You must be swift as the coursing river (as long as it's the Lazy River) - comments welcome

[WillRunForPizza]

Were you looking at events like these? https://events.hoka.com/HokaMarathonCelebration

Thanks!!

 

[avondale]

In general, if your fitness level is improving - for instance, you are doing a training plan for a race - your RHR should gradually decrease. This means your heart is more effective at getting you oxygen, so it can pump at a slower rate.

BUT...if you're going through an extra-heavy sequence of training and getting really worn out, then the stress of that on your body can temporarily make your RHR go up. That's why an elevated RHR is a sign of overtraining, potentially.

Once you pass through and recover from that heavy training sequence, you should go back to the decreasing RHR as your fitness improves.

If you stop running (and other types of fitness training), then you gradually become detrained and so your heart will lose some of that efficiency, and eventually your RHR will go up.

The time scales on these things are different. The "improving fitness" time scale is going to be weeks to months and longer - over the course of your training plan and the course of your life if you keep running. The "too much training" time scale should just be a couple of weeks, assuming that you're not continually training too much. The "I stopped fitness" loss of training will be over the longer time scale of many weeks to months. Generally speaking.

 

[WillRunForPizza]

In general, if your fitness level is improving - for instance, you are doing a training plan for a race - your RHR should gradually decrease. This means your heart is more effective at getting you oxygen, so it can pump at a slower rate.

BUT...if you're going through an extra-heavy sequence of training and getting really worn out, then the stress of that on your body can temporarily make your RHR go up. That's why an elevated RHR is a sign of overtraining, potentially.

Once you pass through and recover from that heavy training sequence, you should go back to the decreasing RHR as your fitness improves.

If you stop running (and other types of fitness training), then you gradually become detrained and so your heart will lose some of that efficiency, and eventually your RHR will go up.

The time scales on these things are different. The "improving fitness" time scale is going to be weeks to months and longer - over the course of your training plan and the course of your life if you keep running. The "too much training" time scale should just be a couple of weeks, assuming that you're not continually training too much. The "I stopped fitness" loss of training will be over the longer time scale of many weeks to months. Generally speaking.

Cool, that makes sense - thanks for the explanation!

 

[NYC_MW]

So potentially stupid followup question, do you see max heart rate also change with training?

Back in the fall (while training for a 10k PR) I had to manually change watch's MHR and heart rate zones because it kept saying I was in zone 3 even for easy runs. But lately (training for full, with much more moderate time expectations), even my pretty hard workouts have a lower HR and are thus mostly in zone 3.

Guessing the easiest explanation is issues with HR detection or weather related reasons, but curious what you or others have seen. Quick googling says MHR decreases with age, but shouldn't really change with fitness. Though this paper did come up.

 

[WillRunForPizza]

So potentially stupid followup question, do you see max heart rate also change with training?

Back in the fall (while training for a 10k PR) I had to manually change watch's MHR and heart rate zones because it kept saying I was in zone 3 even for easy runs. But lately (training for full, with much more moderate time expectations), even my pretty hard workouts have a lower HR and are thus mostly in zone 3.

Guessing the easiest explanation is issues with HR detection or weather related reasons, but curious what you or others have seen. Quick googling says MHR decreases with age, but shouldn't really change with fitness. Though this paper did come up.

I have only heard the max HR gradually dropping with age story. But as you're building fitness, faster paces should become easier over time, so your HR would be correspondingly lower. Maybe you're just getting faster!

 

[Cabius]

So potentially stupid followup question, do you see max heart rate also change with training?

Back in the fall (while training for a 10k PR) I had to manually change watch's MHR and heart rate zones because it kept saying I was in zone 3 even for easy runs. But lately (training for full, with much more moderate time expectations), even my pretty hard workouts have a lower HR and are thus mostly in zone 3.

