Signs of improvement

My last 3 runs (Saturday and Sunday and Monday) have actually felt pretty good.  I'm think that the last couple weeks of slow, steady, and consistent work are starting to pay off.   I also made another tweak this weekend with my cadence.  I made a focus to up my cadence and wound up averaging about 177 the last 3 runs instead of the typical 170 I had been running at.  While it takes some focus and doesn't feel completely natural, it does seem easier and also my hips are less sore. I ran 6 on Saturday, a workout on Sunday, and 3.67 today with hardly any fatigue.

The Garmin auto-coach still seems kind of wonky.  I ran an easy 6 on Saturday at 8:43 pace after a rest day on Friday.  Then I woke up Sunday, it told me to do another rest day.  I wasn't going to waste a Sunday training day so I set up my own workout: 

• 10 minute warm up at 8:45 pace
• 10 minutes at 7:12 pace
• 5 minute recovery at 8:43 pace
• 5 minutes at 6:51 pace
• 6 minute cooldown at 8:55 pace

It seemed to be the perfect workout for my current condition that day.  I ran hard but never really hurt to much and remained in control and had no problems with exhaustion.  

I woke up Monday and was expecting the watch to tell me to do a rest day since I ran a workout on my rest day but nope, instead it told me to run 32 minutes at 9:20 pace.  I would up running 32 minutes at 8:43 pace and averaged 139 HR for the run which made it one of my best "easy runs" for a while.

Garmin has me scheduled for another workout tomorrow.  I'll be shocked if I wake up tomorrow and it still recommends a workout but who knows.  If not, I can start ignoring the watches suggestions and run my own workouts from time to time until the training algorithm sorts itself out.

Steady 9 min pace

 I've been steady hovering around the 9 minute pace for my last 11 runs... this is based on actually following the Garmin training schedule I'm testing out.  When I look forward in the schedule it typically will tell me that I have a workout coming up the next day but normally once the next day comes it replaces the workout with another base run at 9:20 pace.  Not exactly sure why this is but I'm guessing that part of the issue is that 9:00 pace on a hot summer day hits harder so maybe I'm working harder than the algorithm thinks I should but generally speaking the running has seemed relatively easy and my HR has averaged 140 as long as I run in early enough in the morning that it's not in the upper 80s yet.

Don't think I'll really know if I'm actually starting to get any improvements or am at least building a base to build improvements on top of for a few more weeks or until i try to push it a bit on a cooler day.  I'm starting to get a little antsy though as I have been kind of running these "base" types of runs all year and was hoping to start introducing some workouts.

the one thing I can say about slowing down the pace is that my mileage is slightly up.  Not a ton since I'm following the Garmin training plan which is telling me to do 3-4 miles a day (normally I have to run for an extra minute after the workout is done if I actually want to get to 4 miles).  

I'm a bit conflicted because I have my yearly race coming up in August and want to perform as well as possible but also think that long term if I can just get my mileage back up to the 30-40 MPW level that considerable fitness advances will follow.

Today I was supposed to run one of those workouts but when I woke up it told me to rest... so I'm going to rest.  Looking ahead, more base runs tomorrow (51 minutes at 9:20 pace) and Sunday (35 minutes at 9:20 pace) but then maybe some workouts next week.  We shall see.

  

Hot summer reset

 I actually took my own advice and slowed down.  It allowed me to run 7 out of 8 days so far in July (with one scheduled rest day).  I've got 27.44 miles in so far so almost 4 miles a day at a 9:02 average pace.  including a couple of runs in the middle of  90+ degree and sunny afternoons.  

My legs have taken the effort well and feel less fatigued than they have for a while and my motivations is doing ok too.  So far I'm on pace for over 100 miles this month.  I've only broken the 100 mile plateau once in the past 3 years so doing so would be a good sign of progress.  

I've been following a Garmin automated training plan.  So far it pretty much tells me to run between 32 and 42 minutes at 9:20 pace every day.  Sometimes I'll look ahead and it will hint that maybe I'll run something different but then the next day I wake up and it tells me to run 9:20 pace.  I've been running closer to 9 minutes than 9:20 but still have been slowing myself way down compared to 8:30. Its kind of been nice to have a plan and I'll try to keep following it until the end of July at least and then reevaluate. 

