After hitting my yearly goal on Wednesday I had a lapse in motivation. Combine that with my 7:17 pace half marathon effort the pervious Sunday I wound up taking an unplanned day off on Thursday. It was much needed extra recovery and I think it was a good call... yet, come Friday (xmas) I was still not so motivated. Sometimes a day off is harder to recover from than a workout!
After procrastinating all day I finally got on the treadmill for an afternoon workout, and somehow talked myself into a tempo run with the rationalization that it would get done quicker and be less monotonous than an easy run on the treadmill.
I stretched out with a .5 walk. Then bumped the pace to 6.8 and started the warm up, slowly increasing to 8.5 over the next 1.5 miles. I then bumped it to 9.0 mph (6:40 pace) with the plan of doing 3 at 6:40. After the first mile I was feeling good so I increased to 9.2 mph (6:31 pace). This was tougher but doable so after the 2nd mile I took it to 9.5 mph (6:18). Now I was going hard and my heartrate was in the 170s approaching 175. After the 3rd mile I decided to tack on one more, but dropped the pace back to 9.0 (6:40 pace). Heartrate dropped a bit to the 169-171 range. After that I bumped it down to 8 minute miles and got in a 1.5 mile cooldown.
Total distance: 7 miles
Tempo Distance 4 miles
Total Duration: 50:07
Tempo Duration: 26:09
Total pace: 7:09
Tempo pace: 6:32
Saturday I went out for an easy 7 miles at 8:19 pace. Just went by feel and HR stayed below 140. Saw an eagle on the North side of Brimfield and followed it down Illinois street as it casually circled above me.
Sunday, I headed of for a long run of 15 miles. Took off by the same easy feel as Saturday with slightly more effort. Kept the HR in the low 140s and averaged ~8:10 pace for the first 10 miles. My left groin and hips were a bit fatigued and stiff but mostly I felt okay. At the 10 mile mark I turned into the 13 mph wind and my pace dropped to ~8:30 for the next couple miles. The wind was a nuisance but it wasn't too cold and it didn't bother me that much especially since I slowed down the pace so wasn't really using any additional effort... my main complaint was that it was hard to hear my earbuds with the wind so loud. I even changed my course to run into the wind for a bit longer instead of turning so I could get it over with... then I saw an another eagle way North of Brimfield which I would have missed if I took my planned route. As I got back into town I picked up the pace and finished strong with a 8:08 mile and a 7:36 mile for the final.
Total Distance: 15.01 miles
Total Duration: 2:02:56
Avg Pace: 8:11
After taking today off I have 3 more running days planned for 2020 and should get over 200 miles for the months. I'm hopefully training for the fly with the eagles half marathon. I'm not sure if I'm actually signed up or am on a wait list... also not sure if the race is actually going to happen. Seeing eagles the last 2 days seems like a good sign (if I believed in that shit). If the race does happen I should be prepared... Last year I ran it and it was a breakthrough experience. This year I'm in way better shape with 7 weeks to go and should be killing it by the time the race is expected to happen.
Race or no race I'm going to be in a good place at the start of 2021 with hopes of killer workouts and improvements come spring.
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