And when I say long run, I mean my longest ever.... by a large margin. I did 7.2 miles Sunday morning. I just took it slow and easy. I had set out to do a minimum of one hour. The plan I'm following calls for a long run of 3 times my total 5K time. I did my last 5K in 28:21 so 3 times that would be an hour and twenty five minutes. That seemed a little excessive, thus the one hour goal. I started out just like always after a good warm up walk up the hill in the ball park next door. My heart rate immediately skyrocketed after staying at a pretty high rate throughout my warm up. I'm not sure what that was all about, or if it was even accurate. My garmin battery was pretty low and it's possible that played into the high reading. It settled down as I jogged down the long downhill stretch. I started to feel a little more comfortable, and tried to settle into a nice steady pace that I felt like I could maintain for an hour or more.
I tried to hold at around 11:00/mile and was generally right on target averaging around 10:50/mile with a couple of outliers at mile 1 at a pace of 10:32 and mile 6 at a pace of 11:08. Most of mile 1 is down hill, thus the faster time. I'm not sure why mile 6 was so slow. I wasn't feeling particularly fatigued at that point. Unfortunately at 6.2 miles the battery in my Garmin died so I don't have stats for the last mile or so. I felt like I generally stayed on pace until I finished up and could have kept going for a pretty long time at that pace.
Stats: I did an estimated 7.2 miles in an estimated 01:18:00 for an estimated average pace of 10:50/mile.
Next up: I'll do my tempo run tomorrow. That will be 35 minutes at approximately 10:00/mile. I averaged 9:37 last week, which is faster than the plan called for, but as long as I'm not slower than the plan, I feel okay about it.
I wimped out on my swim this morning. It's just really hard to get up on Monday's after being able to sleep in on Saturday and Sunday.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Friday, March 25, 2011
Swimming: 03/25/2011
I didn't really want to get out of bed this morning,. I didn't want to get in the pool. I found myself hoping that the pool would be closed for some strange reason and I would have a good excuse to skip my workout this morning. I forced myself out of bed and into my stretching routine and then out the door and into the cold. I scraped the ice off my windows for hopefully the last time this year and drove down the mountain to the fitness center. I arrived and found the doors unlocked and the pool open. Darn!
So, with no excuse to skip, I dragged my body into the pool, warmed up, stretched a little, and started swimming. As usual, the first 100 yards were torture. Well, the first 50 were easy, the next 50 were hard, and I didn't think I was going to be able to make myself turn at the wall and keep going after the first 100, but I did and I settled into a rhythm from there. I was scheduled to do 1X600, 1X300, 4X100, and 4X50 so I just took it 25 yards at a time. After I made it over the 100 yard hurdle I was able to keep going by telling myself I would just concentrate on making it to 200, once I had done 200, I knew I could do 400 and from there it was just 200 more until I had finished the first set of 600. The cool thing is, at the end of 600, I felt like I could have kept going for awhile. After the 600, I knocked out a 300 yard set, then the 4X100s and the 4X50s. It was a great workout, and I'm glad I forced myself out of bed this morning.
I started focusing a little more on swimming efficiency this morning. I learned that if I drop my head, actually tilting my chin slight towards my feet as if I were looking slightly down (if I were standing up) and tilting my pelvis up towards the sky I can reduce my strokes per 25 yard length of pool by about two to somewhere between 18 and 19. Right now I'm averaging just over 2:30 per 100 yards. That's pretty slow, but I'm not too concerned about it. I figure once I get my endurance up to where I want it to be I'll start working a little harder on speed and efficiency. I'm fine with being one of the last ones out of the water in my first tri, as long as I finish.
Next up: I'm going to concentrate on getting some good sleep this weekend. I'm scheduled for a long run tomorrow if the weather allows it. If it's pouring and/or storming, I may have to get to the fitness center and spend some really dull time on the treadmill. 90 minutes is on the schedule but I'm not sure I'm actually going to go that long. I want to do at least an hour. Monday I will swim a repeat of today's workout.