Guessing the easiest explanation is issues with HR detection or weather related reasons, but curious what you or others have seen. Quick googling says MHR decreases with age, but shouldn't really change with fitness. Though this paper did come up.

Your maximum heart rate -- the absolute fastest your heart will beat -- isn't trainable afaik. It tends to decline with age. While there's a general rule of thumb (220-age) it can really vary by person (mine is about 10-15 bpm higher than my age suggests).

The only way to tell what your true maximum is would be to run all-out until you want to die, and see how high your HR gets. Unless you are doing that type of stress test, you aren't really seeing your MHR.

That said, as you exercise your heart rate for a given pace should decline. Training is designed to product physiological adaptations that (among other things) enable you to deliver oxygen more efficiently.

Let's say that your maximum heart rate is 180bpm, and your heart beats 140 times per minute at 13:00/mile. That's how fast your heart has to beat to deliver X oxygen to your muscles. Now let's say you become 10% more fit, and now you can deliver the same amount of oxygen with only ~126 heartbeats per minute.

Your Maximum heart rate hasn't changed -- your heart could beat (let's say) 180 times per minute if it needed to. But work that used to require 78% of your maximum effort now only takes 70%.

 

[GollyGadget]

Do you calculate your zones using heart rate reserve? It’s my preferred method because it takes into account your rHR. I don’t even know what the regular method is anymore maybe %maxHR?

Anyway, no my maxHR has not improved but because my rHR dropped my zones shifted.

 

[WillRunForPizza]

Spectator recap: US Olympic Team Trials - Marathon
February 3, 2024 | Orlando, FL
In which some people are very fast even though it's hot

Today I watched some very fast people try to be Olympians! It was exciting.

My mom and I arrived downtown just after 9. There was a sort of "expo" area outside the local theater with games and food trucks, and I wanted to get some Olympic Trials merch...but they were already sold out

Then we met up with @nancipants! I was excited to have someone to watch with who actually cares about running We tried to go to the Hoka popup area to watch from, but it turns out all course crossings were closed at 9, so we ended up across the street. It was still a pretty good spot though, because we were right at the corner where they turned onto the loop, so we could see the athletes just after mile 2, 10, 18, and 26


Olympic Trials course map with our spot marked with an orange star (top left of red/8-mile loop across from Lake Eola)

We also had sort of a view of a couple of screens that were showing the broadcast/live feed (although they weren't that helpful because you couldn't see who was in the lead or where they were). But at least we could tell when they started! The men started at 10:10 and got to us about 10 minutes later


Big group of the leaders coming around the corner just past mile 2 with Clayton Young in the center of the photo



More men on the first loop. I think that's Connor Mantz at the front of this group?

The women started at 10:20 and got to us about 11 minutes later. My photos from that pass weren't very good.

At that point it was already around 65 and sunny. At least the dew point was in the 40s? I feel like it would have been a rough race. On the other hand, the Olympics are in Paris in July/August, so...that'll probably be worse!

After the women came through we had a longish break, but we were checking in on where people were with the tracking. They updated it pretty much every mile, which was nice, and you could see as the field started to spread out. By the second time we saw them, the men and women had each whittled themselves down to a lead group of maybe 12-15.


Lead men coming through the second time, with Zach Panning in front


Emily Sisson, Keira D'Amato, and Fiona O'Keeffe leading the women into their second 8-mile loop

It was more fun to cheer starting in the second loop because the field was spread out enough that the gaps weren't as big between rounds. One woman was running who was...I don't know, 7 or 8 months pregnant? It made me think of the woman who went into labor on the marathon course in January. (We did see the pregnant runner step off the course at mile 18, and childbirth did not appear imminent )

It may not surprise you to hear that easily the most popular runner on the course was Des Linden. Even though she was alone and a few minutes behind the leaders after the second loop, she still got huge cheers.


