Tiki tiki tiki tiki tiki run (comments welcome)

[Cabius]

In general, I'm hitting the point where my cardio fitness has started to come back, and I'm hitting my pace targets so easily I start to worry they aren't aggressive enough. But I'm sticking with my HM plan, and I'll re-evaluate once that's done in April.

OOOORRRRRRR

I'm seriously considering doing a 'Magic Mile' test or something similar to evaluate what my HM pace target should be.

In part, my easy runs have just been too easy, and even my workouts barely feel hard from a cardio perspective.

But also, I'm training toward a ~2:24 HM finish (11/mile), and it would be great to get under 2:15 (10:15/mile) if at all possible, for PoT purposes. I think even a 2:24 (or last year's 4:55 M finish) would be enough to get me into Corral C, but I'd love to bump up to B and have less congestion.

In ideal conditions (morning runs, cool weather), my easy runs want to be about 12-13 min/mile, and my speed runs want to be about 9:15-9:45. Those paces would imply a 10:15 HM pace, which would be ideal. My Pace/HR Power Chart suggests that would put my HR in the high-150s, which is in line with my race HR in prior cycles.



If I were starting a plan now, I think that 10:15 would be my target training pace; I was in much worse shape when I picked 11/mile as a somewhat aggressive goal. But, that shift may be too much to undertake with 9 weeks left.

I know I'm one of the world's greatest futzers (just ask my wife), and I should do what I said I would do, and stick to the plan. This is me talking myself into being responsible and staying put. Probably. Maybe.

 

[avondale]

Fantastic job with the weight loss! That takes dedication. And it should benefit your running, too!

 

[Cabius]

2024-02-13 Mid-Week Update
I admit that I slept in on Monday and today (Wednesday), and so had to make a few adjustments:

• I shifted this week's workouts from M/W to T/R, still keeping a rest day between each SoS
• I had to do my M/W easy runs mid-day, so temps and fueling were a bit off from my normal cadence.

Still, I've gotten out there and done my plan.


2/12 -- 4mi @ easy (13:30/mile target; 13:28 actual @ 149bpm)
Lunchtime run. Definitely a bit slower and harder than a morning run. Still 'easy' but but effortless.

2/13 - 6x800m @ 5k-10k pace (10:00-10:30)
This was a solid workout! 1mi WU/CD, and hit my 6x800m paces pretty solidly, with 5 out of 6 in range (one too fast). It feels like it might be a littly too slow/easy tbh.

2/14 - 1-mile speed test w/ WU + Recovery
As hinted at in my last post, I did run a 1-mile test today rather than my planned easy run. I did a 1-mile easy warm-up, followed by a 1-mile race tempo, then 2 miles of cool-down/recovery.

---

One-Mile Test Analysis

My 1-mile pace was 8:14, which is an unofficial PR for me (previous best was 8:23). I watched for time at each quarter-mile marker I passed, and was glad to see that I kept pretty even splits throughout.



I don't think I could've gone much faster or sustained that pace for much farther, though. My HR averaged 93% of MHR, and peaked at 98% at the end. It was a bit warm, with 64/46 T+D -- slightly warmer than is ideal for this type of test. It ended up being slightly above my trendline for February, but not wildly off.



Altogether, I think it was a good measure of my fitness at the one-mile level.

This implies much faster HM tempo than I've been training toward, so now I need to decide whether and how much to adjust.

---

Pace Adjustment

It seems like a lot of coaches apply a 15%-20% multiplier from the 1-mile pace to the HM pace. Since I'd be adjusting pace partway through a training regimen, I'd want to be even more conservative than that.

The chart below shows target paces for various multiples of my one-mile pace, including HM finish time w/ and w/o tangential mileage.



I would have to be on the very aggressive end to aim for a sub-2:08 finish, and I don't think that's wise given where I am in the cycle.

Instead, I'm leaning toward a 10:10/mile HM target pace -- significantly faster than the 11:00/mile pace I've been using, but reasonably conservative (I think) based on how easy those training runs have been, and how my one-mile test turned out.

That would put my training paces around here:

That feels right, in that 12-13 min/mile feels easy, and when I do speed runs my body wants to go in the ~9:30 range.