So, with no excuse to skip, I dragged my body into the pool, warmed up, stretched a little, and started swimming. As usual, the first 100 yards were torture. Well, the first 50 were easy, the next 50 were hard, and I didn't think I was going to be able to make myself turn at the wall and keep going after the first 100, but I did and I settled into a rhythm from there. I was scheduled to do 1X600, 1X300, 4X100, and 4X50 so I just took it 25 yards at a time. After I made it over the 100 yard hurdle I was able to keep going by telling myself I would just concentrate on making it to 200, once I had done 200, I knew I could do 400 and from there it was just 200 more until I had finished the first set of 600. The cool thing is, at the end of 600, I felt like I could have kept going for awhile. After the 600, I knocked out a 300 yard set, then the 4X100s and the 4X50s. It was a great workout, and I'm glad I forced myself out of bed this morning.
I started focusing a little more on swimming efficiency this morning. I learned that if I drop my head, actually tilting my chin slight towards my feet as if I were looking slightly down (if I were standing up) and tilting my pelvis up towards the sky I can reduce my strokes per 25 yard length of pool by about two to somewhere between 18 and 19. Right now I'm averaging just over 2:30 per 100 yards. That's pretty slow, but I'm not too concerned about it. I figure once I get my endurance up to where I want it to be I'll start working a little harder on speed and efficiency. I'm fine with being one of the last ones out of the water in my first tri, as long as I finish.
Next up: I'm going to concentrate on getting some good sleep this weekend. I'm scheduled for a long run tomorrow if the weather allows it. If it's pouring and/or storming, I may have to get to the fitness center and spend some really dull time on the treadmill. 90 minutes is on the schedule but I'm not sure I'm actually going to go that long. I want to do at least an hour. Monday I will swim a repeat of today's workout.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Running Intervals: 3/24/11
It's been about 3 weeks since I last did any interval training. Looking back, I believe it was March 2. I'm following a slightly different plan now. Back then I was running really fast for short stretches and resting for longer periods. Today I did 2 minutes fast followed by 1 minute of slow jog.
It was a little cooler this morning that it has been so I threw on a long sleeve shirt before heading out. There wasn't much wind so the lake was glassy smooth. I started out with a 5 minute walk, then a 1 mile warm up at a fairly slow jog. After hitting the lap button to start the intervals I had programmed into my Garmin, I picked up the pace, attempting to average around 8:30/mile. I nailed the first one with a pace of 8:31/mile. Of course, it wasn't a steady 8:31/mile. At one point I was somewhere in the 7s and then somewhere in the 9s. Still, I was pleased with the decent pacing. After that my pace was all over the map. 8:31 ended up being the slowest interval I ran, though. My fastest was the last on at 7:43. That's pretty amazing to me, because by this time I was beat. In general, my last 5 were faster than the first 5. It's good that it's become second nature to pick up the pace in the second half of my runs. I also noticed a trend toward running faster during the slower rest portions as the workout progressed. It's funny because I really felt like I was much slower. In reality, my last rest was more than a minute per mile faster than my first. Once that was over I was still about a half mile from the car so I jogged back at just under 10:00/mile.
Overall, the run wasn't nearly as hard as I had anticipated. Not that it was easy. I definitely pushed myself, but I feel like I could have pushed myself quite a bit harder. Either way, I'm sticking to this plan for the next 4 weeks or so until my next 5K, theoretically on 4/30. I'm certain it will improve my time, but I'm not sure by how much. I'm hoping for a sub 27 minute time which means I'll have to run an average pace of 8:43/mile.
Today's Stats: I did a total of 4.74 miles in 44:48 for an average pace of 9:27. Considering all of the slow jogging that was thrown in there, I was really surprised at that pace. It was one of my fastest training sessions, edged out by only a couple of shorter runs.