Des Linden accompanied by a lot of cheering

I didn't take any other pictures of the third time everyone passed us because they didn't look substantially different, but at this point everyone was drenched, both from sweat and from dumping water/sponges on themselves. Some women had sponges tucked into their bras. It was about 70 out and felt warmer because of the sun.

This whole time we're checking the tracker whenever there aren't runners actually passing us, and I'm like, "Who is F. O'Keeffe?? I've never even heard of her!" But we could see she had a growing lead on the rest of the women.

We could also see that, after a long time with Zach Panning leading the men, Connor Mantz and Clayton Young were tied for first with a big gap on the rest of the field coming into the finish. I did not try to take photos of the finish because this is what our view was like


A crowd of people with phones held over their heads

But I could see enough to see Connor and Clayton running side-by-side almost all the way to the finish when Connor finally pulled ahead. Leonard Korir was almost a minute later in third but TBD if he gets to go to the Olympics because only two American men have run the Olympic standard.

Not too much later, the women approached the finish. I got about a foot off the ground by climbing a palm tree (which is more difficult than you might expect; this tree was not made for climbing) and I could see Fiona well in the lead - lots of cheers for her. Apparently the trials were her first marathon! Emily Sisson came through about 30 seconds later, followed by Dakotah Lindwurm (and then I decided I could get down from the tree because my limbs were aching ). All three of them make the team because like 16 women have already run the standard, including all three of them today.

We watched some more runners finish, and then we went to find food - it was almost 1 and I was starving lol.

It was pretty cool to be able to see many of America's best distance runners in person! It was also fun to be on a course where people cheered for everyone. You know how sometimes you see spectators but they only cheer for whomever they're there for and they don't make any noise at all for anyone else? This race was not like that - you could tell that some people were there to cheer for specific runners, and the lead runners got the most applause (other than Des), but people were cheering for every runner who went by, even the ones at the back (who were in fairness still really fast) and the people who had to step off the course. That was nice. And it was fun to meet @nancipants in person! Overall very good experience, would recommend


I found an Olympic Trials banner covering some scaffolding to take a photo with on the way back to the car

 

[nancipants]

It was such a fun day! Here’s the selfie I took of us.

 

[garneska]

I spectated at the 2020 Trials in Atlanta. I agree with you, it is a great experience.

 

[GollyGadget]

So jealous but glad you got to experience it!! I watched from the car on I-4 as we made our way north.


It was killing me to only be a few miles away when the race started but we were in Georgia by the time it finished…and still had 6 more hours of driving that day. Next time I’ll have to plan better!

 

[WillRunForPizza]

January 29 - February 4, 2024
Speed training week 4 | 20 days until Princess 10K
In which I am very, very tired, but also impressed (with other people)


This week's schedule

Monday
Easy/strides: 6.08 miles (10:11), avg. HR 149, max 175, 94% Z1-2
upper body strength

Cooler weather was nice, at least once my hands warmed up. The strength was surprisingly tiring for such short intervals.

Tuesday
Easy/strides: 5.34 miles (9:33), avg. HR 155, max 177, 90% Z1-2
lower body strength/HIIT

I am a big believer in running your easy runs easy, whatever that pace looks like on that particular day. I have said it many times, and I have seen nothing to change my mind.

However.

Isn't it fun when you have a day where your easy pace is suddenly faster??

I attribute this to a combination of cooler weather and a couple of easy days in a row. Also possibly naps. It was definitely on the harder-effort side but still well within zone 2, at least until I started doing the strides. Good times.

The strength/HIIT was fun (for now) - my legs felt a little wobbly coming down the stairs after that.

Wednesday
Easy/strides: 7.08 miles (10:19), avg. HR <150, max 162, 100% Z1-2
core

My legs were a little sore from yesterday's workout, which was fine for easy running but a legit problem when I tried to speed up for my strides. They were complete trash

My watch had some issues with HR for the first half a mile but then it was fine.

