Thursday, January 8, 2009

I know that it's a heartquake

My last training cycle, I was a bit of a slave to my heart rate. I tried to do all my runs at the prescribed, ala Saint Pfitz, heart rate. The good side of this is it keep me from running too hard too often. The downside, did I run too slowly too often. I'm not really sure. This time around, I want to try and pick up the pace on most of my runs. Recovery runs excluded of course. I know there's a benefit to the slow boring slog of recovery running. I'm just unsure how much I should throw the heart rate out the window. I dont wanna be out there pushing 90% all the time. Comments and suggestions welcome.
I know endurance is not an issue for me. I do want to gain a bit more speed. Looking back to the first 2 weeks of my last training cycle, I'm already running faster. I just dont want it to come back to bite me in the ass.

Anyway, this morning did not go as planned mostly because of last night. Even though I was in my bed by 10pm, I didn't fall asleep until 1. Then the alarm went off before 7. I thought I had turned it off but I hit snooze so it went off again. Then Loren called me a little after 8. I barely remember the conversation because all I could think about was going back to sleep so I did. Until almost 9:30. I didn't get out for my 10 mile run until noon! NOt what I had planned!
The run was good. I did a bit of a progression run. I was hoping to do my last 3 miles under 9 minute pace. I miscalculated running in the park so my last mile was a hilly one around Harlem that was 9:07 pace. Oh well, close enough. 10 miles at 9:15 pace.

1 comment:

Girl In Motion said...

You know I'm all for picking it up a bit, just knowing your limits is the thing (which I believe you do). From what I've been reading through Hudson's book and McMillan and more guys of their ilk, progression runs are the cat's meow for adding speed and not requiring more recovery. And you can do them in so many ways (culminating in a few miles of MP, steady-state or real fast finish runs) that they offer a lot of variety.

Whatever you do, a little extra speed in that area will pay off big time come race day.

Looking forward to tomorrow's run, btw! See you in Philly!!