Last night's run

When Good (intentioned) Runs go Bad (but even become better fun)......


I had about an hour to get a run in, as the weather report was calling for some storms. I decided to try and get 4 easy miles in. Sounds good enough, right???? Yeah, sounds good in theory till you start off, and the music coming out of the iPod starts pounding away, then it became, "well lets just try to hold an easy feeling pace" which was followed by "lets try to keep the HR under 160" and transformed into "lets run by feel." For the record, I don't do the "run by feel" thing well, I never had, never will. I have tried and tried again. Last night was no exception. Besides being overdressed, sweating like I was in a sauna, I was a mess. I felt great, but I knew I was going a little hard. My heart rate didn't lie and it showed that I was pushing. Pushing is relative and given the junk miles of the past, this might have as well been a tempo run.


OK, lets take a look at the numbers:


Distance: 4.50 miles (10:54; 10:49; 10:19; 10:28; 5:11[.5 @10:22])
Time: 47:41
Pace: 10:34mpm
Calories: 764 cal
AVG HR 165
max speed 8:24mpm
max HR 178 (somewhere around mile 2.5)


OK, based upon Tuesday's run, my HR is 4 less the pace is about 45 seconds per mile faster. But based strictly on how I felt, it was great. It felt like I could have run at it for another mile. I was actually trying to hold back and go slower. I walked for almost a quarter mile, and the legs felt OK. This morning they felt a little sore, but not much. Test will be tonight, I can't wait to see how my legs recovered.


I really do feel that for most runs, you really need to have a plan and stick to it. I also believe that there is nothing wrong with slow miles. But that being said, years ago, training runs were like races it seemed, my coach always felt that the best way to get into shape very quickly was to race. He said racing got your body to remember what it used to do (whatever that means?) I do think that just based on specificity (is that even spelled correctly) if you go slow most of the time, you will go slow. But go fast in training and your body now knows what it feels like. I could be wrong but thats what I think.


Let me know what you think.