After a great day of hanging out and running errands with my girls, I got out for a tempo run on the Bike Path as the sun was setting. In other words, it wasn't quite dark, but it was getting close. I parked in my usual spot, the one right under the sign that reads "You will be towed if you park here." It's either park there or park inside the gate, which is locked at sunset. Two out of three times I've run on the bike path in the last two weeks, the gate has been closed upon my return. I've made that embarrassing call to D before, and it's a real pain to go pick up your car the next morning. But I digress...
In short, I had a surprisingly good run. I wasn't feeling too frisky upon arrival due to the angry troll wielding a chainsaw in my belly. Not sure what I ate yesterday, but it was cranky. Luckily, he mellowed out once I got rolling. I ran one easy mile, and then got into it. My hope was to run 4 miles at 7:00/mile. In other words, up the ante from last week. I felt comfortable for the entire first mile: 6:59. Groovy. The next two miles also felt good: 6:54, 6:55. The final mile was a bit tricky because it was now mostly dark and the temperature had dropped turning some of the wet patches into icy patches. Despite the trickiness and my starting to tire, I finished with a 6:58. Total time for the 4 miles: 27:46. A one-mile cool down, and I called it a day. This run felt much better than last week. It wasn't easy, but it wasn't hard. I knew I was working in the final mile, but that's not a bad thing. My pacing was really encouraging, as I'd really like to get that sense back. All in all, a very encouraging workout. I'm not sure I could keep that pace up for another 6 miles (hint, hint), but encouraging, nonetheless.
3 comments:
According to my (now out of fasion) running guru, Jack Daniels (the man, not the drink) a steady run of about 20 minutes at a "comfortably hard pace" is the most effective thing you can do to raise your lactate threshold. Raising your lactate threshold is what will get you through a fast half marathon...or a ten miler in the middle of the winter :)
Out of fashion means it's back in fashion again! It seems like these type of workouts, which I haven't been doing, are exactly what I should be doing. I already feel like I seeing benefits. Then again, I don't want to raise my expectations too high for that terrible, terrible race. ;-)
On another topic, I completely agree with your post about snowshoeing. Teams should be made up of people who are actually teams, not just a bunch of random people. We (Trail Monsters) were victim of that in the 50 miler at Pineland this year. The winning "team" was a group of ringers who didn't actually run together or really know each other that well. (From the reports I heard.) A team should be made up of folks who actually train, run, race or even drink beer (my specialty) together. OK, off soap box. :)
Great pace...you will do well I am sure (at the infamous 10 mile winter race)
It is really not a bad race until the last 4 miles which is all uphill except for the 400 meter finish....by then it is too late to find a kick!
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