Pheidippides’s BodyBlog

I have continued to be a bit of a slacker in the gym lately, but my running is picking up.  I ran last Sunday and yesterday, and both times my Achilles held up with no pain and no residual soreness.  I think the recent relative lack of exercise activity is giving it time, finally, to heal

Sunday I ran 6 miles at a fairly steady, moderately easy pace — 50:03 in all, an 8:20 min/mile pace.  Sometimes I slowed down to about a 9 plus minute pace, sometimes I picked it up to a little faster than 8 min pace, but never too slow or too fast.

Yesterday I ran 5 miles and tried some intervals.  Overall time was about 41:40, again, around an 8:20 or so pace, but I ran a lot slower during the recovery stretches and a lot faster during the intervals this time.  1st interval: 1 mile at a bit faster than what felt like somewhat faster than my current tempo pace — 7:08 min.  At the end I was tired but not exhausted.  After about a mile and a half of slow running, I ran the second interval 1/2 mile in 3:20 — 6:40 min/mile pace.  After half mile reocvery ran 1/2 mile in 3:30 or 7 min/mile pace.  The last two intervals were definitely a very tiring pace.  There’s no way I could have sustained that pace over a 5K at my current level of fitness.  Right now it’s hard to believe I could sustain a faster pace last June in my first 5K (6:35 min/mile).

If I can keep gradually getting back into running while minding the Achilles I think I can continue to heal and get faster at the same time.

I’m thinking about running a 5K in 10 days.  It should be O.K. if I don’t push too hard.  I will aim to beat 21:30, a minute slower than my PR but probably a tough goal given my current level of fitness.

Been slacking lately on weight loss and no improvement to report over the last week.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 3rd, 2008 at 6:09 am and is filed under Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.