Next up: Another swim tomorrow morning and a long run on Saturday if I can fit one in between storms. According to the plan, I'm supposed to run for approximately 3 times what it took to finish my last 5K. That's 1.5 hours. I'm not supposed to worry about pace, other than keeping it steady and continuous. If I want to do a full 90 minutes, I'm going to have to definitely try to keep my pace slow and easy. I might venture elsewhere for this run. I would have to run the length of the park about 3 times to go for 90 minutes and I think that might get extremely boring. I might just head out the front door and see where that takes me.
Bonus: I passed my 2010 mileage today! I'm on pace for over 500 miles this year. If I decide to up my mileage to train for a half marathon in October, I could possibly double that.
It was a little cooler this morning that it has been so I threw on a long sleeve shirt before heading out. There wasn't much wind so the lake was glassy smooth. I started out with a 5 minute walk, then a 1 mile warm up at a fairly slow jog. After hitting the lap button to start the intervals I had programmed into my Garmin, I picked up the pace, attempting to average around 8:30/mile. I nailed the first one with a pace of 8:31/mile. Of course, it wasn't a steady 8:31/mile. At one point I was somewhere in the 7s and then somewhere in the 9s. Still, I was pleased with the decent pacing. After that my pace was all over the map. 8:31 ended up being the slowest interval I ran, though. My fastest was the last on at 7:43. That's pretty amazing to me, because by this time I was beat. In general, my last 5 were faster than the first 5. It's good that it's become second nature to pick up the pace in the second half of my runs. I also noticed a trend toward running faster during the slower rest portions as the workout progressed. It's funny because I really felt like I was much slower. In reality, my last rest was more than a minute per mile faster than my first. Once that was over I was still about a half mile from the car so I jogged back at just under 10:00/mile.
Overall, the run wasn't nearly as hard as I had anticipated. Not that it was easy. I definitely pushed myself, but I feel like I could have pushed myself quite a bit harder. Either way, I'm sticking to this plan for the next 4 weeks or so until my next 5K, theoretically on 4/30. I'm certain it will improve my time, but I'm not sure by how much. I'm hoping for a sub 27 minute time which means I'll have to run an average pace of 8:43/mile.
Today's Stats: I did a total of 4.74 miles in 44:48 for an average pace of 9:27. Considering all of the slow jogging that was thrown in there, I was really surprised at that pace. It was one of my fastest training sessions, edged out by only a couple of shorter runs.
Next up: Another swim tomorrow morning and a long run on Saturday if I can fit one in between storms. According to the plan, I'm supposed to run for approximately 3 times what it took to finish my last 5K. That's 1.5 hours. I'm not supposed to worry about pace, other than keeping it steady and continuous. If I want to do a full 90 minutes, I'm going to have to definitely try to keep my pace slow and easy. I might venture elsewhere for this run. I would have to run the length of the park about 3 times to go for 90 minutes and I think that might get extremely boring. I might just head out the front door and see where that takes me.
Bonus: I passed my 2010 mileage today! I'm on pace for over 500 miles this year. If I decide to up my mileage to train for a half marathon in October, I could possibly double that.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Swimming: 03/23/2011
I did the standard week three workout this morning without issue. I wasn't overly worn out at the end of the workout and I'm sure I'm ready to move on to week 4. The week 4 workout is moving well beyond what I'll need to do for a sprint distance triathlon. My swims lately have been fairly easy. I don't feel anywhere near as tired after a swim as I do after a run. Of course, I'm really slow and am generally working on pacing myself so I can make it through a full workout without passing out and/or drowning. I'm definitely a stronger swimmer than I was just a few weeks ago. My lung capacity has definitely improved.
