Yesterday’s Run

Time – 44:27
Distance – 5.05 miles
Pace – 8:48 min/mi
Elevation – 121 ft.

Wanted to go out and run harder for a little longer. This ended up happening, although I burned out pretty bad at mile 4. Not as far as I would have liked, but I still felt good in the legs, and there IS speed in there, somewhere.

Days Go By

I didn’t get to post this yesterday, and I had to skip a run, too, due to another obligation, so my schedule is a little weird this week. I allow for 2 rest days so I have the ability to make up the time. Plus, as I’m trying to get back on track from the baby, the house, and a few other changes, it’s been a little bumpy.

The worst part is missing the amazing weather yesterday. It was in the upper 70’s F and the sun was shining. Having had snow now twice in April (which is NOT normal for this area at all…), the last two weeks have been a real mess. But that’s how it works. If it was easy and always on schedule and on plan, life would be really boring.

In the meantime, sleep has been good to me, so I feel like there’s a real jump waiting in the wings. This much rest is bound to have an affect.

Today’s Run

Time – 41:16
Distance – 4.3 miles
Pace – 9:27 min/mi
Elevation – Treadmill at 1%

One mile warmup, 12 x .25 mile with an increase of 1 MPH on the treadmill every quarter, and then a cooldown. It wasn’t easy at the end, but it felt good to run hard. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would, and I had a lot more strength than I thought I had. I want to be a lot faster than this, but to start at 9:30/mile and go down to 8:00/mile on a continous run makes me feel like I can run hard.

Productive Running, Part 2

In my last post, I talked about the Garmin Forerunner and that it is tracking how “productive” my runs are. Garmin’s website has an overview on the subject:

Is your current training intense enough, or long enough, to help improve your fitness? How do you know if you’re working hard enough to make a difference in the long run or if you’re not pushing yourself hard enough? Training status helps you make decisions about future training by automatically taking into account changes in fitness level, your current acute (7-day) training load and any change in training load with respect to previous training. In essence, it tells you the effectiveness of your current training and provides guidance to help you improve your training decisions.

So, effectively, the watch is keeping track of my last 7 days, reviewing the work I’m doing, and judging how that work reflects on my current fitness. The page also talks about how as fitness improves, the amount of work necessary will increase (seems self-evident, but, then again, “Coffee is hot” as the thermal cup from McDonald’s says).

I can’t believe that this is overwhelmingly accurate. It is a good measure, if taken in context. The watch will show the change in fitness relative to it’s own measurements. I can rely on it to rate itself against it’s own baseline. I’ll need to be sure to continue to monitor how I’m feeling on my own. Only I can judge my effort and fatigue. If I’m tired, or sore, or just mentally ready for a day off, I need to take it, no matter what the watch says.

Oh, and according to my watch, today’s workout was “Maintaining.” Grrr…

Today’s Run

Time – 47:11
Distance – 5.0 miles
Pace – 9:25 min/mi
Elevation – Treadmill at 1%

Treadmill run with 1 mile warmup and cooldown, and 3 miles at 8:59 pace. Just putting in miles. I kept the legs moving and watched the Chiefs/Titans game.

Well, pitchers and catchers report in about a month

I didn’t get to watch very much of the Rams game, as I had to hit the grocery store before the ice storm gets here, but it’s not like I missed much. It’s a little like they never left St. Louis when you have this kind of a disappointment. High hopes give way to reality. Oh, well, St. Louis Cardinals baseball is right around the corner.

In other news, the weather should be turning soon. There’s a warmup on the way with rain, but because of the time we’ve been under freezing, it will ice today and tomorrow. After that, however, we should start seeing more normal temperatures in the 30’s and 40’s, which is something I can run in. Too cold, and my hands really start hurting. Years of exposure and inadequate gloves have caught up with me, and I can’t do super cold for a long time in normal running gloves. Sure, I could spring for something really thick and expensive, but that seems like overkill when I already have the gym membership, and using the treadmill to set speeds is good training for the winter. I can keep my running pace in check and not too fast, so I don’t leave my season inside the YMCA.