9 miles easy offroad.
A steady ten mile run.
5 miles of hard effort.
The 9 was in Gelt Woods on Saturday morning.
The 10 was on Sunday morning and was immediately followed by the 5 mile effort.
It was a superb day for running - bright and sunny, scarcely any wind, and a cool temp.
The 10 miles felt easy, as my heartrate indicated it should, averaging 151 for the 66mins 20 seconds it took me to complete. Ten months ago, such a heartrate would have elicited a result 20-30seconds per mile slower so I must be doing something right.
I had wondered what pace I might achieve for the final 5 mile 'effort'. 6:25 seemed a reasonable target as that would be 13 seconds per mile faster than the 10 I had just ran. As I started I simply ran as hard as I could, not checking the Garmin until 1.5 miles into the 5 which was at the highest point of the run. Delighted to see 6:14 showing I knew I wouldn't fall back to 6:25 no matter what. Pressing on I maintained exactly this pace to the end.
I had never ran 15 miles in quite this manner before but I think it was good training. It took a bit of deciding what pace to run the first 10 at. Perhaps I should have done it in 65 mins then followed up with a 6:20 five miler? Anyhows, that's the last long run for a few weeks. In two weeks time is the Brampton to Carlisle 10 which means next weekend will be just 10 miles but at very hard effort.
This coming week will be the hardest I have set myself for a long time. On Tuesday the mile reps will go up to six. Wednesdays easy 7 to 8 hasn't gone well recently - doing 7:20 odd pace with the dog on a lead has made my legs feel awful. I think it might be better to run at about 6:45-6:55 pace but only do 6 miles. Thursday I haven't decided for certain yet - possibly 8 again but trying to beat last weeks pace of 5:58. the alternative would be to do 10miles at just over 6minute miling - I'll see what Plucky thinks.
No comments:
Post a Comment