On last one for the road

Hit the road today for my last run before a long work trip.  Hope to get some runs in on my trip but I'm assuming my mileage will be reduced.  Probably good timing for some rest and recovery.

For today though:

6.01 miles

45:52

7:38 pace

This was a slightly over easy run.  Never pushed too hard but just tried to keep a good pace.

Temp this morning was 42F!  This was huge.  I actually felt cold but after the first mile it really helped the perceived effort.

Mile Splits, 7:55, 7:47, 7:46, 7:27, 7:30, 7:15

Tried to keep the same effort the whole way but the pace just kept creeping down as I warmed up.  

Last mile included some hard surges...  kind of built in strides really except I never stopped running.  

Adding in a 4.26 mile recovery run yesterday made for another 30+ mile week...  back to back on the 30 mile weeks!

5 mile fartlet/interval benchmark run

I had a break though fartlek workout July 31st.  I really enjoy the workout so I repeated it for a benchmark workout today.  (2 months later)

The plan:  1 Mile Warmup... .25 Hard... .25 Recovery... .50 Hard... .50 Recovery... 1 Mile Hard… .50 Recovery... .50 Hard... .25 Recovery... .25 Hard

Here's the results:

                                                                            July 31                                     Diff

Mile 1:  7:24 pace                                              7:56 pace                                     -32 sec 

.25 Hard:   90sec (6:00 pace)                             96sec (6:24 pace)                       -6 sec

.25 Easy: 117 sec (7:48 pace)                             114 sec (7:36 pace)                    +3 sec                         

.50 Hard: 3:18 (6:36 pace)                                  3:30 (7:00 pace)                         -12 sec  

.50 Easy: 4:08 (8:16 pace)                                   4:01 (8:02 pace)                         +7 sec

 1 mile HARD:  (6:43 pace)                                 6:26 pace                                   +17 sec

   

 .50 Easy: 4:04 (8:08 pace)                                  4:07 (8:14 pace)                         -3 sec                          

.50 Hard: 3:21 (6:42 pace)                                 3:10 (6:20 pace)                          +11 sec

.25 Easy:  124 sec (8:16 pace)                            120 sec (8:00 pace)                      +4 sec                    

.25 Hard: 83 sec (5:32 pace)                                84 sec (5:36 pace)                      -1 sec

Overall:

5.01 miles in 36:03                                              5.01 miles in 36:15                       -12 sec

7:11 Average Pace                                               7:14 Average Pace                        -3 sec

2.51  miles easy at 7:49 pace                               2.51 miles easy at 8:11 pace         -22 sec

2.5  miles hard at 6:30 pace                                 2.5 miles hard at 6:26 pace           +4 sec  

Overall there was possibly a small gain.  I ran the recovery faster but the hard slightly slower.  Probably would be better off running the recovery slower so I could run faster during the hard... but I guess that depends on what the workout is specifically targeting.  

I did run 5 yesterday at 8:00 pace plus ran some hill repeats with Maya last night so my legs may have not been quite as fresh either.  

Not a huge improvement I would say but not much lost... might have hit an initial plateau but I'll just keep putting in the miles and building the aerobic system and hopefully I'll break through.

CATCH UP TUESDAY

October 1st... start of a new month. Set a new monthly mileage record last month with 114 miles.  2 of the 4 weeks over 30 miles.  Legs are feeling continually better.

Here are some runs since my last post:

Thursday:

5 .04 miles

37:29

7:26 pace

Nothing remarkable, just a good medium hard run to end the week.  

Sunday:

10 miles (ish)

1:22:06

8:13 pace

Another double digit effort (I think).  My GPS got so out of whack somewhere in the middle of the run that it clocked me at a 4:30 mile.  I just ran by feel and tried to get in what I thought would be 10 miles.  

Tuesday:

5.08 miles

40:40

8:00 pace

Fastest mile 7:44, slowest mile 8:10... After taking Monday off and being relatively rested this pace felt easy.  Made an effort to slow down the 3rd and 4th mile.  Pushed a bit on the last mile and sprinted at the end to bring the average pace from 8:01 to 8:00.