AM/Lunch: 15 miles, averaged 7:19. HR 149.
9-Mile Tempo @ Marathon Effort
Solid one today especially as it was warmer (about 70 degrees), a big volume week, and last night's bike effort. I was doing to do 10 miles at effort, but I felt that I was already doing too much, so I figured if I did an extra mile and the pace was faster I was in line with progressively overloading. Last marathon effort session was 3/28.
Warmed up 3 miles and brought some heavy carb drink mix with me to sip on the warmup. Originally I was going to do something like 4-3-2 mile sets and jog between for a half mile and take in some drink mix, but decided to stick with my original plan and roll with it. I was hoping to be slightly faster than the last time I did an 8-mile tempo, which I didn't realize was 3 weeks ago (I thought it was two) at 6:37 pace. I ended up averaging 6:31, so I am back to my base aerobic fitness I had in my late 20s and early 30s, which I am pretty happy with. I can still build from here for fall and then maybe, maybe, a marathon next spring. If not, then I will try to set some lifetime PRs at other distances.
6:40, 6:36, 6:33, 6:29, 6:25, 6:29, 6:32, 6:29, 6:27 (6:31 average @ 161 BPM)
3 up/3 down
It started to pour cold rain, so I didn't cool down to 16 or 17 as planned, but this was fine. I am thinking I want a few longer runs before my June 1 half (maybe up to 20 miles), but I will probably do that with longer sets and recovery jogs between to accumulate the miles.
| 