I'll sleep on it, and I'll need to adjust the rest of this week's schedule to make tomorrow an easy day (since today's one-mile test sure felt like Something of Substance). But I'm leaning towards pulling the trigger on this for the next two months.

 

[Cabius]

2024-02-19 End-of-Week Update
This week I completed 39.5 miles against my plan of 39.5 across seven runs.


After my 1-mile speed test on Wednesday, I adjusted my schedule (giving myself an Easy day to recover, and thus pushing workouts from Thursday/Saturday back to Friday/Sunday).

I also adjusted my pace targets, as discussed in the post above. I'll be training for the next 9 weeks against a 10:10 HM Tempo. When it comes to race day in April, we'll see how I feel!

With that in mind, the runs for the rest of the week reflected my new, faster training paces:

2/15 - 5mi @ easy (12:35 soft target; 12:40 actual @ 143bpm)
First easy run at new pace. Was fine, felt easy, despite it being an evening run where I'm usually not as sharp.

2/16 5mi @ HM Tempo (10:10 target; 10:11 actual @ 170bpm) + WU/CD
This run was tough. It was a midday run and it was relatively hot (66/53 T/D, but also pretty sunny) which always affects me. I sweated a ton, and drank my entire backpack of water (1.5L+), along with one e-gel. I hit the paces, and my HR didn't get out of control, it just required more mental toughness than I'm used to. My brain wanted to slow down or stop, and I had to tell my legs to ignore that and keep going. Strava listed this as a very high-effort run, too. But I got it done, and I hit my paces!

2/17 4mi @ easy (12:35 soft target; 12:37 actual @ 141bpm)
This was a pretty easy run. Ended up being a nighttime run, and near-freezing temps, but it felt really light and easy. Now to get 6 hours of sleep before tomorrow's long run.

2/18 10mi @ long run pace (11:35 target; 11:56 actual @ 148bpm)
Another case where I misremembered my pace target: I was aiming for 11:55 min/mile, and should've been aiming for 11:35 min/mile. I ran 11:56 -- right on what I *thought* my target was -- and that was a solidly easy pace. No real cardiac drift above 150bpm, and at no point did I slow down due to tiredness or difficulty. I could've easily done another 3+ miles at that pace.

--

Overall, I'd say my biggest struggle is just waking up as early as I need to every day. I had quite a few runs this week where I ran on my lunch break, or in the evening, rather than head out the door at 5:30-6:00 AM.

I'm getting better at that. This morning (a longer workout of 12x400m intervals), I really went back-and-forth before heading out the door on time. I had all but made up my mind to sleep in until 5:30, and just do an easy run, before I did the math and realized I wouldn't be able to get back on track this week. So I got up, and I got out the door.

But I really have to make it a consistent, disciplined habit if I'm going to keep up a training plan this intensive (and repeat for future cycles). My wife is enormously supportive, but I can't miss every breakfast with the kids or leave her home alone every night, so I've got to be able to get this done before everybody else wakes up!

 

[DopeyBadger]

OOOORRRRRRR

I'm seriously considering doing a 'Magic Mile' test or something similar to evaluate what my HM pace target should be.

In part, my easy runs have just been too easy, and even my workouts barely feel hard from a cardio perspective.

But also, I'm training toward a ~2:24 HM finish (11/mile), and it would be great to get under 2:15 (10:15/mile) if at all possible, for PoT purposes. I think even a 2:24 (or last year's 4:55 M finish) would be enough to get me into Corral C, but I'd love to bump up to B and have less congestion.

In ideal conditions (morning runs, cool weather), my easy runs want to be about 12-13 min/mile, and my speed runs want to be about 9:15-9:45. Those paces would imply a 10:15 HM pace, which would be ideal. My Pace/HR Power Chart suggests that would put my HR in the high-150s, which is in line with my race HR in prior cycles.

View attachment 833776

If I were starting a plan now, I think that 10:15 would be my target training pace; I was in much worse shape when I picked 11/mile as a somewhat aggressive goal. But, that shift may be too much to undertake with 9 weeks left.

