Run Buffs Run!

I only ran six miles today due to the cold weather (will it ever leave?). I ran on a treadmill again, which was a huge drag. To make things a bit more interesting, I messed with the grade (fluctuated between one and three degrees), and increased my speed to over ten miles per hour (5:45 mile pace) for a couple of the miles. I dont care if it is cold tommorrow, I am going to go running outside and get some good miles in.

FINALLY, a very good run today! I have been cramped up inside by the hazardous cold weather for the last couple of days, so getting out for a long run really made me feel better. I didn't really intend on running this far, but once my body hit "coasting" mode at 1:15, I just cruised through the rest of the run. It was not as cold as I would have expected it to be, especially once I put on full winter running apparel. In all, a very good run!

Nothing too special today, mainly because I need rest after yesterdays run. I will probably go for 8-9 miles tommorrow with some strides thrown in once again at the end. I am beginning a new phase on the workout calendar. Beginning Thursday I will be doing mile repeats at threshold pace (approx. 5:40 mile pace), with a series of 200 meter strides at the end. I am looking forward to getting into some of the fast stuff again.

An easy nine miles early this morning at 6:15 pace. I measured my pace using mile markers on the Boulder Creek Path, and found that for a couple of miles I was hitting sub 6:00 min pace. This was weird, mainly because I did not feel like I was working to hard to achieve these times. Since I have been doing some longer runs and easy miles, I feel like my endurance has greatly improved, making up for the lack of speework. I feel that once I begin some faster workouts (i.e. mile repeates, tempo runs and VO2 max workouts), my speeds will greatly increase. I am hoping that my added endurance will allow me to extend the period of time at which I can perform at my maximum level. Beginning tommorrow, my coach has scheduled some speed work to begin working towards this goal.

I began today with an easy three mile warm up. I then did mile repeats (cruise intervals as Daniels Running Formula describes them) at 5:40 pace with a one minute rest between intervals. I ran the first mile in 5:27 (a bit too fast), second in 5:39, third in 5:33 and fourth in 5:38. What felt very good was the amount lack of effort I needed to put forth to achieve these times. I remember in high school (junior year) a 5:30 mile was tough, but today, this mile time was no hard task. It felt as if I was just "floating" through the workout. I guess that is the payoff of training. To finish, I did 4x200 meter strides at 4:40 mile pace. By some freak chance, Alan Culpepper was running on the same track as me (Potts Field). It is weird to actually see an olympic runner in person, but that is what you get up here in Boulder. You could tell that he was a terrific runner by his long, effortless stride, even when doing sub five minute miles. I finished with three more easy miles back to my appartment, and in the process had to walk across a frozen stream. I ended up falling in up to my knees in frigid water. Bad news. Needless to say, I ended up running back to my appartment with 3 lb water filled shoes.

Just an easy day after some good running this week. I ran the rocky mountian shootout course, where the time trials are held. I have ran this course a couple of times now, and I am planning to run it quite a bit more to familiarize myself with it.