I think I've mentioned before that this particular core workout is a favorite that I've done many times in the years since it came out, which makes it a good gauge of progress. The additional core work in my schedule is definitely making a difference - I can actually do the harder version of the knee tuck crunches (without a whole bunch of flailing) now, and I held the last plank for more than a minute. Yay! I would very much recommend having a workout like this that you come back to every few months so you can see how much you improve.

Thursday
Workout: 1.1 mile WU + strides + 2 miles steady + 2 min RI + 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 min hard w/ 90s RI + 1.5 mile CD
Split paces: 8:04; 7:27, 7:21, 7:18, 6:53, 6:20
Totals: 7.91 miles, avg. HR 165, max 193
total body strength


Strava workout analysis chart

I adapted this workout from one that The Running Channel did a video on recently. The original workout was 3K at HM pace, 3 min recovery, then the 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 min at 5K pace with 60s rest.

I swapped the 3K for 2 miles because I'm American and HMP for steady because I wanted to make it a little easier (although I ended up running HMP anyway so ). Apparently I also shortened the first rest interval, which I don't think I intended to do but it's fine.

I bumped up the recovery between the faster intervals to 90s because it's only week 4 (or week 2 if you consider the first two weeks to be pre-training). Then instead of doing all of the descending intervals at 5K pace, I decided to start closer to 10K pace and try to make each one a little faster. And I did! I did have to walk part of the last recovery leading into the 60s interval, but I was able to do that last minute faster than mile pace, so I was pretty pleased with that. (I didn't look at my watch at all during that interval and just ran as fast as I could hold onto).

My legs were still a bit sore but not interfering with my running this time. Probably this did not help them become less sore though

I was pretty tired after my workout, and I thought about skipping the strength, especially with a pretty busy day ahead. But I managed to squeeze it in after lunch, albeit taking things a bit easier than normal. But possibly this was the wrong choice.

Friday
Easy: 4.1 miles (11:28), avg. HR 139?, max maybe 156? but probably 145
Pilates/stretching

Here is where things kind of went off the rails. I started off on this run like . My body felt so worn out that I thought about just packing it in and taking an extra rest day. But I decided to give it ten minutes or so and see how I felt. I was a little concerned that my HR was getting up into the 150s within the first mile, but after that it was mostly in the 130s and it's not like I slowed down (any more), so I think that was just a weird measurement issue.

I did feel better after half a mile or so but was still pretty tired, so I just did 4 miles instead of 5 and no strides. I also swapped out my core workout for a (much) easier one. I wouldn't have thought going into it that this week would be so hard on me, but there it is

Saturday
off

Olympic Trials day! Recap above.

Sunday
Long/fast finish: 11 miles easy (9:57) + 2 miles @ MP (8:26) + 1 mile CD
Total: 14.06 miles, avg. HR 159, max 184 (?)
yoga


Splits chart

I was really crossing my fingers that one super-easy day and one rest (ish) day was enough to drag my body out of the dumpster. But also I was okay cutting the run short if it didn't feel right.

Fortunately I felt pretty decent. The temperatures were similar to the trials on Saturday (so, a bit warm), but it was cloudy with showers instead of sunny. Probably the people running the trials would have preferred today's weather, but yesterday's was definitely preferable as a spectator.

I didn't mind the rain, but the wind was a bit of an issue at times. Still, I felt good while I was keeping the pace up. I managed to distract myself by doing lots of running math to figure out how many detours I needed to string together 14 miles. And I was managing to stay mostly in zone 2 for the easy part of my run.

As I was running, I was wondering why I set up my run without a cooldown, so I switched it in my head to start the MP segment a mile earlier and do a mile CD at the end. So after 11 miles I sped up. I had a little trouble finding the pace (aiming for 8:29 because I'm still using my 1:45 HM to calculate paces), but I felt relaxed and comfortable. I was kind of surprised my HR got into the 180s, because it didn't feel like I was working that hard. But I guess it could also have been cadence locked. Or I had just built up more fatigue than I thought from the first 11 miles.