I know I'm one of the world's greatest futzers (just ask my wife), and I should do what I said I would do, and stick to the plan. This is me talking myself into being responsible and staying put. Probably. Maybe.

Two considerations with changing paces mid-training plan.

1) Be wary of feeling things are too easy cardiovascularly at about the 8-12 week into the training plan mark. The cardiovascular gains and muscular/skeletal gains do not happen at the same rate. The cardio gains tend to peak around 8 weeks, whereas the muscular/skeletal gains peak around 12 weeks. This leaves a grey area of 8-12 weeks into a training plan where you'll feel like you can do more, but your bodies muscular/skeletal system isn't prepared for more. So this is the place where you need to be really careful about increasing the pace and taking on the risk for skeletal/muscular injuries.

2) Don't change the pace scheme if you're within 8 weeks of the event. It takes about 6-8 weeks to fully absorb the week over week training you do. So changing the paces within 8 weeks of the event will add additional stress onto the system, but by race day you wouldn't have reaped the benefits yet. There's risk/reward to changing the paces and in general it's ok to train slightly too slow, and you're much better off training too slow than too fast. If you are outside 8 weeks from race day, then Daniels suggests only changing the pace scheme every 6 weeks or so at the most.

Based on a 8:14 mile time, I'd consider a 2:07:30 as the best possible scenario. To equal out the 2:07:30, you'd need to have a matching endurance level to the 8:14 mile time. I'd want to see a 27:42 5k or 57:30 10k to feel better about the 2:07:30. And lastly, the conditions of the one miler would need to be similar to the HM road race to translate the 2:07:30. A cool, low wind, track-based, flat one mile time trial is not translatable to a hot, super windy, mountainous, trail HM. I'm not saying that's the comparison happening here, but just putting context around the calculations.

On the subject of going "too slow" on easy days. According to Tom Schwartz (unshared data set), you can go as slow as 5k pace +5 min/mile on easy days and still be reaping the benefits. So with an estimated 8:55 5k pace (based on the one miler), you could go as slow as 14 min/mile and you'd still be plenty within easy pace. And that's without consideration again about course elevation or weather.

 

[Cabius]

Two considerations with changing paces mid-training plan.

1) Be wary of feeling things are too easy cardiovascularly at about the 8-12 week into the training plan mark. The cardiovascular gains and muscular/skeletal gains do not happen at the same rate. The cardio gains tend to peak around 8 weeks, whereas the muscular/skeletal gains peak around 12 weeks. This leaves a grey area of 8-12 weeks into a training plan where you'll feel like you can do more, but your bodies muscular/skeletal system isn't prepared for more. So this is the place where you need to be really careful about increasing the pace and taking on the risk for skeletal/muscular injuries.

2) Don't change the pace scheme if you're within 8 weeks of the event. It takes about 6-8 weeks to fully absorb the week over week training you do. So changing the paces within 8 weeks of the event will add additional stress onto the system, but by race day you wouldn't have reaped the benefits yet. There's risk/reward to changing the paces and in general it's ok to train slightly too slow, and you're much better off training too slow than too fast. If you are outside 8 weeks from race day, then Daniels suggests only changing the pace scheme every 6 weeks or so at the most.

That's really helpful! I remember you sharing in the past that cardio improves faster than musculoskeletal strength, which makes me want to err on the conservative side here.

On the flip side, I was basically starting over from scratch after a year of almost no regular exercise. This is effectively a couch-to-HM cycle for me. It's embarrassing, but Strava's 2-year Fitness chart clearly shows where I stopped running after the Jan '23 marathon, and didn't start getting regular exercise again until I eased back into it in early November.



In terms of where I am in my training cycle, I think I'm not quite in that 8-to-12-week danger zone, though it depends a bit on when I "started training".

• November 1st (15 weeks prior) I effectively started from scratch, running 10-13 easy miles per week (minus the week I had a new baby).
  
  
• January 1st (6 weeks prior), I ramped up to 15-18 miles/week as a stepping stone into a full-mileage plan. I also started a few speed workouts.
  
  
• January 29th (2-3 weeks prior) I ramped up to 32+ miles/week with a structured training plan.

