I’ve gone for six runs since I last posted (and almost as many bike rides). I’m not going to catch up, but here are some highlights I’m proud of.
On the 18th, I did a hill training run. I ran to the closest steep hill and ran intervals up it. I was always slowing a lot by the top, so my last two, I broke it in half, and found it was not the slope of the hill but my endurance that was the problem. That said, I’m proud of my average speed for each of my uphill segments.
Lap Highlights
I’m also proud of my peak speed for the run being while running uphill, and of how fast it was.
Peak Speed Uphill
Today, I did an interval workout. It was tough. Randomly drawn distances from the set of {100m, 200m, 400m, 800m} (4 each of each distance but only two 800s). But Garmin thinks I got new 1K, 1 mile, and 5K records (I accepted them even though they weren’t continuous). This hard workout resulted in my run being primarily anaerobic, and my post-run weight lifting session being primarily aerobic.
It’s kind of sad to think I used to be able to run five miles in almost half that time (58%), but I used to weigh almost half what I weigh now (59%)
Fastest pace: 4:17 🎉🥂
During my last 0.1 mile speed challenge
Pace during that last 0.1 was 7:01
I’m happy with that fastest pace, even though the average for the last 0.11 was only 7:01. I really started slowing down at the end. I was kinda of winded. That 4:17 might possibly have had something to do with it.
I ran the reverse direction from what I’ve been running, and in the 5 pm afternoon sun. I had a little bump that formed on my leg, which I’m hoping a) that it was due to the lotion I had put on trapping heat in, and b) the cold water shower I took after my run resolved the issue. If not, I may not be working out for a few days while I deal with another eczema flare up.
The course is harder in reverse. It’s a little bit of downhill followed by a lot of gentle uphill, then steep uphill, and then it’s still uphill, until finally it’s downhill. I wasn’t feeling motivated to push it downhill. I still did a 0.1 “speed test” even though I was running short on time before symphony orchestra rehearsal.
Stats:
Distance: 3.1 miles
36:42
Fastest pace for the last 0.1 mile: 4:29
Average pace for the last 0.1 mile: 6:48
I also got my fastest mile since starting to use my 965: 10:13
Update: oh, and I hurdled over a hydrant. Sort-of. If my left foot had been further over, I might have caught the tip of it, and the ensuing scene would have been reminiscent of the time I hurdled three garbage cans at the curb, and my foot caught the inside lip of the last can.
Four miles. Plus a 0.1 speed challenge. Even though I already did four sprint segments.
Stats:
4.1 mi
49:28
Fastest pace 4:30 during last 0.1 mile
Also the fastest for the run!
Average pace for the last 0.1 mile: 7:02
The big downhill:
0.09 miles
0:35 time
6:38 pace
The second big downhill:
0.08 miles
0:29.5 time
6:06 pace
I slept decently last night, so my body battery wasn’t stuck at 5 like it was on Friday. It’s now at 20, with my workout impact of -22. My 965 estimates I lost almost 0.9 liters of fluid. Good thing I’m about to replace it.
Similar distance. But no comparing, because the route differences made it harder to keep my pace up: it was substantially darker, so I couldn’t see my path well enough to go faster at times. Also, I had my phone weighing me down, and I didn’t try as hard to go fast going downhill.
Stats:
3.12 mi
35:46
Fastest pace 5:01 during last 0.12 miles
Average pace for the last 0.12 miles: 6:32
My “Body Battery” according to my 965 is at 5 now, down from 79 this morning (with a max of 100 possible). My watch tells me it was a demanding day, and that I should focus on rest and recovery for the remainder of the day.
I didn’t hit my goal of a sub-35:00 5K on last Friday’s run, but last night I did it. I changed several things, so it’s hard to say which had the most impact, and which had little or no impact. But here’s what was different:
No phone weighing me down
I got a Garmin Forerunner 965. This allowed me to not lose time unlocking my phone in the dark. It also enabled better visibly for my stats, so I could see how fast I was going downhill, and try to keep the pace from slowing too much. I could see when I was dragging (especially as I approached the 2 mile mark) and pick up the pace.
I uploaded a Spotify playlist to my Garmin, with songs specifically selected with running in mind, rather than random every eclectic thing I’ve ever liked on YouTube Music. This focused list made it easier to run harder, and let me not lose time to skipping or rearranging songs (and more phone unlocking).
