Sep 19
2009

One of the things that’s great about football season is that you can easily do a long run on the treadmill while watching the game.  I did mine today at home on my Sole F80 at a 1% incline (watching the UofL-UK game).

I’ve been doing my long runs at a progressive pace, starting moderately slowly (easy/recovery pace) and ending close to my tempo run pace.

Today, I started at 6.0 mph, or a 10′00″ pace for the first mile, speeding up 0.1 mph for every successive mile.  This put the last mile of my 16 mile long run @ 7.5 mph, or 8′00″ pace.  For the last mile, I also ran a couple “strides” in the last half mile at about 6′00″ to 6′15″ pace.

My entire run:  16 miles in 2:22:22, or average 8′54″/mile pace.

RunningAHEAD – Strings_n_88keys’s log: View Workout.

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Sep 5
2009

(and on the treadmill at 11pm)

I decided that I’d do a progressive workout, starting @ 6.0 mph (10′00″) and going to 7.4 mph (8′06″?), by 0.1 mph increments per mile.  I have the speed to run 6′30″ intervals, but I’m still hesitant to push for a sub-9 pace long run.

I started off in fits and starts as my splits were pauses stepping off the treadmill:

  • 1.5 miles in 14:55 (6.0 and 6.1 mph – average 9′57″)
  • 2.59 miles in 40:03 (6.1-6.3 mph – average 9′43″)
  • 11 miles in 1:34:14 (6.4-9.2 mph – average 8′34″) – Ok, so the last two miles the treadmill got to me and I ran a 7′30″ mile for mile 14 and ran mile 15 at between 6′36″ and 6′48″ pace.  What I felt in my legs was that I still had a comfortable sub-7 pace after 14 miles.

Why this weird progression?

First…  I get bored on the treadmill, and need to break up the workout to hit “milestones”.

More importantly, I thought a progressive pace might help coax that speed out of my long runs again.  I did quite a bit of this when I was training for Flying Pig last year and was stuck on the treadmill for my long runs due to working weekends.  Between these sessions and the progressive race distances of 5k, 10k, and 10 miles of the Louisville Triple Crown of Running every other weekend 5-8 prior to the Flying Pig Marathon, I found an optimal speed and endurance training regimen.

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Jun 27
2009

Last week, I ran a 16 miler in which I never got my legs under me.   My expected easy/long run pace is roughly 9:30 per mile, but I’m okay with 10 minute miles given the warmer weather. My result was a 10:19 pace for 16 miles, with the last few miles being a struggle to stay under 11 minutes.

This week’s run started off slow (10:30 1st, 10 minutes for each of the next four miles). Starting about mile 8, I started hitting my stride, and finished with a nice, comfortable 9:42 average pace for the 18 mile run — 2:54:43 for 18.03 miles.

Last weeks’ run was roughly the same conditions as this weeks, but I made a few adjustments to get me a negative split (first half/second half):
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Change 1:
Two Fridays in a row with brutal afternoon conditions (~100′F Heat Index). Last week, I ran a 5-miler on Iroquois Hill in that nastiness. This week, I ran a 4.25 mile 2% treadmill run yesterday. Hydration and muscles were much better today.

Change 2:
Added the Camelbak Elixir electrolytes tabs this week… they’re lemon-lime flavored with electrolytes but no sugar to mess up the Camelbak liner:

Change 3:
Last week was probably the first run in which I really needed to take in extra sugar before or during the run. I didn’t take anything with me, and had to end up taking a detour to Wal-Mart (the gas station part) at mile 11 to get some orange juice.

This week, I got some Strawberry Banana GU and took them at miles 2.5, 6, 10.5, and 14. My normal pick is the Powerbar brand gels, but I thought I’d try the GU since it’s a bit thicker. (By the way, this flavor was one of the nastiest gel flavors I’ve used of any brand, but it did the trick)

Course map:

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Jun 6
2009

12 miles, 1:55:06 (9:36/mile), 10 straight weeks running.

This was my longest run in almost 5 months.  I didn’t get to start bright and early when the day is the coolest.  I didn’t run in a public park today (not even through Vettiner).  I didn’t run across anyone else who was running, and virtually no one was walking, either.  Plus, traffic had already picked up for a Saturday and I had chosen to run along Stonybrook all the way to Galene and Six Mile Ln.  I couldn’t find a public restroom on my route (well I was on the wrong side of the road for KFC and didn’t try El Nopal).  I had intermittent pains that threatened to stop me at any moment.

Nevermind all that.  This run was perfect.  Sure, I ran a 23 mile long run last year at a pace 80 seconds per mile faster.  Sure, I don’t feel 100% healthy still.  However, today was a beautiful day; I knocked out a few more running crutches; and, more importantly, I finished.

Oh, and I almost found a perfect loop for a 12-miler between Fern Creek and J-town:

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