Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Runstreak day 13 & 14 - 3/20/12

Monday I continued the runstreak with a quick 1.5 miles (with dogs) before Yoga.  It was a bit of a plod - I was still fatigued from the weekend and the legs just didn't have a bunch of bounce in them.  The RPE was definitely higher than normal for the 9 min/mile pace.

Tuesday I did the 6 mile loop around the office at lunch.  While slightly better than the previous days run, the avg HR was 152 (~75% HRmax) - definitely on the higher side than typical for this run. I figure it's due to a mix of factors: residual fatigue from this weekend (13 mile run on Saturday, 46 mile bike ride on Sunday), lack of nutrition (no real dinner after yoga last night, and only my typical breakfast of a clif bar and chocolate milk this morning), and this HEAT!! I wilt quickly in hot weather! I was probably a little dehydrated as well.

Earlier in the day, I was toying around with the idea of doing a couple intervals, since I'm in Phase II of my original plan - but I decided to hold off on that kind of thing. So much for the plan, right? Since I'm trying to up my volume from ~25 mpw to ~40 mpw, I should probably just increase training intensity in one way only (volume), instead of two (volume & speed). Glad I did, because it was obvious in the first half mile that my body clearly wasn't ready to do intervals with maximum benefit and minimal risk.

If my runs continue to be this labored, I'll be pretty certain that it is a result of the increase in volume. And yes, labored is relative - we're only talking about the difference in HR of a handful of beats per minute.  I realize pace will slow with the heat, but the legs still feel heavier than typical.

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