I was reading an article recently about swimming that said to become a better swimmer one needs to forget everything he knows about becoming a better runner when he enters the pool. And it seems to be true. I can't push myself to go faster in the pool. It's not that I'm physically incapable, it just doesn't happen. I can try to stroke faster, but all I end up doing is taking more strokes per length of pool. The key is form. In the article it compares an elite swimmer to a beginner triathlete by comparing strokes per length of a 25 yard pool. An elite swimmer is doing 25 yards in 7 or 8 strokes, while a beginner may get between 20 and 25 strokes. I counted this morning and I was doing 25 yards with between 18 and 21 strokes.
Now that I can do the distance that will be required for a sprint distance tri, I need to start working routine improvement into my workouts. That's the one thing that can make the biggest difference I'm my swimming.
Next up: I'm running tomorrow and then moving on to week four of the 0 to 1650 swim routine on Friday.
I was reading an article recently about swimming that said to become a better swimmer one needs to forget everything he knows about becoming a better runner when he enters the pool. And it seems to be true. I can't push myself to go faster in the pool. It's not that I'm physically incapable, it just doesn't happen. I can try to stroke faster, but all I end up doing is taking more strokes per length of pool. The key is form. In the article it compares an elite swimmer to a beginner triathlete by comparing strokes per length of a 25 yard pool. An elite swimmer is doing 25 yards in 7 or 8 strokes, while a beginner may get between 20 and 25 strokes. I counted this morning and I was doing 25 yards with between 18 and 21 strokes.
Now that I can do the distance that will be required for a sprint distance tri, I need to start working routine improvement into my workouts. That's the one thing that can make the biggest difference I'm my swimming.
Next up: I'm running tomorrow and then moving on to week four of the 0 to 1650 swim routine on Friday.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Monday Swim, Tuesday Run: 03/21 & 03/22/2011
After wimping out yesterday morning I decided to swim after work. I was pretty tired so I made it an easy swim. I did a few 50s, a couple 100s, all sandwiched around a 200 and left it at that. I lost count of how many total yards I did, but I'm guessing it was around 1,000. The water was cooler than it has been, which was very nice because the air inside the bubble was like a tropical rain forest. Not my best swim, but not too bad.
This morning I did a tempo run which theoretically should increase my lactic acid threshold. My goal was to run between 45-60 seconds slower than my most recent 5K pace. Since I averaged 9:09/mile in my last 5K I was shooting for between 9:54 and 10:09 per mile. That wasn't easy. Not because it was fast, but because I found it hard to hold in that range. I could easily maintain a faster pace or a slower pace, but for whatever reason that 15 second range had me flummoxed. My Garmin pace chart looks like a seismograph reading. I was much more comfortable running at around a 9:30 pace and my average pace per mile over the course of the run agrees with that. My first mile was done in 9:41 and I had to fight to keep it that slow. The second my was 9:51, though some of it was at a sub 9:00 pace and some of it was 10:30 or slower. I just decided to do what was comfortable for the last 1.5 after fighting my own internal pacing for two miles. The 3rd mile was done in 9:35 and I averaged 9:09/mile for the final .64.
Today's Stats: I did 3.64 miles in 35 minutes for an average pace of 9:37/mile. My average heart rate was 154.
Next Up: I'm planning a swim tomorrow, hopefully back to a normal routine. Thursday will be the run that kicks my butt. I'll be doing the following routine:
1 mile easy warm up - I'm aiming for 11:00/mile or so and then 10 X 400 yards at 5K pace minus 30 seconds followed by a rest period of half the time it took to complete the 400 yards. 400 yards is just slightly less than 1/4 mile. I'll probably modify the plan to do 10 X 1/4 mile at 5K pace - 30 seconds. That will be about 8:40/mile, or 1/4 of a mile will be completed in 2:10 and then I'll rest for 1:05...and then repeat 9 more times. All of that will be followed by an easy mile to cool down. That will end up being a total of somewhere around 5 miles. I may cut out the last mile cool down depending on how I feel after the intervals.
