Three-Day Stretch

I've been having a string of great runs lately, and I think part of that is my excitement for Saturday's 5K (scroll below for some of the build-up posts in case you missed 'em).

Just wanted to try and recap them briefly here since it's been such a strong week.

Tuesday - Interval

I was worried about this run since it was an afternoon run and I just don't do well running in the afternoons. However, I figured that since I was able to ref just fine, and most of those games started at 3:15 p.m. that I would be fine.

And I was. It went much better than expected. I knocked out about four miles overall, but about half of that was walking in warm-up and cool-down. I counted 3.53 miles towards my total, and it took me roughly 32 minutes to get them in.

Now, of those 32 minutes I walked eight of them but I didn't discount that mileage. Not sure how much it all equates to but that's what my interval consisted of. I pushed myself at the end as I set the treadmill at a 9.0 for Minutes 35 and 36 of the interval, and I felt great. I had a bit of a hulk feeling, as in the Incredible Hulk. I felt like tearing out of my shorts and shirt, growling like a bear and run even faster. Since I was at the gym, though, I thought better of it.

Wednesday - Tempo

I had intended on running six miles at the gym on Wednesday, and to do a bit of a tempo. It wasn't quite planned out, but I figured I'd start at about a 9:40 pace and some distance at around or under an 8:00 pace. My first mile was a 9:35, then I slowly increased the speed. I felt strong and the second mile was at 9:13. I upped the speed a bit more and got to an 8:46 mile for the third mile. I'd run about a half-mile or so, maybe less, and just increased the speed on the 'mill.

My next splits were as follows:

Mile 4 - 8:30
Mile 5 - 8:08
Mile 6 - 8:17
Mile 7 - 9:04
Final .37 - 9:38

Time: 1:05:07
Overall pace: 8:50

Heart rate stats: Avg. 172 (92.5 percent of max); Max 186 (100 percent of max).

Thursday - Mt. Rubidoux

Since I'd just run the two days before, and both fairly intense workouts, I didn't feel the need to run longer than four miles, or two miles up Mt. Rubidoux and two miles down. Plus, I didn't want to over-extend myself since I do have a race on Saturday and all.

Still, I felt good and wanted to have a good run so I didn't ease off the gas too much. My splits:

Mile 1: 9:53 (uphill)
Mile 2: 9:28 (uphill)
Mile 3: 8:15 (downhill)
Mile 4: 7:24 (downhill)

Total time: 35:01
Overall pace: 8:45

Now, this is where the Polar comes in handy. Not even a half-mile into my run Thursday, my heart rate was at 165. It took me about two miles on the treadmill Wednesday before my heart got to a 165. When I was coming up to the top I was about .1 miles short of an even two miles so I went downhill for about .05 miles and sprinted to the top. In a matter of .07 miles or so, my heart rate jumped from a 177 to a 185, and I felt it. I just felt empty and drained once I got to the top, and was happy to head downhill once more for the final two miles. It took me a bit to regain my composure even though I was going downhill. The last mile was great. It felt good to be able to touch a 7:24 mile, even if it was downhill-aided.

Another cool thing about Thursday's run: I crossed the 300-mile mark for the year. I've now ran about 303 miles this year.

A new weapon

Now that I'm all but officially running a half-marathon, I've done some research into the sorts of things I need to do to prepare for the race and to build up my strength, stamina and endurance ahead of this grueling race.

One of the first things I'm learning about is the tempo run, and I like what I'm reading.

A typical temp run, according to Runner's World, goes something like this: a 15-minute warm-up, 20 minutes of a challenging but manageable pace capped off with a 15-minute cooldown. That's 50 minutes of running but not all the same speed or pace.

The 20-minute run in the middle is the key, of course. It helps build up the lactate threshold (and I'll blog more about this later this week) in your body; that is, the LT measures how quickly the body fatigues at a certain pace. The the higher the LT, the more stamina you have. By building this up, you will be able to maintain your pace for a longer time.

I've not run specifically this way so it will be interesting to see how it works out for me. Initially I don't think it will be anything I'll dislike. I tend to run at different speeds throughout my longer runs (and 50 minutes to me counts as a longer run). Usually I start slowly and build up to a pace but I alternate for most of the run. I usually close out a race with a sprint at the end, and although I'm probably running pretty slow (I'm usually nice and exhausted by that point) I try to finish off strong.

Tempo runs, I believe, can be varied. For instance, I could run 10 minutes on each end for warm-up/cooldown with a 30-minute tough-but-doable time in between or extend the time to have an hour's worth of running. I'm thinking this run would be best suited for outdoors although it would be easier to adjust running speed at the gym. I'm just trying to get in the mindframe of running outdoors more often.

Regardless, though, the tempo run seems like a good addition to my arsenal of runs. And if I'm going to run as much as I think I will in 2009, I need as much ammo as possible.