Slow TF Down and Recover Already!

A couple days ago I decided to try using a Garmin workout plan, mostly out of curiosity.

Saturday it told me to do a recovery run of 26 minutes at 12 minute pace... I ran 26 minutes at 10 minute pace which seemed really slow.

Sunday it told me to rest, so I walked 4 miles but tried to keep my HR in the 110-125 range.  

Monday it told me to do a recovery run -  I mostly ignored but ran an "easy" 4 miles at 8:50 miles.

Today it told me to do a recovery run -  26 minutes at 11:15 pace.  I finally listened and actually did the workout.  2.4 miles with an average HR of 123.  I actually put my watch in workout mode which created a little gauge on my watch that helped me target the pace (there was a green range and a red range on each side, needle would go into the red if I went too fast or slow)

Running 11-minute pace is not natural for me but I finally sucked up my pride and listened to the watch.  I will give it a couple weeks and see how it goes..  Hopefully at some point it will tell me something different from "recovery run"

Consistent June

 I've almost made it through a consistent June and total 71 miles.  I've ran 20 days out of  30 and averaged 3.6 miles a day.  Longest run was 6.72 miles but for the most part I've been in the 3 or 4 mile range.  I've gotten a couple track workouts in and pushed the pace once or twice.  

I haven't been making any huge fitness jumps but I've seen slow and steady improvement.  My average page for the month was 8:30 which is 8 seconds faster than last month which is a fairly large gain especially when factoring in the summer heat.

I'm halfway through the year and off to my best start since 2022.  I've run 380 miles so far which exceeds the 370 I ran in 2023 and is quickly approaching the 527 miles I ran in 2024.  Not impossible that I could get 1000 miles in this year but we'll see.  I will need to significantly increase the miles and probably ease up a bit on the pace. 

I know I'm probably pushing harder than I should be on most days while also not getting enough truly hard efforts in, but once I get out on the road its really hard to slow down.  I did run a 2.6 mile recovery run at 10 minute pace on Saturday...  but it's hard to run that slow consistently and really makes me second guess myself.  I suppose I should at least try to slow down for a couple weeks to see what comes of it... I doubt it though.  

Here's where I am though.  Maybe I'm just impatient.  Maybe I'm getting old.  Maybe I'm not getting enough sleep.  Maybe I'm not training right.  I'm putting in work but not totally satisfied with the results.  I've been really hoping that some fitness will kick in and i'll see a big improvement jump but so far it has been very slow and steady.  My weight has been steady at 190 lbs too and really need this to come down as well... part of this is diet but I think a lot is genetics.  Kind of seems it doesn't matter how much I eat or exercise, I always settle at around 190.  The only time I was able to adjust was when I was running 50 miles a week and then I was at 170 but as soon as I got hurt and stopped running the weight came back on really quickly.  

For now I'll focus on the positives which are health and consistency and hope that the gains will eventually follow.

track workout 2

 Second track workout of the year.  4 X 400m again, same as last Thursday.  Pace was comparable:  1:34, 1:29, 1:31, 1:32.  It was about the same amount of effort but my body took it a little better and I slept much better after.  

This morning my legs and body have that good kind of fatigue going.  Like I worked hard and actually challenged myself but should be able to recover quickly and get back stronger.  Haven't had this type of tired feeling for a while and it definitely has an element of euphoria.

I will try to get some walks in today and then hopefully some actual easy running in this weekend.  Right now adding in track workouts sort of an experiment to see if this is the missing piece I need to get my fitness moving in the right direction.  Give me 2 more Thursdays and hopefully by that 4th one I should see/feel some differences compared to my first workout.

1.29 miles

In the name of consistency, I ran 1.29 miles (over 10 minutes) dropping off my daughter for her summer running training. I was tired and not particularly motivated but figured 10 minutes would be better than zero minutes.  7:45 pace was unfortunately uncomfortable, but 10 minutes of discomfort is totally tolerable ...so now I'm thinking.  Long run on the weekend.  Up-tempo short run on Tuesday.  Track workout on Thursday.  And as many short easy runs on the other days as I can find the time and energy for.