5 Mile mid week run - 8/10

The past couple weeks I've done a mid-week run of about 90 minutes. However, given how much I've put my legs through over the past few weeks, I figured this would be a good week to give things a bit of a rest. It also coincided with a week where I was travelling for work Sunday night through Wednesday. Even though I could have done the P90X legs routine in the hotel room, if I was going to give myself a bit of a rest, that meant no strength training that might result in muscle tightness.

As it turned out, I think I needed it. My legs definitely felt fatigued on Monday, and although better on Tuesday, they still didn't feel 100%. It was a very subtle not-quite-recovered-feeling - one that I'd have underestimated, except for the fact that this morning, it was pretty much gone. I guess it gets chalked up to 'The things you learn about how your body speaks to you..'

So instead of the 90 minute run, I just did a quick 45 minutes or so after I got home. I wanted to do something to keep my running legs, after having not run since the 20 miler the other weekend, but I certainly didn't want to do more than I could recover from between now and this weekend, when I plan on doing another 20 miles.

In my head, I still have this idea that a warm up mile or two, for me, should be done at 9:30 or 10 minute miles, a solid effort that can be sustained for a half marathon distance is about 9 minute miles (maybe closer to 8:40), and my threshold pace should be about 8:20 minute miles (based on the Daniels vdot calculation). However, ever since I started these midweek runs, and paying attention to cadence - I'm finding that the 8:45 min/mile pace puts my heartrate at or below 150 bpm - which for me tends to be my target for long and slow distance type running (ie, 9:30 min/miles). I guess I'm mostly shocked at how the combination of exercises I do, and the relatively low amount of running actually still translates to improved performance without having to do any real speed work. Or it could be that for the first time since high school, I've been able to run on a somewhat regular basis for more than about three to four months without reaching the end of the season, or being sidelined due to IT band issues.

Of course, part of the faster pace for tonights run was that I did two stints of an 8 min/mile pace for 5 minutes - just to throw a little something in.