Anyway, I was doing well until I slowed down for the CD and my body went, "ow." Then after what felt like the longest mile ever, I stopped running and my body went, "...ow." All the aches and pains I hadn't noticed while I was running really came home to roost. (They did loosen up eventually, mostly.)

I had half a liter of Skratch, half a liter of water, two UCAN gels, and a GU.

I was a little creaky doing yoga, but fortunately it was short and not difficult, so it was probably good to do overall.

Totals
Running: 7h 22m, 44.59 miles
Strength/mobility: 2h 23m
Total: 9h 46m


Strava weekly log

Things started off well. Later in the week they got rough. But hopefully I am doing okay now. We'll see tomorrow if I'm feeling reasonable, or if my long run set things back again. Either way, glad I got to see some really impressive marathoners (and meet @nancipants in person!) yesterday!

Coming up

Next week's schedule

I have a schedule. But I may adjust if I'm still feeling tired. I'm going to play it by ear.

 

[Scootin'By]

My mom and I arrived downtown just after 9. There was a sort of "expo" area outside the local theater with games and food trucks, and I wanted to get some Olympic Trials merch...but they were already sold out

So no Olympic t-shirt?

Bummer

 

[WillRunForPizza]

So no Olympic t-shirt?

Bummer

At least not for the race. I did order one online

 

[WillRunForPizza]

February 5 - 11, 2024
Speed training week 5 | 13 days until Princess 10K
In which I am beset by minor difficulties. Woe is me.


This week's schedule

Monday
Easy: 5.36 miles (11:28), avg. HR 140, max 153
upper body strength

I was once again not sure this run was going to happen. I was still tired from Sunday's run, and my knee hurt but it also felt like I just needed to wrench it back into the right spot. (I did not try it, but mostly because I couldn't figure out how.) Anyway, it was another "let's just go out and see how it feels and stop if we need to" kind of day.

Starting out was a little rough, but I did feel better after a while. The run seems to have fixed my knee, too, happily. (I was right!) I never felt great, but at least I felt better when I finished than when I started. Six miles easy would normally take me an hour and maybe some change, so I just did that and let the distance be a little less.

There was some weirdness going on with my HR readings so not sure how accurate they are, but overall they don't seem too far off.

Tuesday
Easy/strides: 5.36 miles (10:25), avg. HR 150, max 171, 98% Z1-2
lower body strength/HIIT

I was feeling much better than Monday but still tried to keep it quite easy. I did end up doing like 7 strides though.

The strength/HIIT was good; I was just hoping to be less sore than last week

Wednesday
Easy/strides: 8.13 miles (10:07), avg. HR <155, max 169
core

Not too sore. Running was good; wind was not. I am very tired of wind.

Also, PLANKS

Thursday
Mini Michigan: 2 mile WU + (1 mile @ 10KP + 1 mile @ HMP + 0.5 miles @ 5KP + 0.75 miles @ 10KP + 0.25 miles @ 5KP) w/ 2.5 min RI between reps + 2 mile CD
Interval split paces: 7:35, 8:00, 7:23, 7:34, 7:03
Total: 8.87 miles, avg. HR 163, max 191
total body strength

Strava workout analysis chart

In retrospect, I'm glad I didn't do the full Michigan, because this felt plenty hard. I did pretty decently with pacing though, except on the last interval when I wasn't paying so much attention to pacing anyway (I was just trying to get through it as quickly as possible).

Recently on a podcast I heard a cue for improving your running form which was to think about kneeing a soccer ball. It is supposed to help make sure your feet land under your center of mass. Despite not having played soccer since I was like six, this did seem to work. I will keep practicing since I kind of lost it when I wasn't actively thinking about it.

Friday
Easy: 5.73 miles (10:48), avg. HR 149, max 157, 100% Z1-2
core

Well, the good news is, I felt reasonably good (with a couple of exceptions that I'll get to) and nothing went horribly wrong on this run.