This morning I did a tempo run which theoretically should increase my lactic acid threshold. My goal was to run between 45-60 seconds slower than my most recent 5K pace. Since I averaged 9:09/mile in my last 5K I was shooting for between 9:54 and 10:09 per mile. That wasn't easy. Not because it was fast, but because I found it hard to hold in that range. I could easily maintain a faster pace or a slower pace, but for whatever reason that 15 second range had me flummoxed. My Garmin pace chart looks like a seismograph reading. I was much more comfortable running at around a 9:30 pace and my average pace per mile over the course of the run agrees with that. My first mile was done in 9:41 and I had to fight to keep it that slow. The second my was 9:51, though some of it was at a sub 9:00 pace and some of it was 10:30 or slower. I just decided to do what was comfortable for the last 1.5 after fighting my own internal pacing for two miles. The 3rd mile was done in 9:35 and I averaged 9:09/mile for the final .64.
Today's Stats: I did 3.64 miles in 35 minutes for an average pace of 9:37/mile. My average heart rate was 154.
Next Up: I'm planning a swim tomorrow, hopefully back to a normal routine. Thursday will be the run that kicks my butt. I'll be doing the following routine:
1 mile easy warm up - I'm aiming for 11:00/mile or so and then 10 X 400 yards at 5K pace minus 30 seconds followed by a rest period of half the time it took to complete the 400 yards. 400 yards is just slightly less than 1/4 mile. I'll probably modify the plan to do 10 X 1/4 mile at 5K pace - 30 seconds. That will be about 8:40/mile, or 1/4 of a mile will be completed in 2:10 and then I'll rest for 1:05...and then repeat 9 more times. All of that will be followed by an easy mile to cool down. That will end up being a total of somewhere around 5 miles. I may cut out the last mile cool down depending on how I feel after the intervals.
Monday, March 21, 2011
A Run in the Mountains: 3/19/2011
There's nothing I enjoy much more than just being in or near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Something about the place calms my spirit and I leave a little piece of me every time I watch the mountains fade in my rear view. I was there for the weekend with my beautiful wife and had the unique opportunity to share a run with my favorite person in my favorite place on earth.
The weather was perfect for a run as we left our hotel. L was working on C25K and I committed to running along with her until she was finished and then piggybacking a 2 mile run of my own on top of that. We did a total of 3 miles together of combined walking and running. L ran a full mile twice! I was quite proud of her. There were some pretty nasty hills along our 3 mile out and back route. Thankfully they were all very short and were usually followed by a decent downhill stretch during which we could rest. Those first three miles really only served as an extended warm up for me. I didn't push myself anywhere near as hard as I've grown accustomed to. I actually rather enjoyed it. I was able to carry on a casual conversation the whole time, probably to the general dismay of my poor wife (and lone reader) who had to listen to my random babbling for 3 whole miles. She was a good sport though, and laughed at most of my goofball comments. Thanks my love!
After the 3 miles was up we parted ways. She went back to the hotel room to recover and shower while I picked up the pace for a 2 mile out and back in the other direction. My heart rate quickly jumped up to 160 after averaging below 140 for the first three miles. I picked up my pace to about 9:50ish/mile from the 13:20 we had averaged for the first 3 miles. Mile 4 was pretty easy with a fairly long downhill section until it flattened out. I completed it in 9:50. Mile 5 was a little harder, as I had already been out for 50 minutes. I still managed to pick up the pace just a little and pushed myself up the hill that made mile 4 so easy. I finished my 5 as I ran up the hill in to the hotel parking lot almost right at the 1 hour mark. I was pretty beat but my heart rate had only maxed out at 173. In retrospect, some nutrition and/or hydration around the 30-45 minute point probably would have been good.
Overall it felt good to do 5 miles. It was good to know I could go 40 minutes and then still have enough stamina to push myself for another 2 miles. I couldn't have dreamed of even doing the first 40 minutes a year ago. On top of that, it was beautiful location for a run and I hope to have the opportunity to do it again in the not too distant future. Sharing it with my wife made it that much more enjoyable.