When I did the pace test, I had 9 weeks until my HM, which seems like enough time for a conservative adjustment, but not enough time for an aggressive one. I'd be more aggressive if I were 14-16 weeks out and had more time to build endurance at that pace!

Based on a 8:14 mile time, I'd consider a 2:07:30 as the best possible scenario. To equal out the 2:07:30, you'd need to have a matching endurance level to the 8:14 mile time. I'd want to see a 27:42 5k or 57:30 10k to feel better about the 2:07:30. And lastly, the conditions of the one miler would need to be similar to the HM road race to translate the 2:07:30. A cool, low wind, track-based, flat one mile time trial is not translatable to a hot, super windy, mountainous, trail HM. I'm not saying that's the comparison happening here, but just putting context around the calculations.

2:07:30 (about 9:36/mile) feels very aggressive, since I don't have a full training cycle to build endurance at that speed.

On the other hand, my original goal of 2:24 (11:00/mile) feels too easy. I think I could run that within the next week or two. Gun to my head, I could probably do it tomorrow - I did 10 miles on Sunday @ 11:56/mile and it was solidly an 'easy' run - but I'd prefer time to taper.

So I'm looking at a 2:14 target (about 10:10/mile) as a way of challenging myself, but being realistic. I know I'm ramping up quickly, and don't have a full training cycle left ahead of me, so while I want to push myself I don't want to be too aggressive. For me, this cycle is about laying a foundation that I can maintain over the hot Texas summer and then build on in the Fall.

I do think the one miler conditions were appropriate to the HM course in April -- 109 T+D with about 20 feet of elevation gain. But it may be a bit warmer than that on race day, so that's a consideration, too.

On the subject of going "too slow" on easy days. According to Tom Schwartz (unshared data set), you can go as slow as 5k pace +5 min/mile on easy days and still be reaping the benefits. So with an estimated 8:55 5k pace (based on the one miler), you could go as slow as 14 min/mile and you'd still be plenty within easy pace. And that's without consideration again about course elevation or weather.

That's great context, thanks! I've been trying to go more by feel on my easy runs, and less on trying to hit a specific pace or HR. If I start to go too fast, I'll make myself slow down, but am okay with a slower pace on a hard day or after a hard workout. That usually means 12:15-12:45, but if it means 13:30 some days, it's good to know that is still a useful exercise!

 

[Cabius]

2024-02-19 Mid-Week Update
Things are right on track so far this week!


My Tuesday workout, I had to cut the cooldown from 1M to 0.5M to get back home on time. I made up a quarter-mile CD on today's workout, and will add the rest to an upcoming Easy Run.

I prefer not to deviate from my plans, but since "something is better than nothing" I would rather run a bit short than stay home. My thinking is that WU > Workout > CD, meaning I'd cut CD time first, then workout time. I wouldn't cut WU below a mile, since that seems like asking for trouble.

2/19 4 miles @ easy
Super super light and easy.

2/20 12x400m @ 5k-10k pace (9:20-9:44)
I was complaining before that I had a hard time finding my pace for speed runs. It's WAAAYYY better with my new paces. It took 3 intervals to calibrate, but then the next nine were all solid, with a couple just a few seconds fast.



HR was solidly in "Zone 3" for the intervals. Overall, really not too difficult, but a good, solid workout.

2/21 4 miles @ easy
Did this run at mid-day. At 75 degrees (134 T+D) it was a slightly slower easy run, but still easy.

2/22 5 miles @ HM Tempo (10:10/mile)
Really nailed the HM Tempo to the second, with 5 miles in 50:50. HR was in Z3 for the first couple 3 miles, and inched into Z4 for the last few. It was a bit warm for my taste (64+60 T+D), but these are the expected conditions for my HM so it's good training.

I could've done at least 2-3 more miles at this pace today; I couldn't yet do a full 13, but there's plenty of time + taper.

---

Next weekend, I'll be flying to Las Vegas for two days to watch Australian Rugby with one of my oldest friends. It's been 5+ years since I've been to Vegas, and while I don't gamble a lot, and eschew the more raunchy diversions, I've always enjoyed trips with my wife. I'll be there Friday and Saturday (returning early Sunday morning) and plan to keep up my running schedule.

