First off, I am out of shape. Other than when I didn't run for about a year due to the arthritis, I have never been this out of shape. Which is weird, because I only took two weeks off! But I guess the month of running on broken legs didn't help. Unfortunately my fitness has not snapped back quite like I was hoping for. At times it has been frustrating because what should be an easy pace (10:30-10:45) is often spiking my heart rate into zone 5 (above 168 bpm). So some runs have been an exercise in frustration.
However, things are getting better. My legs themselves feel fine and there has been improvement in my cardio and heart rate over the last month. I ran 11:00 on the nose the other day and my heart rate was in the 150s. I'm just going to have to claw my way back again. I've done it before and I can do it again. Before, ignorance would have been bliss in regards to my heart rate. In that sense, I miss my old watch. It didn't tell me I was working too hard and get into my head. I would just go out and run. Despite the frustration sometimes, it is nice to see my progress, however slow it may be.
I've felt confident enough in my steps forward to introduce some speedwork the last two weeks. Nothing crazy, one mile warm up, two tempo, and then a mile cool down. However, it felt really good to run fast. To just YOLO it and not care about my heart rate. It's SUPPOSED to be high during tempo work. And while my tempo pace is now low to mid 8's, it still feels good to be out there kicking it. My legs have responded well to the speed work too. Hopefully I can get some gains there and it will make my true easy pace slide back to 10:00 or so like it was last year.
Anyways, that's the update! The plan moving forward is to just keep slowly going at it. My long run is up to 8 miles now, I hope to get that back to 10 in the next few weeks. Otherwise, I will stick to two four mile runs during the actual week, one with speedwork. Luckily, assuming it is not cancelled, my fall marathon is late this fall (early November for NYC) so my marathon training doesn't have to start in earnest until mid-June or so. Until then, I'll just keep trying to improve and then assess my goals at that point.
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| Recent two mile tempo interval bookended by a mile warm up and cool down. |