The bad news is, several things went a little bit wrong

1. Sometime last week, I think I strained a muscle in my groin. It mostly does not interfere with running/strength training, but it does take a few minutes after I start running before it's not painful anymore. Today was particularly rough at the beginning. So the first few minutes of my run were not very fun. (And I decided I should skip the strides for now to avoid making it any worse.)

2. My weather app told me it would be cloudy all morning, so of course five minutes into my run the sun came out. I wasn't wearing my sunglasses because it was supposed to be cloudy

3. The code to get out of the gate to my parents' neighborhood suddenly didn't work. (Yes, you need a code ) Yesterday it was fine. Today, no dice. So I ran around the whole neighborhood and came up a mile and a quarter short but I was over it so I stopped. This neighborhood was not designed for pedestrians

4. My sports bra is definitely too stretched out for running. Ouch.

So...yeah, other than that it was fine?

Saturday
off

I decided to keep my rest day on Saturday this week because we were headed up to the beach. Beach day for the dog!


A Rottweiler standing in the sand wearing a blue leash and holding an orange ball in his mouth

Sunday
Long: 13.83 miles (10:25), avg. HR 160, max 172, 81% Z1-2
yoga?

It was a warm-ish, humid-ish, and as usual, not-as-cloudy-as-forecast morning. Luckily the trails at the beach are reasonably shady. There's also a nice variety of surfaces for a long run - besides the usual asphalt/sidewalk, there's some boardwalk and wide "trail" made of that sort of packed sand. I even ran about half a mile on an actual trail, which was WAY harder than anything else, even though it was still quite flat - I don't know how @avondale does this all the time


The easy "trail" with trees on either side and blue sky with fluffy clouds between them

I was originally supposed to do 15 miles, but it's looking like I'm actually going to be traveling back to DC on the same day as the Rock 'n' Roll races. That's disappointing, but also it means I don't have to prepare for an 18-mile day, so I figured I was fine with 12-14 miles. I felt pretty good throughout, although my HR was getting a bit high in the last mile or so as it got hotter.

I brought a liter of Liquid IV and 1.5 L of water and drank about 2/3 of the Liquid IV and most of the water. I forgot my Skratch in Orlando, and the only thing available at the beach was Liquid IV and like Gatorade. I was reminded why I don't normally use Liquid IV, which is because it's like drinking syrup I also had 2 UCAN gels and a GU.

Maybe I will do yoga. I just haven't had time so far between cards with the fam, the Puppy Bowl, taking the dog to the beach again, and the Super Bowl


My dog lying on the couch with his eyes closed while I hold his head up. He is very into the Puppy Bowl
Total
Running: 8h 9m, 47.31 miles
Strength/mobility: 2h 4m
Total: 10h 13m


Strava weekly training log

I didn't quite get to the mileage I had planned, but I'm okay with the reasons for that (except for not being able to get out the gate, which is a dumb and annoying reason, but there wasn't much I could do about it).

Coming up

Next week's schedule

I'm (hopefully) going to do a 1-mile time trial to get a sense of where things stand going into Princess. And then it's one week away, so I've got a shorter long run so I'm rested for the race weekend.

 

[avondale]

I even ran about half a mile on an actual trail, which was WAY harder than anything else, even though it was still quite flat - I don't know how @avondale does this all the time

LOL, thanks!

 

[DopeyBadger]

My resting HR has also returned to normal - side question, if you track your resting HR, have you noticed that it drifts up when you're detraining?

Here's 6 years of RHR data overlayed with training. You can see my RHR is lowest towards the end of a training plan, and highest right after a training plan ends.

 

[WillRunForPizza]

Here's 6 years of RHR data overlayed with training. You can see my RHR is lowest towards the end of a training plan, and highest right after a training plan ends.