Since Friday is a Lenten fast day, we won't be eating or drinking too much that day, leaving me fresh for a Saturday morning long run. Coming from Central Time, it should be easy for me to get out and get my 10 miles in while my buddy sleeps.

Then I'll come back starving and ready to go -- Brunch Buffet at the Wynn, Golden Tiki, and of course a double-header of Rugby!

I will take a rest day on Sunday, since I will likely have a late night followed by an early morning flight. I plan to spread those 4 miles across my other 'Easy' days prior to the trip.

If anybody has tips for running routes near the strip, let me know! I'm staying at the Mandalay Bay, and my current plan is to go out around 5AM and run East towards/around the UNLV campus. Seems like that's about a 5-mile out-and-back that I can just do twice, but I'm open to alternative suggestions!

 

[GollyGadget]

Its been years since I've been to Vegas but I would always run the strip. It's not crowded in the morning, just a few like minded runners and some folks who haven't made it to bed yet . I prefer running south towards the sign but I have run all the way north to Fremont Street.

 

[disneygpa]

Way back in 2019 I ran from Treasure Island down to the sign on the south end of the strip and back. It was an interesting run to be sure. I did it right at sunrise and there weren't many folks out and about. But the ones that were out were unique. You can't run the strip all the way. Sometimes you have to go up and over the sky bridges. Unless you want to run in the street. I'd do it again, but maybe not in late August!!

 

[Cabius]

2024-02-25 End-of-Week Update
This week I completed all 45.0 miles of my plan across seven runs.


This is my 4th week in a row of running every day. In fact, since I'm posting this a day late, I've now run 31 days in a row!

I'm tracking my plan mileage pretty exactly --


And I'm definitely seeing the resulting gains in terms of HR/Pace. A lot of my recent workout runs are dropping right along my powerline, while my recent easy runs (the grouping around 12:30/mile) are pulling further and further down.


At the same time, my weight is continuing to tick down - I should be around 195 by EOM, and below 190 for my HM in April.


I'm actually running a couple of pounds above my trendline right now, but I've been through this cycle enough to know that one day I'll wake up and be 3 pounds lighter, so it doesn't worry me. I trust the math.

Overall, I'm very happy with the results I'm seeing!

--

On the other hand, it hasn't gotten much easier to get up early in the morning. Or maybe it's gotten easier but it's still not easy. I keep hoping that at some point it just because a habit, but I may just not be a morning person.

I usually go to bed around 10, and wake up between 4:45 and 5:30 (depending on the length of the day's workout). That's a fairly normal amount of sleep for me -- I'm used to going to bed at 11:30 and waking up at 7 -- just shifted back a couple of hours.

Even then, I usually don't have more than 10-15 minutes between scarfing down a bagel or stroopwaffle (and caffeine bullet) and running out the door. So far, that hasn't caused me any distress or noticeable performance hits. And I just can't imagine waking up a half-hour earlier just so I can sit around while my food digests.

 

[Cabius]

I think I just run to justify eating Cow Tales.

I have been pretty consistent at sticking to my overall diet goals, both in terms of overall calories and in my particular split. I weigh everything that I eat, and track calories super closely.

I aim to have 50%-60% carbs, 15%-20% protein, and 25%-30% fat. Over the past 30 days, I've hit that pretty exactly.

Summary of last 30 days


Day-by-day chart of last 30 days


Sometimes it's hard to eat that many carbs and that little fat/protein! I eat a lot of bananas, raisin bran has become an absolute staple, and I have a lot of english muffins w/ jam.

But also, I bought a box of 100+ cow tales on the theory that they might be a good supplemental running snack, and now I'm eating 2 or 3 a day.

Send help! (Or at least milk!)

 

[Herding_Cats]

cow tales are the best. I refuse to send help.

 

[Cabius]

2024-03-03 End-of-Week Summary
I ran 36.8 of my planned 42.3 miles this week, across five of six planned runs.


The first half of the week was fine. My Tuesday speed workout felt GREAT, and my Thursday workout (midday) was a few bpm above where I wanted it to be, but wasn't particularly hard.

