Longish trail run. I didn't bring food or water on this run so it was challenging towards the end. Went to Montgomery bell state park and the trail was pretty nice and scenic crossing several wide but extremely shallow (like, 1cm deep) streams. Ran with Ted and we are still at the point of pushing too hard to try to keep up with the other person. The thing is that I am much much slower racing so I never think he is pushing until the run is over and he is like, damn that was hard. And I am always breathing harder than he is. This was especially apparent at the end of the run during some hills. I was hardly able to maintain a 2 stride in 2 stride out pattern. Tomorrow is gonna be super easy because I have been going too hard lately. My legs are fine, but I know that my cardio system needs a break.
There is this classic 11.2 mile loop through a state park just 3 miles from me that I have never done so I did it today. I usually run the trails in the same park, but I wanted to see what this road loop was like because all of the runners around here talk about it. It was very nice or at least much nicer than any other road running I could imagine with very few cars through forests with a few vistas along the way. It was very hilly, and I tried to take it easy, but I did it in 1:26:27 (7:51 pace) so not too bad, but probably too fast for the kind of hills this place has.
Workout with Ted today. It was a bit depressing as he is so fast and yet I am running about 2x his volume right now. He did 4x800m and I did 6x800m. We started with a 2 mile warmup and some stretching. Then we started the workout. He held about 4:40-4:45 pace and I started out too fast hitting 5:10 pace for the first one and then progressing to 5:32 pace by the end. He finished each one with nearly the entire straight away ahead of me. Then he would do the recovery lap at nearly 8 minute pace. I am used to barely a shuffle for recovery. We went at the line, but he would accelerate for about 30m leading up to the start which increased his lead on me. It was 90 degrees and I felt it. We met a guy named whim (sp?) who is closer to my pace but still faster than me (his 10k pace is my 5k pace). Hopefully we can meet up for some runs and workouts and he won't utterly embarrass me like Ted does. After talking to whim for a while, we went for a 3.2 mile cooldown. The heat hugely affects my times on workouts. If I had done a longer workout I am sure I would have gotten slower and slower. But at this point in my training I don't think it is about maximizing VO2max time/volume but getting the miles in and occasionally letting my legs/lungs/heart feel some speed to not lose it. And I haven't lost it. My last 200m I dropped 32 and the first 100m of that I really didn't feel like I was going fast, I was trying to steadily accelerate through the 200 (my last 800 I hit 5:20 pace again because of the kick).
Same route as yesterday but fairly fast. Didn't mean to, just started out at an 8:20 pace and over 2 miles settled in to a 7 flat pace. Averaged 7:18 pace for the run and it really wasn't that stressful. I had to work, but could do any breathing pattern. I know when I am going past easy when I can't maintain a 3 strides in 3 strides out breathing pattern. At least thats what daniels tells me, but he also says that my easy pace should be around 7:20 which on a daily basis I think is not right.