View attachment 834014

Interesting - so mine was back to normal a day or two after the marathon but then started drifting upward over the next few weeks as I was recovering (and therefore less active). It looks like some of your training cycles might follow a similar pattern but some may not. I'll have to keep an eye on it next time to see if I have the same pattern or if it differs from block to block!

 

[WillRunForPizza]

February 12 - 18, 2024
Speed training week 6 | 6 days until Princess 10K
In which I feel old and decrepit


This week's schedule

Monday
Easy: 6.02 miles (11:11), avg. HR 149, max 160, 100% Z1-2
upper body strength

Something was just off today. Did I wake up on the wrong side of the bed? My right knee was quite grumbly for most of the run, the wind almost stole my hat, the top of my left foot hurt, and people at the gym were annoying when I went to do my strength training. Mondays

2x10 each (alternating): chest press/reverse fly, overhead press/lat pulldown, bicep curl/skull crusher and then 1x10 of chest fly, close row, lateral raise, dumbbell pullover, half curl, tricep kickback. Plus 2x10 per side of straight leg and bent leg heel drops

Tuesday
Easy/strides: 7.11 miles (10:15), avg. HR 155, max 175, 95% Z1-2
core

I was feeling better than Monday but my right knee and left foot were still achy. Um...at least I haven't noticed my Achilles in a couple of weeks? And it was a bit cooler, so that felt nice. I kind of split the difference between Tuesday and Wednesday's runs, mileage-wise, and I did all the strides uphill while it was an option.

I was supposed to do lower body, but I moved some things around for timing reasons. I had to tweak a couple of exercises because my groin muscle is also still not all the way better, and I used a resistance band where it made sense.

Wednesday
Easy/strides: 6.5 miles (10:03), avg. HR 153, max 173, 96% Z1-2
lower body strength/HIIT

Back in Orlando, with my foot/knee/groin feeling at least somewhat improved. On day 3 of easy running, I really had to slow myself down, but I didn't have to think quite as much about my form as nothing actually hurt.

Then I learned that adding a segment of a different type of workout on my watch is the same as just starting a new workout. Guess I'll keep just recording my strength/HIIT as strength.

Thursday
off

Friday
Time trial: 2.71 mile WU/strides + 1 mile AFAP + 3.05 mile CD
Total: 6.77 miles, avg. HR 158, max 188
total body strength

On Thursday night I was unexpectedly nervous about my time trial, even though it was just a fitness check, and I had trouble falling asleep. I told myself (a) it was extremely unofficial, (b) I hadn't specifically trained or tapered for it at all so it's not like I was treating it as a real race, and (c) it didn't count for anything anyway, but I was still wide awake, so I listened to the next 15 minutes of The Blood of Olympus to distract my brain enough to finally fall asleep.

When I went out it was warm and cloudy-ish. T+D ~ 70+60, which is still probably better than when I was doing mile training last summer but maybe not ideal. I wore my new Endorphin Pro 3s to test them out and felt extra springy

A couple of miles from my parents' house is a park with a path that runs around four baseball fields. The loop is just a hair over half a mile and quite flat except for one teeny tiny incline, so it seemed like a good place to do my time trial (in the direction where I would run down the incline obviously ). My warmup was running to the park with a couple of easy strides on the way. I paused to grab some water from the fountain, and then I was off!

I quickly settled into a good pace of around 6:40-6:45, which I was happy with since my PR was 6:39. I even managed to avoid starting off way too fast, so that was already a win. Then I realized I had been so engrossed in Kara and Des's conversation that I had forgotten to switch to my music. Every time I awkwardly did that while also trying to run very fast (for me).

After the first loop and a half or so, I still felt (relatively) good, so I decided I could start pushing a little harder for the last "lap" (if I had been on a track). By like 0.14 miles to go, I was really starting to feel it, but also I saw my interval pace and realized if I dug just a little deeper I could break 6:30, which was very exciting So I sprinted as fast as I could and almost immediately started going, "Are we done yet? Are we done yet?? Now???" until my watch finally buzzed that I could stop

Staggering to a walk and gulping in as much oxygen as I could, I headed to the water fountain and checked my time. I finished in...6:28!!