As expected, I didn't run on Friday due to flying to Las Vegas. My plan was to do my Saturday LR as planned, then tack on a couple of extra miles on Wednesday (done) and Sunday to make up the rest.

I did make it out for my Saturday long run! I was out the door at 5:40 AM for my 10 early mile (actually 10.5).

I ended up running South from Mandalay Bay to the 'Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas' sign, then North all the way to the Strat, then back south to Mandalay Bay.




Me at the 'Welcome' sign. My room key stuck to my hand when I took my phone out of my pocket, and I didn't realize it until I looked at this photo. Glad I didn't lose it!!


The Strat, and the LAX-style sign at the Northernmost edge of the strip.

This was a great long run! I paced at 11:28/mile (goal was 11:35/mile) though the GAP was more like 11:12 due having to climb up so many flights of stairs to cross over intersections. HR was right along my pace/HR trendline. And it was fun to be out before the city woke up! When I started at 5:40, I had the city to myself; by 7:30 there were a lot more walkers/runners about.

---

After this run, my buddy and I went to the Wynn buffet, where we ran into former Ohio Governor/Presidential candidate John Kasich. I struck up a conversation (he was in town to see U2 at the Sphere), and he ended up chatting with us for 2 or 3 minutes, then stopping by our table every time he went back to the buffet. He fist-bumped my buddy to wish him a happy birthday, and sort of body-checked him another time. It was pretty wild.

That night, we went to Allegiant Stadium to watch the South Sydney Rabbitohs of Australia's National Rugby League! They lost, but we had a fantastic time cheering on 'The Bunnies' from their fan section. We were seated next to an awesome couple of die-hard fans, and as soon as they met us and saw that we didn't have any Rabbitohs merch, lent us their jackets for the duration of the game.


My buddy Nathan, our new friend Joe, and I, cheering on the Rabbitohs before the game

We ended up hanging out with our new friends until after midnight, then catching a few hours of sleep before leaving for the airport at 4:30 AM. I slept as much as possible on the plane -- I had to be awake for my little boy's 2nd birthday party -- but I was tired.

In addition to that 10.5 mile run, I covered a TON of ground in Vegas. I love to walk from casino to casino on the west side of the strip, and we made it from Mandalay Bay to the Wynn and back a few times. Altogether, I notched 12.1 miles of walking on Friday and 17.7 miles of running/walking on Saturday.

All that to say: I was too tired on Sunday to get out and finish up that last 6-mile easy run. I think this was the first run I've missed in the past 8 weeks of training, but I have no regrets. What a fun weekend!

 

[RuntheMouse]

Sounds like so much fun!

 

[Cabius]

2024-03-10 End-of-Week Summary
I ran 46.0 of my planned 46.0 miles across seven runs.

Note: My "Plan Avg Pace" includes WU/CD/Jog Breaks, while my "Actual Avg Pace" only includes the workout portion; I'll need to tweak that. If you look at total time and mileage for the week, I was only 4min 16sec faster than my overall time, or about 5.5 seconds/mile. I'm totally fine with that.

My Thursday HM Tempo run happened at night. It had been raining all day, and was still pouring when I went for the run. I ran through a lot of ankle-deep puddles, but there were a few points where the creek had overflown its bed and I was knee-deep for a few dozen feet. Needless to say, I got pretty wet!

Troubleshooting HM Tempo Runs
In general, my Easy, Long, and Speed runs have all been GREAT.

My HM Tempo runs have been worrying me a bit, as they're all parked pretty solidly above my speed/HR trendline, and are faster even than the higher-paced speed runs. (Yes, those speed runs are shorter, but some of them are 1.5- or 2-mile intervals, and are still lower HR than mile 2 or 3 of my Tempo runs!)

Here are my HM tempo runs clumped together in a vertical line above my trendline:


It looks a little better when using T&D adjusted figures, but it's still not great:


I have two theories about this, which I will test this week:

1) Day of Week
I may just not be fully recovered from Tuesday's workout, which is causing my performance to suffer.