Because I was thinking about high knee workouts last time, I tried harder to use my hamstrings when I started going slow.
I stretched deeper and longer before my run, and I didn’t do an upper body workout the night before.
Here’s my stats:
3.1 miles
34:50, more than 9 minutes less than four runs ago
Average pace was 11:14
Top pace in last 0.1 was 4’36”
My last 0.1 mile overall was slower than it should have been because I tried to see what my instantaneous pace was while running
I’ll probably bring my phone next time, as I like being able to reflect on my run (viz. make these post-run posts) during my cool down walk home, I like being able to take pictures on my run, and it looks like I can’t control the Spotify playlist from my Garmin while in the middle of an activity. I also can’t get messages from Live Tracking if I’m sharing a feed without my phone.
After finishing 3.01 miles, on my way to the spot where I do my end of run sprint (slightly uphill), the back of my right knee was hurting, stiff, not wanting to move. Like I’d been going uphill a lot, and it was never getting the full range of motion. Because it wasn’t. This is a large part of why I missed my goal of getting faster than a 35 minute 5K: my feet were dragging because I wasn’t using my hamstrings like I needed to. So, I did a little bit of a high knee drill as I walked to my sprint spot. That helped a lot.
And even though I didn’t get my 5K time faster (oh, also there were very few sprinklers to cool me down today, as I ran an hour earlier), I did improve my sprint time:
3.11 miles
38:17
my 5K time after accounting for screen unlock time was probably 38:07
Best pace 5’32” during the last 0.1 mile
A better improvement than the Monday to Wednesday improvement
I might have one more single run dramatic improvement left in me, but I think I’m going to have to start actually training— fartlek, hill workouts, longer distances, sprint drills, etc.—to get better improvements. Losing weight will also help. For some reason a 17 minute 5K wasn’t too hard when I was skin and bone and quadriceps. Well, age may also play a role. Perhaps. Just maybe.
I did an upper body workout yesterday, so after my run I just went to the sauna for a half hour or so.
Losing fluid in the sauna
Oh, and I think I need new shoes. I’ve had these for a while, 4 years or so. They would be fine if I were my ideal weight, but….
That’s what I said comparing today’s run (well, it’s now early Saturday instead of Friday, but whatever) to Wednesday’s run would be like. I intended to do another 3 mile run, the same course, so I could have three runs in a row to compare, hoping to have a sub-11:00/mi pace today. But when I got to the top of the first hill, my body and my brain were both in agreement: I should cross the intersection and go up the next hill. So, it became a 4 mile run instead. Only problem was the app I’m using, if you’ve set a distance target, once you hit that target, it stops telling or displaying how far you’ve gone. It just displays that you have 0.0 miles to go. So I ended up stopping the official run at 3.92 miles, though I did cover enough in cool down to get 4.
When I got to the top of the next hill, and as I approached the traffic light, my belly, my lungs, and my quads were in agreement: I should head east at the light, get to my halfway point and turn around. That would prevent me from having to run down the other side of the hill, and then back up it. My brain though, it said, “Hey, as long as you give me the right song when we get to the intersection, I’m there!”
I’m still fast when sufficiently motivated by the right tune. Oh, and gravity.
I was basically trying to do a fartlek workout that became a hill workout as well, so this playlist is a pretty decent one for fartlek. Surfing With A Spoon was better for the uphill than I thought it would be. The end of Home was playing as I went 5:05; it was pretty decent for the pace. The only issue was I was at the end of the song, and there’s a bit of live outtro that didn’t help me keep up the pace. It was okay though. My body didn’t really want to keep it up much longer. I then reached 2 miles and turned around to go back up the hill.
After I was back on the relatively flat crest of the big second hill, I hit the lead up to the repeated but unanswered question, “Is It Now?”. I wasn’t intending to run fast, but that became the spike after the big spike in the middle.
As I approached the downhill of the second hill, I was listening to Summer Song, but was going to run out of fast tempo, so I switched it back to Is It Now? and got that third spike, at a 6:02 pace.
Summer Sessions Eye was a decent song for finishing out the downhill of the first hill. I feel like Impossible Shame would have been great for more fartlek if I had realized I wasn’t at 4 miles yet. The last two were cool down, but would have been good for fartlek as well.
Henry Hurdles Hydrants 