dedication, perseverance, self-discipline

Week starting Oct 28, 2018

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Location:

Alpine,UT,USA

Member Since:

Jan 01, 2008

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Olympic Trials Qualifier

Running Accomplishments:

3K: 8:58 Pocatello, ID 2003 (indoors at Idaho State)

5K: 14:55 Salt Lake City, UT 2010 (Law Day 5k)

10K: 29:33 Salt Lake City, UT 2010 (Des News 10k)

1/2 marathon: 1:06:59 Provo, UT 2010 (Utah Valley Half)

marathon: 2:21:59 St. George, UT 2009 (St. George Marathon)

Short-Term Running Goals:

To get running higher mileage more consistently without getting injured

Sub 2:19:00 marathon

Personal:

I used to run competitively, and maybe I will do so again someday.  Right now I am primarily running to try and get in better shape, and to maintain both physical and emotional health, but also for the simple joy that comes when I run.

I am also the proud daddy of five little ones.  I love the opportunity that I have to be a daddy, and my challenge is to balance my family responsibilities with work and running.

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Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 0.00
Asics Speedstar Lifetime Miles: 2020.05
Asics Gel Ohana Racer Lifetime Miles: 2332.20
Adidas Adizero Lifetime Miles: 1375.45
Barefoot Lifetime Miles: 183.10
Nike Free 5.0 Lifetime Miles: 2221.85
Saucony Kinvara Lifetime Miles: 795.92
Puma Faas 200 Lifetime Miles: 381.50
Puma Faas 250 Lifetime Miles: 466.10
Altra Adam Lifetime Miles: 1836.85
Baretrek Lifetime Miles: 290.15
Hoka Conquest Lifetime Miles: 41.00
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
3.374.030.000.007.40
Asics Gel Ohana Racer Miles: 7.40
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
0.000.000.000.000.00

Total time of 50:12.  Total distance over 7 miles, but not sure by how much.

TLDR:  6 x 3 min hard/ 2 min easy, plus 1 min hard at end.

Full Version:  I hadn't really planned on running a hard workout today, but I realized this morning that I hadn't run one yet this week so I made up a workout on the fly after I started the run.  I woke up earlier than normal (5:30am) because I needed to paint faces for halloween.  As a result, the entire run was performed in the dark, and I didn't have a good feel for how fast I was running for most of the run.  It was around 30 deg F, so I was bundled up.  I'm sure the extra clothing slowed me down a little, but I am not sure how much.

I started the workout at the 10 minute mark of the run, running 3 minutes hard followed by 2 minutes easy.  I decided to perform 6 reps, with the possibility of running a seventh if I came back a lot slower following the turn-around since the second half of the run would be mostly uphill.  I ran out 25 minutes, turning around right as I started the fourth rep.  The first and third reps were almost all downhill, with the first a little more gradual than the third.  The second and fifth reps both had a mix of uphill and downhill, while the fourth and sixth were almost all uphill.

I felt like I ran pretty well for the first four reps, as I felt strong and felt like I maintained pace pretty well.  I felt like I was starting to struggle just a little on the fifth rep, but felt like I was still able to maintain pace.  I am guessing that I was between 10-15 seconds slower from 25-35 minutes than I was from 15-25 minutes due to the net uphill coming back.  I was relatively pleased with this as I was expecting a bigger discrepancy.  I struggled a lot more on the sixth rep as I began to feel a lot of tightness and some pain in my right arm and shoulder and it was hard to maintain pace as a result (probably due partly to extra stiffness following my recent intercostal muscle strain).

I am guessing that with about 8 minutes left in the run I was somewhere near 30 seconds behind pace to arrive back at the house by 50 minutes.  I decided that it wasn't necessary to run a seventh rep as I was close enough to goal pace in the second half, plus I was fatigued enough from the first six reps that I thought a seventh would not offer any benefit.  Instead I decided to run 1 minute hard as I got closer to the house in an effort to practice running fast when fatigued.  I ran hard from 47:30-48:30, and I had made up any deficit lost earlier in the run and was on pace to arrive at the house right at 50:00 when I slowed down.  However, I ended up running up the last hill pretty slowly as a recovery from the hard minute so I still finished just behind pace at 50:12.

