DopeyBadger
Imagathoner
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2015
I wanted to post about today's run while it's fresh in my mind. I have some takeaways that I really need to drill into myself.
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To start, yesterday's run was pretty uneventful. I will say that short runs *feel* more difficult sometimes, . It's absolutely a mental thing because my HR is low, but they are just so boring. I always look at my watch and grumble at the fact that I *still* have a mile left, etc., yet on longer runs those short miles feel like nothing.
Alright. Today's run. As a reminder, here are what my paces are supposed to be. I was to run 1 mile easy (15:24), 2 miles at M tempo (13:24), and 3 miles at HM tempo (12:51).
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Things started out on track. I purposefully tried to keep my warm up mile slow. My easy runs have been a little fast this whole training plans. I was successful and finished the mile at 12:25.
My 2 mile M tempo interval did not go quite as well. I finished the 2 miles at an average pace of 12:47. You'll notice that this is a couple seconds faster than my HM tempo. What's frustrating is that while running it, I did try to be cognizant of my pace, but attempted not to glance down at my watch all too much. I didn't want to hurt my breathing either. Clearly, not successful. Still, it was hard, but it went pretty well.
My 3 miles HM tempo interval is where things really went off the rails. I finished the 3 miles at an average pace of 12:22 - very close to 10k pace. The splits were:
I was able to finish, but not without a case of some pretty unpleasant side stitch again. It popped up at about mile 4.2 of the run (just after I started Mile 2 of the HM tempo interval). I was able to push through it. I took @JAMIESMITH 's advice, which did help a bit (thanks!). It's crazy to look at mile 2 and see that it was only 9 seconds slower than mile one. I started walking a portion of my run intervals for most of mile 2. This means that when i was running, I was running way too fast. I'm beginning to think running too fast during these runs is negatively affecting me. Not only is it making the runs harder than they should be, but they are also affecting my breathing and causing side stitch.
- Mile 1: 12:20
- Mile 2: 12:29
- Mile 3: 12:15
I'm not purposefully running faster than I should. I'm very frustrated by how poorly I am at pacing myself. I've been on a DB plan since last April and I STILL struggle with pacing. I seem to go a full "tempo" faster than I should be at all times, even when I *think* I'm going slower and actively try to slow down. I don't know how to get my mind and my body to figure it out, but something really needs to give or I'm going to keep getting side stitch or end up injuring myself.
Anywho, just about a month until Princess and I'm very excited! The trip is super chaotic (outside the races) at the moment because a very large friend group is going, but no one can seem to figure out what they are doing and have put me and a one other friend in charge of making plans. Yet, getting answers from anyone is like pulling teeth. Gah!
Looking forward, Sunday will be my longest run ever at 10 miles! Slowly working toward that half marathon!
Well you could look at it through one lens and see that you're going too fast based on what was originally scheduled. Doing HM Tempo for M Tempo and 10k for HM Tempo.
But look at it through a different lens. You just did about 5 miles of a hair above 10k pace in the middle of a training plan with additional miles the day prior. And I bet you didn't necessarily feel like it was an all out effort for those 5 miles, right? So maybe you are going a touch too fast, but maybe you've made the gains you're hoping for. Now with that being said, the warning is always that cardio gains outpace those of muscular gains. It usually comes at the 8-12 week mark in training. This is Week 11. So the danger of this time period is that you feel like you can (cardio), but your body isn't ready yet (muscular). So I think you're proving that once you get to race day you can, but at this moment in time try hard to keep pulling back. Clearly based on the easy days you can run slower. So maybe mentally think of HM Tempo workouts as M Tempo instead? Then it would equal HM Tempo (cause you're one notch too fast).