Good lord, can it be?! Am I really getting into running???
Went for another jaunt around the neighborhood this afternoon, this time a full loop, down to the lake, up and around. Never thought I would say this but I actually enjoyed it. You can take in a bit more of your surroundings when running as opposed to cycling and the views from Black Brook Rd. are pretty sweet.
Today I was trying to figure out how to pace myself. My first two runs this season felt a little herky jerky. Fast starts, mini bonk, level off. I wanted to try and even that out a bit. I set the Garmin to auto lap at 1 mile so I could keep track of my splits and I think I was pretty successful.
Loop came in at just under 4.5 miles and for the first two I was coming in at about 7:45/mile, third mile was just over 8 and mile 4 was about 9:20 (but it was also straight up a huge hill). And after that huge hill I was able to recover and bring my pace back down to just over 8mins for the last half mile.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/19738572
I felt like this was a pretty sustainable pace for me, I can usually gauge how much I have in the tank by my recovery rate after a bigger effort. I bounced back quickly after the effort up and over the hill on Eagle Ledge Rd so I think I could have easily gone another few miles at that pace. No knee pain and so far basically no soreness. Progress continues.
I also tried out running Pandora on my Blackberry for music and I was very pleased. Pretty slick little app and decent sound quality. I'll need to set up some more stations...or at least one called 'Running' based on Eye of the Tiger and Final Countdown...c'mon.
you'll figure it out. i re-learn my pace pretty quickly every time I have randomly started running again. Follow the dirty mike pace plan: start at a comfortable jog and hold it as long as you can essentially. Do this a few times but end strong. As time goes by, memorize checkpoints and increase your speed as they go by. End in a full sprint. Like, death. Your body will figure out pretty quickly how fast you can go to be able to continue doing this.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure I just wrote the most basic knowledge/nonsense ever about pacing and tried to pass it off as my own. your welcome.
I figured out how to breathe in the cold weather again, and am pretty stoked about running again. Went out three times last week, would like to get rollin harder this week. Mike was right, it never gets fun. There are usually more reasons not to do it than there are to do it, but for me at least, the pay off is better. I feel way JACKED UP after a good 5k. I need new shoes pretty bad. I am pretty dedicated to NB's but have had good experience with North Face in the past. I'm thinking I might switch it up once mud season is over.
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