Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Monday easy run, not so easy

Not so hard, either, but I certainly felt closer to the 10-minute mile pace than I did on Sunday! That's what comes from running four consective days, totalling well over 30 miles (including a 5K race) over the four-day period. I don't really plan to do that a lot. I like to give my legs a break between running days.* In the end, though, my average pace over 6.5 miles was 9:39,** pretty okay for a recovery run, in my opinion.

It is rather obvious to me that when I run several consecutive days, my legs do get tired and I end up slowing down. When I was in Hawaii I ran every day for four days, with average paces of 9:45, 9:19, 9:37 and 9:50. By the last day I definitely didn't have the steam in me that I did on the couple days prior! That doesn't mean there's not some potential benefit to running consecutive days (occasionally), but just that I can't expect to do so and get my best times (if that is what I'm looking for).

Last night I walked back over to the North Middle School field "track" to measure out a half mile distance for my "800"s tomorrow morning. I measured it twice (by walking around with my Garmin), to make sure I had the right landmark to signify the half-mile distance. In doing so, I realized that I had been using the wrong landmark for the quarter mile last week, and in fact had been running further than I need to. So it's likely that my 1:56 to 1:58 times could have been a few seconds faster if I'd done it right!

I feel like this is a pretty boring post. Yesterday when I was running I had all kinds of clever sentences and thoughts swirling around in my head, but they all seem to have escaped by now. Plus I am feeling unusually groggy sitting here at my desk; it's only a matter of time before I do a face plant onto my computer keyboard! It's probably better if I give it up for now and move onto something that will keep me conscious. Like going to the grocery store. (Hey, I didn't say it was going to be riveting!)

I am, however, going out to dinner with my parents later, hopefully that will be fun!




*Of course, climbing away on the elliptical is hardly a break for the quads and hamstrings, but it does give my achilles tendon and ankle a chance to recover in between runs.

**Splits were 10:16, .5 mile @ 9:47 pace, 9:44, 9:38, 9:26, 9:29, 9:18.

1 comment:

Lisa said...

Isn't it funny how you compose brilliant blog posts while running and when you sit down to write, you can't remember anything you thought to write? Sometimes I wonder if I should run with a little tape recorder to capture those deep thoughts. Sometimes I wonder if they were that deep in the first place and I just think they are because I am high on endorphins.

Oh... and for some reason, my Garmin and the track never quite match up exactly. I am sure you were close enough. Better longer than shorter, I suppose.