Wednesday, May 2, 2007

Tough but Tolerable

Tuesday- 10 miles 1:17 with 3 x strides
Wednesday:
AM- 7miles-59min
PM- 12 miles-1:29 3 w up, (8x1520m- ave 6:00) on 1min rest, 1 c dn

Tough but doable...that is the continual theme after 6 weeks of running Jack Daniels running formula type workouts. At first I was running exactly from the book, now as I get bored (feel like going off on a whim) I am altering the workouts sometimes, but keeping the same spin on it. Today was a good day as I actually got my lazy self out of bed and put in a good hour run before 7AM. Then tonight I had a great workout.

I did the 3 mile loop warm up, then settled into a hoped for 8x sinai mile effort at near lactate threshold pace ( 6:25 per mile) or so. I wanted to ease into it and thought maybe I'd shoot for my calculated marathon pace on the first couple to slowly warm myself up as 8 seemed like a lot and I was replacing a run in the JD program that had me running 8 miles at marathon pace steady.

So since it was windy and warm I launched off into the wind and ended up running a solid but comfortable 6:33 converted mile or somewhere in between LT pace and Marathon pace, then decided to try and keep working the pace down. I ended up running 6:13, 6:12, 6:06, 6:02, 5:56, 5:53, 5:49, 5:43 all on 60sec rest. My heart rate dropped to 110 60sec post the 8th rep...so I was not over running, but admit the last two took effort that had me breathing somewhat hard. Quick math has this averaging out to 6:00 for 1520 or about 6:20 mile pace. NICE! Pretty happy about this when you look back 5 weeks ago when I did 6xmile a good deal slower. and I must admit the geek in me thinks the numbers look beautiful with the cut down progression!

Yes Improvement is still fun.

I am off to the south camp base tomorrow morning to see patients down there for a week (plus the weekend). Saturday is a big day as it is the first planned LONG long run. Looking to put in 6 hours....ugh...I'm scared.

APRIL Mileage check shows a modest 253 for the month. The 4th month in the last 6 where I got in more than 250.....this after 54 straight months without a single month over 250....dating back to the month prior to my 2002 Grand Slam

1 comment:

WynnMan said...

Hey Loomdog! Looks like the training is going great, an upward spiral. Excellent posts. I've also been following some of the Daniels formula, but more or less the framework. I like to be a little more judicious and creative with some of the workouts, but more or less the same principles. Rather than focusing all my attention on HR's, times, splits etc.... I focus more on post-workout recovery, stretching, massaging, sleep, and nutrition. For the actual workouts I pic 3-4 different types of Q workouts that I like and just use those and adjust them as I get more fit.

Looks like you're going to be a great shape for Vermont. You should'nt have any problems with the long runs. With good recovery you should be fine. I felt great despite a bump here and there. I think incorporating really long runs only once a month is good. I would hate always running on heavy/tired legs.

Now the question is did I do enough?? only time will tell.


WynnMan