Saturday, April 2, 2011

5.5 mile run - 4/2/11

Once again, following on the heels of dismounting from the bike, I hopped in my sandals and started out on my run. Most of this loop follows my typical 6 mile course, but obviously with a minor modification to get the distance down to 5.5 miles.

I'm rather happy I've been able to keep the 9:00 - 9:30 pace during all of these LSD bricks. I'm certainly not blowing anyone's socks off with speed, but considering that each week I am pushing further along on the bike ride and tacking on running distance, I like the consistency. The last portion of the run, though, I am usually intentionally slowing down. After multiple hours of distance training, I decide that the last half to three quarters of a mile of the run will be slower, to keep the blood flowing but to reduce the intensity level just a bit in an effort to prevent shock to the muscles by stopping suddenly.

Garmin Results

One of the big questions in the back of my mind has been how long I keep up the half mile a week increase, and when/if I'll be able to bump that up a bit. For the most part, I've been keeping myself limited based on recovery time. I typically end these runs with a minor ache in my left foot that takes a couple days to go away. So I've been kind of using the timing of that recovery to provide me with an indication of when I'm at the point where a half mile increase is low enough, percentage-wise, that I can go up to 2/3 or 3/4 of a mile per week instead. If I am able to get to the point where I can bump up to even 3/4 mile per week, I'll be significantly less concerned about getting to 13 miles by June. As a bonus, if that happens, I'll even be able to do something on the order of 10-12 miles a couple times before then, which will really help with aerobic conditioning.

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