Mile repeats - 9/3

It was with much dread today, after the pain and suffering of last weeks mile repeats, that I reluctantly went ahead with the training schedule and did three more mile repeats today.

I changed it up a bit today though - last week I'd finish the 1.1 mile loop and continue jogging around the loop, making my checkpoint where ever I was that my heart rate settled down to 150. Today I started each loop at the house and at the end of the loop I just jogged in circles in the road until my HR came down. This way each mile was equivalent to the last - the first 1/4 mile being a gradual but noticable downhill, the next half mile being barely downhill to flat, and the last 1/4 mile being uphill. Although there is something to be said for keeping things randomoized (look up what a fartlek is), this time I wanted something more consistent.

Also, today I went for an average HR during the repeats of 165, rather than 170. Mostly because I felt, after last weeks trying to average 170, that 165 is more of an appropriate HR range for a 5-10k, which is the pace these mile repeats are supposed to be at, according to the training plan I'm following.

Warm up - 9:44 avg HR 126
Mile 1 Repeat - 8:25 1.1 Miles avg HR 162
Rest down to HR of 150 - 1:40
Mile 2 Repeat - 9:07 1.1 Miles avg HR 166
Rest down to HR of 150 - 1:05
Mile 3 Repeat - 9:08 1.1 Miles avg HR 166

A couple things jumped out at me when I was crunching the numbers:
- the pace of the mile repeats was significantly faster than last weeks pace! Perhaps the long runs and piling on of mileage helps speed more then I thought. Perhaps going with 165 vs 170 gave me the reserve energy to charge up the hills a bit faster. Perhaps it is just evidence that last weeks speed work was effective.
- the recovery time to get my HR down to 150 was noticably faster as well. I'd attribute this mostly to better overall aerobic capacity, especially after this past Monday's workout(s) - but I'm not positive.
- As each loop was actually 1.1 miles - that gives me an average pace of 8:01 per mile! The last time I came anywhere CLOSE to that pace was way back in April 2006 (yes, I've been tracking every run I've gone on since then), when I went for a run just to see how fast I could do 2 miles. My pace was 8:06 per mile, and my average HR was 176! Granted that was all in one shot where this was split up - but still.