Overall it was a good workout and I am happy with how it went.  I do feel a lot more fatigued than I was expecting as the volume of hard work wasn't excessive compared to other workouts I have performed recently, but my legs feel more fatigued this afternoon.  I may just have to take tomorrow morning's run more slowly.

On the first two days of the week I also ran for 50 minutes, but I kept the pace pretty easy both days as on Tuesday I was only 1:00-1:30 faster than 8:00 pace through 6 miles, and Monday felt similar effort wise.

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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
3.374.030.000.007.40

Total time of 50:03 for approximately 7.4 miles.

TLDR:  I ran a 25 minute tempo from 20-45 minutes.

Full version:  I again didn't really plan a workout for today.  As I was about to walk out the door I jokingly asked my wife: "What should I do for a workout today?"  Her response: "Nothing too hard".  So, her advice turned into a moderately hard tempo run of 25 minutes.  My goal was to not work so hard that I was super fatigued for the rest of the day.  I decided to start the tempo at the 20 minute mark of the run and then turn around at 26 minutes, giving myself 24 minutes to make it back home.  Normally I would be a little concerned about making it back 2 minutes faster since the return trip has a net uphill of approximately 180 ft based on where I turned around.  Today I wasn't concerned about that since 19 minutes of the tempo would be after I turned around.

It is normal for me to get excited before speed workouts and run the easy part of the run faster than normal.  Today was no different as I averaged 7:30 pace from my house to a power pole that I pass 1.06 miles into the run (normally on an easy run I guess that I will average about 7:45 pace).  I was conciously trying not to speed up, but I still maintained about 7:30 pace until the 20 minute mark when I started my tempo.

At the start of the tempo I was at the bottom of a hill that I had just run down, and I gained a little over 30 ft elevation while running into a headwind during the first minute of the tempo.  I then turned on Highland Blvd and started to head downhill (losing approx 109 ft elevation) with a tailwind for the next 5+ minutes until I turned around at 26:00 (approx. 1.03 miles into the tempo).  I then turned around and ran back the way I came, running uphill into a headwind.  It was no surprise that I ran back up the hill 51 seconds slower than I ran down it, cresting the hill to turn off Highland Blvd at 31:55.  I was now worried that I would not make it back to the house by 50:00 because I lost so much time running into the wind.  Thankfully, over the last 13 minutes of the tempo I had less headwind, and more tailwind.  For the next 4:25 (until 36:20) after turning off Highland Blvd (approx 0.75 miles). I was running a net downhill (losing almost 60 ft), but with one uphill segment thrown in as well that lasted for about 1:30.  The next 7:20 was almost purely uphill (approx 43:40 into the run), followed by a short downhill segment for 20ish seconds and a mostly flat last minute.  I then finished running the last 0.70 miles back to the house, arriving at 50:03.  I ran a little faster back to the house than I would have normally run because I wanted to make it back in close to 50:00.

All told, I ran about 4.03 miles for the tempo (approx 6:12 pace), with 3 miles coming during the 19 minutes after I turned around, while gaining approx. 100 ft net elevation after the turn around.  For the entire tempo I only gained a little over 20 ft elevation, so not a big change there, but there were lots of hills throughout the tempo (plus some wind), so I was actually pleased with how things went even though the average pace was not very fast.  It was also nice to not feel like I was straining very hard to run this pace as there have been some workouts in the past few months that have been around this same pace where I have felt like I was really straining.

My next order of business is to improve my top end speed for distances 400m-1 mile.  I feel like if I am going to try and run tempos like this in the 5:00-5:30 pace range at some point in the future that I need to get my top end speed a little faster.  I just need to follow through on actually doing the workouts in the near future.

Asics Gel Ohana Racer Miles: 7.40
Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
3.374.030.000.007.40
Asics Gel Ohana Racer Miles: 7.40
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