Pheidippides’s BodyBlog

Whatever I’m doing right now seems to be working.  I’ve been running a lot more, but barely going to the gym, and barely biking or swimming. The Achilles tendon is feeling a lot better and is not interfering with running.  Some of the lower back pain I’d been feeling before has abated.  My only recent setback is a bad ear infection I got  a week ago.  I’m loaded up on antibiotics, decongestants, and pain reliever, but it’s still congested and I can’t hear very well out of the right ear.

Running is going very well.  Yesterday I ran 9 miles, my longest since last August.  Started first 1.5 miles at about 9 minute pace for warmup, then shifted for next three to about 8:10 or so, then for the next three picked it up more, so I covered 6 miles in 47:13, about 7:52 pace.  Then slowed it down for the last 1.5 miles at about 8: 30 pace. Total time 1:14, average 8:13 pace.  I felt pretty strong considering my current level of mileage.  I’m going to work on gradually building mileage to boost my basic foundation for aerobic capacity and endurance.

Last Thursday I went on a tempo run — 1.25 mile warmup and cool down, with a three mile tempo run in between.  I tried a 7:16 pace with my Garmin, but I went out way too fast to start, getting about 200 plus feet ahead of pace after the first half mile.  I burned my legs out a bit and after two miles had to slow it down.  I still managed to clock 22:10 for the three miles, about a 7:23 pace.  Next time I will set the Garmin for around the same pace but try to stay on that pace rather than get ahead of it.  Pacing is my great weakness.

I had hoped to go for a 5K PR this Saturday, but I had neglected the fact that there is a scheduling conflict with my sons’ Little League, so I probably will have to bag it.  I may sign up for a 5 mile race the next day, Sunday, instead.  I have never run at that distance before.  It’s supposed to be a fairly hilly course, so it’s probably not suited for really fast running.  If I do it I will try to maintain around 7 min/mile pace or slightly under.

Need to get back on the bike.  My biggest potential weakness for the triathlon is going to be the inability to sustain riding around lactate threshold for a long time.  I still need a few long rides before the triathlon.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 28th, 2008 at 8:54 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.