The Stats: I did a total of 5.11 miles in 1:00:43 for an average pace of 11:53/mile. The final 2.1 or so miles on my own were done in 20:41 for an average pace of 9:51/mile.
Next Up: I wimped out this morning and didn't make it to the pool. I may go this afternoon. I woke up with a headache this morning and thought it better to skip the swim than push myself to do more than I should today and not be able to run tomorrow. Though it didn't exactly met the criteria of a long run in the plan I'm following, I'm counting Saturday's run as my Long Run in the Tim Detmer plan I linked to on Thursday. Tomorrow will be a tempo run - 35 minutes at 45 seconds slower per mile than my last 5K pace. My last 5K was 9:09/mile so I'll go for 35 minutes at about 9:55/mile. I've been pushing myself way harder than this, so it should be a breeze. Thursday will be the kicker - the VO2Max run. I'll be doing 10X400 Meter intervals at 5K pace minus 30 seconds per mile with short rest periods in between.
I'm going to work this plan for the next few weeks and see if it improves my next 5K time. That's tentatively planned for 4/30.
The weather was perfect for a run as we left our hotel. L was working on C25K and I committed to running along with her until she was finished and then piggybacking a 2 mile run of my own on top of that. We did a total of 3 miles together of combined walking and running. L ran a full mile twice! I was quite proud of her. There were some pretty nasty hills along our 3 mile out and back route. Thankfully they were all very short and were usually followed by a decent downhill stretch during which we could rest. Those first three miles really only served as an extended warm up for me. I didn't push myself anywhere near as hard as I've grown accustomed to. I actually rather enjoyed it. I was able to carry on a casual conversation the whole time, probably to the general dismay of my poor wife (and lone reader) who had to listen to my random babbling for 3 whole miles. She was a good sport though, and laughed at most of my goofball comments. Thanks my love!
After the 3 miles was up we parted ways. She went back to the hotel room to recover and shower while I picked up the pace for a 2 mile out and back in the other direction. My heart rate quickly jumped up to 160 after averaging below 140 for the first three miles. I picked up my pace to about 9:50ish/mile from the 13:20 we had averaged for the first 3 miles. Mile 4 was pretty easy with a fairly long downhill section until it flattened out. I completed it in 9:50. Mile 5 was a little harder, as I had already been out for 50 minutes. I still managed to pick up the pace just a little and pushed myself up the hill that made mile 4 so easy. I finished my 5 as I ran up the hill in to the hotel parking lot almost right at the 1 hour mark. I was pretty beat but my heart rate had only maxed out at 173. In retrospect, some nutrition and/or hydration around the 30-45 minute point probably would have been good.
Overall it felt good to do 5 miles. It was good to know I could go 40 minutes and then still have enough stamina to push myself for another 2 miles. I couldn't have dreamed of even doing the first 40 minutes a year ago. On top of that, it was beautiful location for a run and I hope to have the opportunity to do it again in the not too distant future. Sharing it with my wife made it that much more enjoyable.
The Stats: I did a total of 5.11 miles in 1:00:43 for an average pace of 11:53/mile. The final 2.1 or so miles on my own were done in 20:41 for an average pace of 9:51/mile.
Next Up: I wimped out this morning and didn't make it to the pool. I may go this afternoon. I woke up with a headache this morning and thought it better to skip the swim than push myself to do more than I should today and not be able to run tomorrow. Though it didn't exactly met the criteria of a long run in the plan I'm following, I'm counting Saturday's run as my Long Run in the Tim Detmer plan I linked to on Thursday. Tomorrow will be a tempo run - 35 minutes at 45 seconds slower per mile than my last 5K pace. My last 5K was 9:09/mile so I'll go for 35 minutes at about 9:55/mile. I've been pushing myself way harder than this, so it should be a breeze. Thursday will be the kicker - the VO2Max run. I'll be doing 10X400 Meter intervals at 5K pace minus 30 seconds per mile with short rest periods in between.
