High mileage feels so great!
I think the best part about achieving a new high in mileage is the part when you know your body has adapted. It's difficult to work your way up to it, but then all of a sudden your body just accepts this mileage as the new norm and it's as easy as your previous high.
2016 Goals:
Recent update for me. Yesterday I ran a 5k PB by 57 seconds (though my last PB was the first half of a 10k): 19:03. Looking back I know I could have broken 19. I had some watch trouble at the beginning, and I think that gave me a slightly false reading. Definitely a negative aspect of depending on your watch for pacing. Oh well, onwards and downwards (in times).
My next race is April 27th, so I have a month and a half of uninterrupted high mileage plus two workouts a week. I'm following Pfitzinger's 8-10k plan, as per his Road Racing for Serious Runners book. I actually really like this book - it presents running science in a much more digestible fashion than Daniels does. After the 10k, I'm going to switch back to Daniels and use his new half marathon plan for my half in the fall.
All business
onwards and downwards
I like this.
Congrats on the PR!
Have you ever tried running a race without a watch? Maybe worth a try. Especially a nice short race, where you can give it (almost) all you've got. Just a thought.
"If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason." J. Handy
Thanks! Looking back now maybe I was harder on myself than I should have been. At the same time, being hard on myself is what keeps me motivated to train hard.
I actually did an 8k race the week before the 5k, where I used it as a tempo run instead of a race. In that one, I went by my threshold HR and came out with a great time on a really hard course. I agree that I should at some point not use a watch. In May I have a track series, which may present the perfect opportunity to test out being watch-less!