Definitely better than I expected - I was anticipating maybe somewhere in the 6:35-6:45 range, so it was a good day! An 11-second PR! After a few minutes of walking/very slow jogging, I felt pretty much fine again - the joys of short race distances! - and headed back.

Since the real point of this exercise was to get a sense of what I might run at the Princess 10K on Saturday, I then checked some race equivalency calculators.

Luke Humphreys (Hansons): 44:50 (7:13)
McMillan: 46:37 (7:30)
Daniels: 45:40 (7:21)

Not bad! Sub-45 seems like a stretch to me, but my 10K PR is 48:47, so anything in the range of these predictions would be a significant improvement. We'll see what happens on Saturday!

Saturday
Easy/strides: 5.54 miles (10:39), avg. HR 147, max 163?, 100% Z1-2?
core

Even though it was about 60º out, it was drizzly and felt cool. My legs were a little tired but not too bad. I think my HR readings were a little off, especially on the strides, but on average it's probably fairly close.

At the end of my run I met my mom at the new "farmers market" (really just like a farm stand) in my parents' neighborhood. We picked up a few things to take home, and I was hungry so I had a mini banana nut muffin and a croissant there

Sunday
Long: 10.08 miles (9:53), avg. HR 163, max 175...maybe
yoga

Another rainy day in Orlando, but I finally managed to force myself out the door for my run (with some Merino wool on - I wouldn't wear long sleeves for a run in the high 50s normally, but with the rain it felt colder). At least it wasn't too windy, I guess - although I definitely noticed a difference when I turned around (and not in a good way ).

I mostly felt fine except that my right knee hurt again in mile 5 and only mile 5 Also I think my HR was a little off. It was reading in the mid-170s for like the third quarter and some of the run, which is zone 3 for me, but I didn't feel like I was working hard at all. Plus my average HR for the last mile was lower even though that mile was the fastest by a hair

I had my handheld with water and a UCAN gel that I almost forgot to take Anyway, last long run before Princess!

Totals
Running: 7h 11m, 42.04 miles
Strength/mobility: 2h 23m
Total: 9h 35m


Strava weekly training log

I love how marathon training completely ruins any normal perspective on run distances. "Pssh, 10 miles is barely even a long run; I will just do that six days before my race" I was actually thinking about doing some strides since my run was so "short", but then I remembered that the ground was covered with wet leaves and I didn't want to die

Coming up

Next week's schedule

Princess weekend! I've got a nice easy week leading up to the races. Not sure yet if I'm expo-ing Thursday or Friday. I'm a little nervous about the 10K, partly because I'm thinking of it as a real race and partly because I've never actually tried to race at Disney and I'm not sure what it will be like, especially at the beginning. On the other hand, lots of races are crowded at the beginning, and it's not necessarily the worst thing to be forced to slow down a bit early on. Then the half will be for fun and photos. Hopefully I will not be too much of a zombie after getting up insanely early two days in a row

I keep checking the weather and it's been consistently on the cooler side - at one point it said 39 for the low Sunday morning, which, no thank you At least that one's back up to the mid-40s now, though I'd still prefer it to be warmer. Saturday morning looks pretty good. Of course, it's Florida, so honestly who knows what will happen

Safe travels to everyone heading to Orlando this week and hope to see some of you at Princess!

 

[Cabius]

Definitely better than I expected - I was anticipating maybe somewhere in the 6:35-6:45 range, so it was a good day! An 11-second PR! After a few minutes of walking/very slow jogging, I felt pretty much fine again - the joys of short race distances! - and headed back.

That's a great result! Congrats on the training you've already done, and good luck at your 10k!