Monday, August 31, 2009

8/29 Medium Long Run

Slept in a little since it was the weekend and a short 'long' run. Go out the door and on the road by 7:15. Cloudy and just under 60. Very comfortable for a run. Took me an extra couple of minutes to get kitted out since I had put all my long run stuff away after RnR Seattle. So there was a lot of: Oh yeah, fuel belt. Oh yeah, ziploc bag of TP. Etc...

The plan was to get out for 10. I need to start building mileage for Seattle, since the Octoberfest Half in a month might be a stretch, and I'm 4 weeks behind the power curve.
I was at 47 miles at this point for RnR Seattle, and the week looked like: 6,8,6,9,18. I did 6,6,6, this run, and whatever I do Sunday this week. I feel like I'm behind, anyway.

This means to me that I need to make this cycle about quality and intensity, not base building. It's time to step it up and see how training to pace, not HR, works for me. I'm going to target my runs using McMillan's pace recommendations, and try to build to doing the commonly recommended tempo and speed workouts as well. So the goal for this run was between 9:04/mile and 10:04/mile. (From LU10K results)

Still undecided about speed work. 400s? 800s? Longer? More research required. :)

As usual, just the fuel belt with water, but no breakfast and no on run fuel. No problems at all.

Ran the 12 mile course through Mill Creek, and intended to turn at 148th since I thought the mileage would work out. When I hit 148th basic math skills weren't working so I just went up to Seattle Hill Road and came down that way. Just a mile longer, so no problem.

I will say that this route is much more difficult when you are running to keep a pace, not by HR, where you can just slow down when you hit the hills. And this route has some decent hills. Once I found a mapping app that mapped the run properly, and had the start and end points at the smae altitude, (MapMyRun was the final choice), i discovered that the course has, in 11 miles, roughly the same elevation gain as the Seattle marathon course. Cool.

Switched Pandora on the iPhone to Heavy Metal from Industrial, which I normally run long with, and it came through for me this run. Good tunes overall, lots of 80s and 90s stuff, and a Metallica I don't think I'd ever heard before; Whiskey in the Jar (a cover of an Irish drinking song). Put a smile on my face while that was on. Lots of friendly runners and riders out today

I need to think about/see if I can set Garmin up to have HR and current pace on the same screen

11.16 miles in 1:43:09 (9:14/mile) @ 152 bpm avg.

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