Tuesday, July 7, 2009

40 minute run (5 miles) - 7/7

Last week I found I've been misinterpreting some of the goals for the runs that occur during the week in the Galloway program. I've been thinking that Tuesday and Thursdays runs are mostly just to get running time in. However, when reading the fine print, I found that Tuesday is supposed to be a cadence/pace/acceleration glider drill day (if recovered from weekend run), and Thursday is to be a hill workout.

Fortunately, I happen to have been doing some hill workouts and speed workouts anyway. I thought I was going a little above and beyond, but it turns out that is not the case.

So, in trying to come back to following the plan a little more closely, today was a day for pacing. The idea is to do 1-3 miles at goal pace, with walk breaks as they'd be taken during the race. To be honest, I'm starting to gravitate away from walk breaks recently. I dont know whether I'll return to them - but part of the reason I'm getting away from them is that the description of the run-walk-run ratio, as described at jeffgalloway.com, is confusing.

Total Distance: 5.25 miles
Total Time: 42:44
Avg HR: 166

This was not the fastest I've done this loop, but when compared to other times I've done this loop at ~8 min/miles, it was definately the least uncomfortable. My goal HR was between 166-172, which would correspond to a threshold pace at 88-92% my max HR. However, I didn't realize until afterwards that when I came up with that range, I was using the wrong formula for HR - so I really should have been aiming for a HR of 172-176. To be honest, though - considering I did the 5 mile race on Saturday at an average of 178, and that was only a couple days ago, I'm just as happy to not have today be a day for mid-high 170's in the HR.

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