AM/Lunch: 16 miles, averaged 7:29. HR 150.
8-Mile Tempo @ Marathon Effort + 1 Mile Hard
I didn't end up getting in my bike workout yesterday, so I figured my legs would be ready to go. They were. Solid warmup around low 8' pace and I was off and running. It helped that I slept about 9 hours or so. Last week I ran 6:55 pace and this week I was hoping to cut around 5-7 seconds per mile off that. I exceeded that by a decent margin. Averaged 6:44 pace @ 161 BPM, so I was mostly high moderate to low marathon effort for the first bit, which was just right. I gave myself permission too go into steady state to half marathon effort if I wanted to cut down, but just was content to pick it up a decent amount but not get carried away. This was 11 seconds per mile faster than last week at a slightly lower average HR, which was awesome. I jogged to the entryway of the tempo loop (about 4 minutes or so) and did a harder mile in 6:14. It didn't feel too hard and I could have done 1-2 more, but decided to call it and cool down for a few miles.
This is perhaps the first real indication post-2020 that I could get back into something like I was 7-10 years ago potentially or at least make some gains from where I have been plateauing the last few years.
6:55, 6:46, 6:50, 6:42, 6:43, 6:37, 6:37, 6:33 + 6:14
I decided to skip the half marathon this Sunday and take the next 12 weeks to build up to Bay Shore half at the end of May and see how close I can get to getting back to around 1:20-1:22. The way things are going I can get there, but it will take some work. Very pleased with my running the last few weeks. I am getting in the right kind of workouts and the aerobic base from cycling is providing a solid foundation.
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