Spring Is In The Air!
Man what a beautiful day this Friday was/is! Yesterday was almost as nice, but it wasn't a running day. Instead I swam at lunch (1500m, 22:25) and then held my first ever baseball practice as coach of a good bunch of boys and girls in the 5-7 age group. The "practice" was really more of a getting to know the parents and kids kind of thing, but next week will be more about playing the game and learning some skills as we head into the first game of the season on April 25th. By the time I got home my right shoulder was more than a little sore. I think the swimming coupled with all that throwing tweaked something so I didn't do any push ups or chin ups. I did a few sets of sit ups and my usual foot routine (about which I will come up with a post sometime soon, I promise!).
Today was back to running, and all day I was bouncing off the walls to get this run in. Like I said, the weather was amazing - almost +20C and sunny with not much wind to speak of. Also, after my really fun 5k run on Wednesday I was feeling really positive about my running and how my body seems to be responding to all the stretching and exercising that I've been doing. The foot seems to be improving slowly, the hip is no longer an issue, and my runner's knee on the right side is definitely better. In fact I have to hold myself back to make sure that all of those things keep going in the right direction.
After picking up Owen and getting home I hit the streets. My allergies to tree pollen have been kept in check for the past three seasons due to immunotherapy (which I recommend to anyone who suffers the way I used to as a result of pollen) and all I feel is this tickle in the back of my throat telling me that the trees are doing the nasty on account of the nice weather. Reproduce away, I say! Your all out, anything goes orgy cannot keep me cooped up indoors anymore.
I didn't really have much of a plan in place for the run, but after a tough week at work and with the great weather it felt very good to be running. As a result I didn't want to just jog and started off at a nice pace based on feel. Since I've been doing pretty much nothing but low heart rate stuff for a while I have no idea how my body will react to being pushed a little bit. This is why I did those faster splits on Wednesday, and probably why I ran a bit faster than I probably should have tonight.
Here are the kilometre splits (since I do not have the energy to describe them in prose):
Yes, I pushed it quite a bit there for a while and surprised myself with how long I was able to hold a decently fast pace. Laps 4,5, and 6 in particular were pretty much out of this world for me, all in the 4:30s per kilometre. Again, not that I am deluding myself into thinking that I have a shot at it, but this is how fast I would have to run for an entire marathon to come close to a BQ standard for my age group. (Scary!) In the seventh kilometre I hit a bit of a rut in the form of a side stitch, which slowed me down considerably. I also ran straight into the wind for kilometres 7, 8, and 9, making it really tough to pick up the pace even after I was able to force the side stitch to dissipate. Then, as I was nearing the end, I realized that the last kilometre would include (should I choose to take on the challenge) a significant hill in the form of Pottery Road. Basically, this presents a steady, fairly steep incline that goes for a half-kilometre before starting to level off. Needless to say, as you can tell from my last split, it was really tough and shot my heart rate up to 179bpm at one point.
In the end, however, I am very pleased with this "tempo" run. I managed the 10k in 49:55 for an average pace of 4:59/km (8:02/mile). My average heart rate was 165bpm, which was fine, but definitely high for a tempo run by a few points. All that being said it was gratifying to be able to break 50:00 even with that slow last kilometre on account of that hill (and my running out of gas). My next run in a planned 15k on Sunday morning and I will have to force myself to go really slow on that one so that my body has a chance to recover from the last two speedy runs.
Garmin don't lie.
Today was back to running, and all day I was bouncing off the walls to get this run in. Like I said, the weather was amazing - almost +20C and sunny with not much wind to speak of. Also, after my really fun 5k run on Wednesday I was feeling really positive about my running and how my body seems to be responding to all the stretching and exercising that I've been doing. The foot seems to be improving slowly, the hip is no longer an issue, and my runner's knee on the right side is definitely better. In fact I have to hold myself back to make sure that all of those things keep going in the right direction.
After picking up Owen and getting home I hit the streets. My allergies to tree pollen have been kept in check for the past three seasons due to immunotherapy (which I recommend to anyone who suffers the way I used to as a result of pollen) and all I feel is this tickle in the back of my throat telling me that the trees are doing the nasty on account of the nice weather. Reproduce away, I say! Your all out, anything goes orgy cannot keep me cooped up indoors anymore.
I didn't really have much of a plan in place for the run, but after a tough week at work and with the great weather it felt very good to be running. As a result I didn't want to just jog and started off at a nice pace based on feel. Since I've been doing pretty much nothing but low heart rate stuff for a while I have no idea how my body will react to being pushed a little bit. This is why I did those faster splits on Wednesday, and probably why I ran a bit faster than I probably should have tonight.
Here are the kilometre splits (since I do not have the energy to describe them in prose):
- 5:16 (8:28/mile pace)
- 4:46 (7:40/mile pace)
- 4:40 (7:30/mile pace)
- 4:38 (7:28/mile pace)
- 4:34 (7:21/mile pace)
- 4:37 (7:27/mile pace)
- 4:57 (7:58/mile pace)
- 5:07 (8:15/mile pace)
- 5:03 (8:07/mile pace)
- 6:14 (10:01/mile pace)
Yes, I pushed it quite a bit there for a while and surprised myself with how long I was able to hold a decently fast pace. Laps 4,5, and 6 in particular were pretty much out of this world for me, all in the 4:30s per kilometre. Again, not that I am deluding myself into thinking that I have a shot at it, but this is how fast I would have to run for an entire marathon to come close to a BQ standard for my age group. (Scary!) In the seventh kilometre I hit a bit of a rut in the form of a side stitch, which slowed me down considerably. I also ran straight into the wind for kilometres 7, 8, and 9, making it really tough to pick up the pace even after I was able to force the side stitch to dissipate. Then, as I was nearing the end, I realized that the last kilometre would include (should I choose to take on the challenge) a significant hill in the form of Pottery Road. Basically, this presents a steady, fairly steep incline that goes for a half-kilometre before starting to level off. Needless to say, as you can tell from my last split, it was really tough and shot my heart rate up to 179bpm at one point.
In the end, however, I am very pleased with this "tempo" run. I managed the 10k in 49:55 for an average pace of 4:59/km (8:02/mile). My average heart rate was 165bpm, which was fine, but definitely high for a tempo run by a few points. All that being said it was gratifying to be able to break 50:00 even with that slow last kilometre on account of that hill (and my running out of gas). My next run in a planned 15k on Sunday morning and I will have to force myself to go really slow on that one so that my body has a chance to recover from the last two speedy runs.
Garmin don't lie.
posted by Vava at
9:30 PM
2 Comments:
Nice runs. Glad your allergies are in check. Mine have been awful this weeekend:(
awesome job on that run!!!
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