I'm going to work this plan for the next few weeks and see if it improves my next 5K time. That's tentatively planned for 4/30.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
A Swim Yesterday and a Run Today: 3/16 and 3/17/2011
As the title suggests, I swam yesterday and ran this morning. I've gotten into a fairly good routine with the occasional off day. I'm going to have a bit of an off weekend with a trip with L to the Smokies planned. That means I'll have to skip tomorrow's planned swim unless I can find a way to get to a pool in the hometown in the morning before leaving. I know there are a couple available, but I'll probably just plan to skip it and pick back up on Monday.
I did get to the pool yesterday afternoon after skipping my usual morning swim due to staying up later than planned Tuesday night. The pool was fairly crowded. The two lanes that are partitioned off were taken as well as another lane outside of the partitioned area, so I just picked a spot that wasn't taken and started swimming. After about 150 yards, I noticed a large group of youngsters come in the door. I knew this would hinder my efforts to maintain straight lines and constant pacing. I looked over to the lanes and noticed one of them was now empty so I took the opportunity to move over there. I picked up where I had left off and completed my 400 yard swim. I then did 200, then 4X100 followed by 4X50. It's definitely getting easier. At some point along the way I've broken through a barrier that was holding me back. My ultimate goal for the pool right now is to be able to swim a mile non-stop. My whole workout right now is about 3/4 of a mile and I usually end the workout tired, but feeling like I could go a little longer.
Today's run was great. It was cool out, but not cloudy so it wasn't as dark today as it was on Tuesday. I wanted to try to go a little faster today than Tuesday. My goal wasn't to push my limits, just to work to maintain my current level of fitness. My hope was to maintain something around 9:40/mile for the 4.5 mile run, if possible. I started out and felt a little more fatigued than usual after the first 3 or 4 minutes. That could have been due to the swim yesterday afternoon, or any number of things. I pushed through it, trying to maintain my pace and knowing that I would start to feel better after a mile or so. When the distance alert beeped I looked down to see I had finished mile 1 in 9:37 - almost right on my planned pace. I continued on , just holding my pace steady and trying to stay in the groove in which I had found myself. Everything was feeling good through the second mile and I finished it in 9:37 as well. I'm pretty proud of my pacing. It's not easy to do two miles in a row at the exact same pace. As the mile two alert beeped I felt my legs pulling me along faster. It wasn't a conscious thing...I think it's become almost instinct to pick up the pace at a certain place in the park. It's always at the turn around at the end of the road. I went with what my body was telling me and just held on for the ride. I knew I was still a little short of the halfway point of my run and that it would be difficult to maintain this pace through to the end, especially with the big hill at the end of my run, but I tried to keep it up through the third mile anyway. I completed mile 3 in 9:22, cutting 15 seconds off my previous two miles. Nothing earth shattering, but my heart rate had only risen slightly. At this point I knew I was going to have to ease up a bit if I wanted to finish my run so I tried to back off to about the 9:40 pace I had started out at. As always, it seemed harder to slow down than to speed up, but I managed to reduce my 4th mile pace to 9:35 and kept my heart rate steady with what it had been throughout mile 3, with the exception of the final big hill in the park next door on which it climbed to 171 bpm. The last half mile was mostly either very flat or down hill, so I picked up the pace to finish up and averaged a 9:16/mile pace.
Today's Stats: I did 4.59 miles in 43:38. That's quite a bit faster than I did a slightly shorter distance on Tuesday. That's an average pace of 9:30/mile. I'm very pleased with that pace. It's a good baseline for continuing to improve my speed next week. I'm ready to start working toward the 8 minute mile threshold. I have a feeling that's going to be a bigger challenge than 9:00/mile was. I expect improvements to become increasingly more difficult as I get faster.
