February 15, 2010
Run: Slow 20M (20.06 mi @ 07:50)
The long run. Not too jazzed about it today. Felt blah leaving the house. Went later than usual because the kids were home from school. Started getting hungry for lunch so I pounded a can of soup before going. Leadville strategy? Did OK with it but felt it until about mile 7. Stopped at Starbucks for refueling and then carried on. Headwind in every direction today.
Started into a better rhythm on the return back towards home. Legs seemed to free up and my stride got larger. Was moving in the 7:1Xs with little effort and still in the slow zone. Very encouraging. Blew the overall average time though from a slow start, extra traffic, and snowy pathways that I nearly bit it on. Took a quick snap at the 1/2 marker.
This grid helped me visualize my performance increases over long runs last fall so I am bringing it back for this season. I am going to leave the first row as my last training long run from 2009’s season as some sort of baseline. As you may recall, last season I moved all long runs to 20M to have consistent measures week over week. I am not doing that this cycle as it did hurt me on miles 20-26 in the race I felt. So each week, I will look at relative measures like pace and average HR. I also am noting the direction of the loop I do was clockwise or counter-clockwise as they have different characteristics.
| Date | Distance | Direction | Pace | Avg HR |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10/02/09 | 20M | CCW | 7:46 | 152 |
| 01/19/10 | 16M | CW | 8:04 | 144 |
| 02/02/10 | 16M | CW | 7:42 | 146 |
| 02/09/10 | 18M | CW | 7:42 | 144 |
| 02/15/10 | 20M | CCW | 7:50 | 141 |
So I was slower on pace this week by a few seconds but was because of random things like conditions. However, HR is nice and low in the range at 141 this week. So a full 11 bpm slower than that final run of 2009 but only off pace by 4 seconds per mile. That means I am achieving an equivalent run with much less intensity. Nearly an entire zone/range worth! I plan on running Boston near 150 so I have some good head room in the bpm right now. Encouraging.
Heading to Boulder tomorrow night to eat and drink with Brownie before he heads off to a show at the Fox Theater. We will be on The Hill if you want to stop by!
I went 20.06 miles with an elevation gain of 435 feet in 02:37:25, which is an average pace of 07:50. View my GPS data on Garmin Connect.
