Wednesday, May 20, 2020

NOTICEABLE PROGRESS HAS BEEN MADE

Recent speed workout, 8x400m intervals on the roads.
Greetings, fair reader! I'm pleased to report progress is being made. While it has been slower than I would have liked, I am getting into better shape and runs that should be easy are starting to get easier. Yesterday I was able to run four miles at a 10:30 pace with a heart rate of 158. That's not great - BUT that is much better than a month ago. A run at that pace would have spiked my heart rate into the high 160s/low 170s. I no longer feel breathless on "easy" runs. And while I still have on and off days, the average fitness i am seeing is definitely going up!

Also, my long runs have moved back to the normal ten miles. The first time I ran ten it was pretty tough! Miles 8 and 9 were definitely a slog and pushing myself. My legs ached. The next weekend, only mile nine sucked. The legs felt a little better. This last week? Ten was basically no big deal. Legs were a little tired but not bad at all. Each time I go and do it, it gets easier. So that's all very encouraging. Again, I am slower and my heart rate is a little higher than I would like, but all the trends are in the right direction.

Mostly, I am just running by feel. It is too easy to be discouraged and not enjoy the actual run if I am eagle eyeing my watch for pace and heart rate, so I've turned it to the time of day many times and just ran by feel. Then, most the time when I am done, I look at the stats and I am right where I wanted to be anyways. So much better than fussing about it the whole run! Sometimes, less is truly more. It's also kind of funny how consistent I can be even without the watch... they don't call me The Metronome for nothing!

Lastly, I have been doing one speed workout at week. First, it was a two mile tempo bookended by mile long warm up and cool downs. Then I bumped it to three miles with half mile bookends. Last week I did 8x400 "street intervals," alternating jogging and sprinting every quarter mile. At some point soon I'll do a full four mile tempo run. These runs are hard but feel good once they are over. It is the kind of hard work I need to put in if I want to get faster and try to claw my way back to something resembling my fitness last year.

No comments:

Post a Comment