Next Up: A Saturday morning run with my love in the Smokies of Tennessee. I'm looking forward to that. Next week I'll continue my MWF swim routine and I'm hoping to start working this plan to bring my next 5k time down to around 27 minutes. I can run one mile at the pace it will take to do that, so I'm pretty sure I can work up to doing 3 miles at that pace.
I did get to the pool yesterday afternoon after skipping my usual morning swim due to staying up later than planned Tuesday night. The pool was fairly crowded. The two lanes that are partitioned off were taken as well as another lane outside of the partitioned area, so I just picked a spot that wasn't taken and started swimming. After about 150 yards, I noticed a large group of youngsters come in the door. I knew this would hinder my efforts to maintain straight lines and constant pacing. I looked over to the lanes and noticed one of them was now empty so I took the opportunity to move over there. I picked up where I had left off and completed my 400 yard swim. I then did 200, then 4X100 followed by 4X50. It's definitely getting easier. At some point along the way I've broken through a barrier that was holding me back. My ultimate goal for the pool right now is to be able to swim a mile non-stop. My whole workout right now is about 3/4 of a mile and I usually end the workout tired, but feeling like I could go a little longer.
Today's run was great. It was cool out, but not cloudy so it wasn't as dark today as it was on Tuesday. I wanted to try to go a little faster today than Tuesday. My goal wasn't to push my limits, just to work to maintain my current level of fitness. My hope was to maintain something around 9:40/mile for the 4.5 mile run, if possible. I started out and felt a little more fatigued than usual after the first 3 or 4 minutes. That could have been due to the swim yesterday afternoon, or any number of things. I pushed through it, trying to maintain my pace and knowing that I would start to feel better after a mile or so. When the distance alert beeped I looked down to see I had finished mile 1 in 9:37 - almost right on my planned pace. I continued on , just holding my pace steady and trying to stay in the groove in which I had found myself. Everything was feeling good through the second mile and I finished it in 9:37 as well. I'm pretty proud of my pacing. It's not easy to do two miles in a row at the exact same pace. As the mile two alert beeped I felt my legs pulling me along faster. It wasn't a conscious thing...I think it's become almost instinct to pick up the pace at a certain place in the park. It's always at the turn around at the end of the road. I went with what my body was telling me and just held on for the ride. I knew I was still a little short of the halfway point of my run and that it would be difficult to maintain this pace through to the end, especially with the big hill at the end of my run, but I tried to keep it up through the third mile anyway. I completed mile 3 in 9:22, cutting 15 seconds off my previous two miles. Nothing earth shattering, but my heart rate had only risen slightly. At this point I knew I was going to have to ease up a bit if I wanted to finish my run so I tried to back off to about the 9:40 pace I had started out at. As always, it seemed harder to slow down than to speed up, but I managed to reduce my 4th mile pace to 9:35 and kept my heart rate steady with what it had been throughout mile 3, with the exception of the final big hill in the park next door on which it climbed to 171 bpm. The last half mile was mostly either very flat or down hill, so I picked up the pace to finish up and averaged a 9:16/mile pace.
Today's Stats: I did 4.59 miles in 43:38. That's quite a bit faster than I did a slightly shorter distance on Tuesday. That's an average pace of 9:30/mile. I'm very pleased with that pace. It's a good baseline for continuing to improve my speed next week. I'm ready to start working toward the 8 minute mile threshold. I have a feeling that's going to be a bigger challenge than 9:00/mile was. I expect improvements to become increasingly more difficult as I get faster.
Next Up: A Saturday morning run with my love in the Smokies of Tennessee. I'm looking forward to that. Next week I'll continue my MWF swim routine and I'm hoping to start working this plan to bring my next 5k time down to around 27 minutes. I can run one mile at the pace it will take to do that, so I'm pretty sure I can work up to doing 3 miles at that pace.
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