During the morning run, I nearly got carried away by black flies – and I wasn’t even running on the Hyland trails. At least I’m not the only one complaining about the flies. Luckily, a year or two ago a bought a hat similar to the one shown here. Up until yesterday, I had never worn it. But I broke it out for an 11 mile trail run, which included some strides. I was able to complete most of the run without having the netting down – just the wide brim of the hat was enough to keep the flies away.Somehow I’ve gotten really lucky when it comes to the weather on my workout days. After 2 hot, muggy days in a row, I was greeted with 63 degrees and a dew point in the mid-50s this morning. Lately I’ve been running my tempo workouts on a fairly rolling course. Today I decided to change that up and I headed to the LRT trail in Hopkins that runs along Minnetonka Blvd. I ended up running 12 miles with 7.5 of them at 6:39 pace. Prior to the run I penciled in 6:35-6:40 pace, so I guess I did all right.
The weird thing is that I couldn’t get my HR over 170 for the first half – even though it’s usually around 173-178 when I run on the hilly route. During the second half I was able to get it up to 172, but that’s about it. Maybe the pancake flat course had something to do with it.
All my miles were between 6:32 and 6:42, except for the last one which slowed to 6:48. I think the 6:32 and 6:36 prior to the last one may have been a little too quick. But I had to pick up the pace because when I passed some guy who was running about 8:00 pace, he got right behind me and tried to keep up. Given that we were on a gravel path, I could hear every one of his strides. After about 30 seconds I turned around and gave him the “evil eye” but he didn’t take the hint. After about another minute, he slowed down.
Finally, here’s a LINK to Emily Brown’s latest journal entry. In it she talks about the stress fracture she got a month before the Trials.
Quote of the day;
“I spent those last two weeks kind of cut off from the running world--I didn’t return calls, texts or emails and I avoided going past the track or looking at runners out on the trails. I chose to keep myself in a state of denial. Not in denial of the fact that I had a stress fracture but more so in denial of what that meant for my season and all the hard work I put in this past year for just one race. I am still not ready to reflect on that.” – Emily Brown
Do you ever get bored with that many miles running by yourself. What do you do to pass the time. Thanks
ReplyDeleteYou've been running some really good workouts lately. You're speed during your tempo runs is looking good!
ReplyDeletePart of the deal with training is preparing yourself to make an hour run feel like 20-30 minutes. I must admit, when I get back into training it is not so much the effort, but getting use to the time out there. Running is nothing more than getting out the door. Once 15 minutes pass for me I generally know I will get the workout in.
ReplyDeleteWhen injured, it is good to replace the time slot with other physical activities. Not so much to keep in shape (for me), but to not lose your acclimization to the time.
When starting back or ramping up, I focus on time on feet first. Time is want I want to conquer. Once I have mastered the time element, then I can focus on miles and effort. I generally add 5 minutes a run per week for the regular runs and 15 minutes to the long run.
Double
Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteI assume you're a runner since you're reading this. So you know what runners think about; anything and everything. I suppose there are boring days, but my often than not, there's plenty to think about.
Andrew, well I'd like to be able to run my current Tempo Pace for a whole Marathon, so I have some work to do.
Double, nice to see you're still hanging around. I don't have much "ramping up" to do - just 10-15 MPW more than what I've been doing.