Thursday - 2-11-2010

More progress today; took another minute off of my MAF 5-mile test. Final two miles were exactly at 9:00min miles, decent progress over last week. Funny, I did not expect much from today since I had two days of fairly hard workouts that left my hip and inner thigh sore. But, felt great overall today and the pace was just faster. I did have an un-interrupted night of sleep last night; I did still get up by about 5:20am to bang out some work. 

Ran the same loop in a total time of 43.45 for a pace of 8:48 for the entire run with an average HR of 144 for the entire run.

Here is the progression again:

Week #1 9:14

Week #2 9:09

Week #3 8:54 / 44:43 

Week #4 8:48 / 43:45 (today)

I will be moving back to the HR-based training from RW that I was following before embarking on this 4-week block. We will see...

Details here....

2-4-2010 - MAF

Crappy run today. Started with an erratic HR for some reason, first mile under 9, 2nd mile around 8:24 and then things went downhill from here. Not a great night of sleep last night and took a day off yesterday. So, the problem is either lack of sleep or a day off...answer should be obvious, but I do seem to run better when I run more.

45:41 for the 5 mile course...9:08 pace

Garmin Connect -Activity Details

Medium run - easy - Sunday 1/17/2010 - 10.5 miles

Ran a loop around Baseline Lake via So Boulder, Baseline and 76. Kept the HR under 145 for the most part; max of 150 with an average of 144. Pretty slow overall pace, but the slight inclines demanded a "slow" pace at this point in base training. Felt real smooth overall for most of the run. No knee pains, just some hotspots on the feet after about 8.5 miles. Not IT issues...even at mile 10.

Activity Details...

31.6 miles on the week in 4:44 hours. Average pace for the week was just over 9min miles compared to my average pace back on the week of the 14th of 8:16. Just goes to show how much I have slowed things down as I try to build some aerobic strength/base. I will be giving this plan a whirl for a few weeks with some MAF tests interspersed to check for progress. Excited to see what happens...if anything.

Great summary of the philosophy I am following on GZ's blog.... Check it out here...

5 miles - Friday 1/15/2010

Ran one of my old favorites, loop out Rock Creek to Coal Creek, under 287 and back...just a bit over 5 miles. This will be a perfect route for an MAF test, a lot less boring than running around the office 4 times. Really, really muddy with some snow here and there. A bit annoying to start, but nice to hit something different today. As usual the HR spiked at the very beginning of the run...this is of course why I need to do a real warmup prior to doing any kind of real workout or interval. Strange.

Here are the splits...notice the HR spike in the first .25, then the settle. Pace was mostly even given the early mud...definitely a bit faster as I got back on pavement with no real pace fade across the miles.

Great feedback from Lucho this week. He took the time to analyze my LT results from my Boulder Center for Sports Medicine test from late 2008. According to the master, I need to be running in the 135-145 range for most runs with a tempo run sprinkled in weekly in the 150-160 range. "Easy" targets to hit, elegant plan for the foreseeable future. Of course I just need to get used to running slow for the foreseeable future as 135-145 puts me in the 9-9:30 range on a flat course. Kind of an adjustment since I have been running in he low 8's and below through most of the fall and early winter. But, I am convinced this is what I need to do now to build my base fitness for what comes next....

Activity Details for 5 miles - Friday 1/15/2010