Are you sure the HRM is functioning properly? Mine has been a little crazy the past 2 days--really high Tuesday and really low yesterday. It also crapped out mid 10k on 9/30, showing under 100 bpm on the finishing kick, I was ready to puke. Short of verifying the reading by taking it manually, it's hard to know if it's accurate.

Ya, I've verified it with manual measurements.

My wife wore it one time as she ran with me. She's in better shape than me and a faster runner, so this was a really easy run for her and her heart rate was in the 150s (or maybe it was 140s) the whole time. She was concerned that it was that high but I said "take it off and never wear one again".  Her running ain't broke and don't need fixed.

It's good for me every now and then to remind me to pick it up a bit. My MAF (180-age) is 125, which feels like about where I should be doing my casual runs. But I don't take it too seriously. I don't know my max and am not that interested in finding out.

Slow 1 mile TM warm up before 30 minutes of strength work with the trainer.  We focused on core and upper body today.

JayB and OFR - do you guys wear the LunarTempos? I found them on Amazon for like $70 something and thought I might give them a go for my speed workouts, and I know you guys have had issues with the AT's. I can't find them on RW though so IDK if they're legit off Amazon? Hopefully not knock offs.

I feel like ass today. Woke up all night long with a sore throat, and then when I got out of bed today I noticed some congestion/runny nose. Glad today's a SRD. Hoping some water and motrin do the trick and I can finish my week of running (I know it's not much running but I do like to stretch my legs most days).

 

2nd q, how much reverse tapering do you guys usually do for a half? My muscles are feeling fine so I was going to email my coach that I think I can resume speed work by next week (will have just been a tad over a week from my HM). My Achilles feels good, too.

I haven't tried them. For that price though they might be worth a try. Just have one pair of Lunaracers which I like but they're being discontinued.  Right now I'm doing speed work in the NB1400V4s which I love but will be switching to the V5 soon. The NB isn't as soft as the Lunaracer, its quite firm and more responsive. That said, I don't ever feel beat up after wearing them.

I don't have a lot of racing experience, but I personally wouldn't go doing speed work too soon after a Half. If the Half was just ran and not raced thats another story. I'm planning on 2 weeks of no Q work after this next Half.

 

Yeah forgot, they are pretty nice, and I like the Boston- slightly heavier, but much more protection/cushion, but by no means mushy. Actually a good light daily trainer IMO. They both have toe spring too though. The boost material is really pretty good stuff, but a little heavy. Adidas tend to fit snugger too.

I like the Adios, the Bostons and also the Supernova Glide.

ROS: After reading Jays post, I miss-read and was thinking Lunar Racer! Lol!    Yeah, they are very similar to the Lunar Racers and a good shoe. 8mm drop and a tad firmer without as much "bounce'. They have been discontinued for awhile, but there may be back stock still floating around. They look like the real deal when I looked on Amazon. If you can find the Lunar Racers, they run a little faster IMO. You can always just cut the strings too, if you need more room/less tightness in certain areas.

Hey thanks ROS! The wife just ordered a pair of Lunar Tempos and Lunar Racer 3s from Amazon!  They had her size, and she likes the racers for racing and speed work, and the Tempos for LRs and Tempos.  Didn't know there was any floating around, since we usually order from RW.

Now that you mention MAF, at some point after years of doing MAF, it is harder to raise the HR at easy paces, if I remember correctly.  It gets harder to run AT MAF, no?

I don't know, I've never intentionally done MAF, but I do almost always run easy. MAF is just base-building. The idea is that the stress is volume rather than intensity and you gradually become faster and faster at that low heart rate. It shouldn't get harder to run at MAF, but like everything else you do tend to wear a groove if you do the same thing every day, so maybe it does seem harder to pick up the intensity when called for.

 

I don't know, I've never intentionally done MAF, but I do almost always run easy. MAF is just base-building. The idea is that the stress is volume rather than intensity and you gradually become faster and faster at that low heart rate. It shouldn't get harder to run at MAF, but like everything else you do tend to wear a groove if you do the same thing every day, so maybe it does seem harder to pick up the intensity when called for.

I do MAF and I remember the talks about it being harder to get it to MAF both in the MAF book and some people’s experiences. I never have that issue, though. We have a group here (not sure if you are alrrady there).

I ran 11 with

2 miles wu
10x800 at 10k
2 miles cd