Saturday, September 27, 2008

Steady(ish) miles

I was pretty happy with the way last Tuesday's interval session went particularly as there were no 'ill effects'. Previously my left knee had given some trouble after this particular interval session (I think the tight bends on the circuit were causing a bit too much strain but that problem appears to have sorted itself out). Wednesday's run comprised a 6-miler at lunchtime which was planned to be a 'steady' 7:15 - 7:30 pace but I felt good and decided to turn it into a steady/tempo progression run. The run went as follows 6.52miles (45:09 @ avg 6:56, 156bpm) and the pace progression was 7:10 (146bpm), 7:06 (154bpm), 6:58 (155bpm), 7:08 (156bpm) [uphill], 6:51 (161bpm), 6:34 (162bpm), 6:25 (166bpm).

Thursday was a busy day at work and home. I was also feeling the cumulative effect of my Sunday - Wednesday runs so not wishing to overdo it I gave myself the day off.

Friday was a 'recovery' pace run with Grellan at lunchtime 6.75miles in 55:18 @ 8:12 (144bpm).

Today, Saturday, I got up early but so did my children.... As a result I was nearly an hour later than planned leaving the house. However a later than planned 8:30am start was not necessarily a bad thing 'cause it gave me a bit longer to recover from the unplanned 'multiple' glasses of wine I had last night!! The run consisted of approx 13miles and is to be my last 'long' run before the Great North Run so I really hoped it would go well. Apart from the first mile, which includes a 40m climb over the first 0.5mile (just to get the heart rate up!!), the run went to plan. Psychologically I tend to break this run into 5 mile segments which I always hope to negative split with a 2-3 mile uphill recovery at the end. Today was no different and the 5mile splits were 36:10 (7:14 pace) & 34:16 (6:51 pace) respectively. I even kept a sub 6:45 pace going for Mile 11 which was a first for this particular run and I felt good without killing myself. In total 12.68miles (1:31:57, avg 7:15, 153bpm) including 11miles 77:10 (7:01, 153bpm). It looks like the wine didn't do me any harm after all!!

Wednesday (24/9/08)

6.52miles - 45:09 - 6:56min/mile - avg 156bpm

Thursday (25/9/08)

0miles

Friday (26/9/08)

6.75miles - 55:18 - 8:12min/mile - avg 144bpm

Saturday (27/9/08)

12.68miles - 1:31:57 - 7:15min/mile - avg 153bpm

2 comments:

Mike said...

Wow Brendan, your endurance looks like it's really coming along! That's a nice pace for that 2nd half especially considering that the first half was at a pretty good clip as well.

Sometimes wine tends to dehydrate me for the next day if I have too much - so I typically switch to beer the night before a longer run :-)

(gotta carbo load anyway!!)

Grellan said...

Looking good for next weekend.