do.

 

[Cabius]

I agree. Anything at marathon tempo or faster should have at least a six minute warm-up, and there's a physiological reason. The aerobic system takes a bit to turn on, so at the beginning of the run you are running way more in the anaerobic system. It's inefficient and you're digging yourself an early hole. So a proper warm-up helps all the systems be properly prepared for a good training run.

I'm curious -- when you think about your total mileage, do you include the warm-up/cool-down miles?

For example, if I warmed up for a 1/2 mile, then ran 3 miles at tempo pace, then cooled down for 1/2 mile: would I "count" 4 miles? (I'm mostly thinking for the sake of tracking total miles and making sure I don't ramp up too much.)

Presumably for the sake of tracking pace/HR you'd just look at the middle three miles actually run at the tempo pace?

 

[DopeyBadger]

I'm curious -- when you think about your total mileage, do you include the warm-up/cool-down miles?

Yes, I include WU/CD in my total mileage. The WU/CD mileage is still relevant to the building of mileage and the consideration of roughly 80% being at or slower than +9% M Tempo pace.

Presumably for the sake of tracking pace/HR you'd just look at the middle three miles actually run at the tempo pace?

Yes. On rare occasions, I might take two data points from a single run (like 3 mi tempo alone and the whole run as two separate entries).

 

[Cabius]

Yes, I include WU/CD in my total mileage. The WU/CD mileage is still relevant to the building of mileage and the consideration of roughly 80% being at or slower than +9% M Tempo pace.



Yes. On rare occasions, I might take two data points from a single run (like 3 mi tempo alone and the whole run as two separate entries).

Hmm.... I may need to re-work my spreadsheet a bit to support this. I can log the runs separately, and they'll show up in my summary charts appropriate, but my 'Calendar' view will just grab the first one listed. Sounds like I have some Excel work to do -- oh no! (oh yesssss.)