We didn't actually make it home from our camping trip and July 4th festivities until midnight on Saturday, so I broke my rule and, for only the second time in my memory, did my long run early Sunday morning (I had meetings starting at 7:30). I'm counting it as Saturday mileage, though. To help me justify transgressing a personal boundary, I did the run sans-iPod (I can't remember exactly where that exemption is found in Exodus). Drove to Mountain Dell Golf Course, then ran past Little Dell and up the back side of Little Mountain, down Emigration to Crestview, up Crestview to Wasatch, around Wasatch to 13th, down to Foothill and back home. Plan was to do the first 4 easy and the remaining 10 at a target of 6:00/mile. Splits were as follows:
Mile 5: 6:28 (included last part of Little Mountain ascent) (157 bpm)
Mile 6: 6:01 (156)
Mile 7: 5:55 (159)
Mile 8: 5:58 (163)
Mile 9: 5:57 (166)
Mile 10: 5:55 (171)
Mile 11: 5:52 (172)
Mile 12: 5:55 (173)
Mile 13: 5:54 (included Crestview hill) (175)
Mile 14: 6:02 (177)
Although the first mile was surprisingly slow, I settled in to my pace and felt strong (strong enough to bark at a couple of cyclists who were leisurely riding two abreast and almost pushed me off the road during Mile 12) until the last half mile along Foothill, which is slightly uphill. With about a quarter mile to go and needing to cross the road to get home, I was anaerobic and stopped for a minute to wait for a gap in traffic. Otherwise, the AHR for the final mile would probably have been closer to 180.
I was late for my meeting, but the run went better than expected. I don't know that I'm strong enough yet to hold 6:00 pace over terrain that isn't downhill, but I feel like I'm getting stronger each week.
Due to the shift in my long run, I'll plan to rest tomorrow and move my scheduled 6-miler to Wednesday (my scheduled rest day) instead. | 