Sun - Easy
Mon - Easy
Tue - Speed Intervals
Wed - Easy
Thu - HM Tempo
Fri - Easy
Sat - Long Run

I have two easy days between my long run and Tuesday's speed workout, but then only one easy day before this one. (I only have one easy day between this workout and Saturday's long run, but that's not a speed workout, and at 11:30/mile I haven't really had problems there.)

2) Time of Day
I usually run in the morning, but this is the run I've been most likely to sleep in. It's a longer run, which means I need to be out the door by 5:30 if I'm going to be back in time to get the kids up. Lately, I've been running slow, realized I don't have time to do the whole workout, and decided to punt. In the last 4 weeks, only one was a morning run, two were lunchtime runs, and one was an evening run in the pouring rain.

I almost always do better running right out of bed. Even with a pretty carb-heavy diet, I somehow feel more sluggish at mid-day or at night.

It's also been pretty warm, with T&D of 120-130 for 3 of the last 4 runs. That's probably good training, but I've always felt more susceptible to heat/humidity than the normal conversion charts suggest, and I'm sure that's had an outsized impact.

Planned Adjustments

This week, I'm going to swap my Tuesday and Thursday workouts, and make sure I get out the door in the morning, to see whether running on fresh legs makes the difference I hope it will. I'll feel a lot better at running this tempo on race day if I can see a few runs that are 3-4 bpm lower than they are right now.

I'll let y'all know how it goes!

 

[avondale]

It had been raining all day, and was still pouring when I went for the run. I ran through a lot of ankle-deep puddles, but there were a few points where the creek had overflown its bed and I was knee-deep for a few dozen feet. Needless to say, I got pretty wet!

For a moment, I thought I was reading my description of one of my runs from this past week! Turns out we had a very similar, very soggy day, including the creek crossing! I always say I built a lot of character with those kinds of runs!

Do you usually run trails?

 

[Cabius]

Do you usually run trails?

Almost all of my running is on the greenbelt trails in my suburb of Dallas. https://www.cityofcarrollton.com/home/showpublisheddocument/35100/638085054458970000

Its paved, and fairly flat, but it's also fairly nature-y, and feels like you're out of the city even though it's only a few hundred feet away. More importantly: no stoplights!

A lot of it runs alongside a creek or past large ponds (I see lots of ducks, geese, turtles, and some nutria), and cuts through some wooded areas where the trees meet overhead (lots of rabbits, the occasional coyotes or bobcat, once in a while a skunk or other small woodland creature.

Nothing like the gorgeous trails that you post pictures of, but I'm very grateful to have it just a few hundred feet from my house!

 

[Cabius]

This week, I'm going to swap my Tuesday and Thursday workouts, and make sure I get out the door in the morning, to see whether running on fresh legs makes the difference I hope it will. I'll feel a lot better at running this tempo on race day if I can see a few runs that are 3-4 bpm lower than they are right now.

I'll let y'all know how it goes!

This went well!

After a 1-mile warmup, I ran 6 miles at an average pace of 10:11/mile (vs 10:10/mile target). It was a reasonably cool (though humid) morning, and most of the run was before sunrise. I'm happy with that number.

My average HR was 154bpm, compared to an average of 166bpm over my last 4 HM Tempo runs!!

This was solidly below my trendline, and much improved from the last four examples (see chart below).

In fact, my highest HR this run (162bpm) was lower than my average HR over any of the last 4 HM Tempo runs (lowest was 164bpm).



I suspect that both time-of-day and day-of-week played a role here.

After Saturday's 14-mile long run, my legs were still a bit sluggish on my 4-mile easy runs Sunday and Monday, but I didn't feel bad this morning. Plus, even if my legs were still a bit sore, my cardio was very well recovered. My resting HR yesterday was 47bpm (I'm usually 50-52, though after a particularly hard workout that can climb up to 55-58 for a day or two).

I feel a lot better about keeping this pace for HM distance with this type of result under my belt, and 5 weeks + taper still ahead of me!

 

[azrivest]

I am impressed by those stats. You hit the target miles precisely on each day.

 

[Cabius]

I am impressed by those stats. You hit the target miles precisely on each day.

Thanks!

I tend to run the same distances on the same routes, so I have the courses down to a science -- turn around at that tree, or at this crack in the sidewalk, etc.