For some reason, I was hoping my tempo run last night would leave me brimming with confidence leading into the race on Saturday. While my confidence isn’t shattered, I still don’t “feel” like a runner who can break 20:00. I did a heart rate tempo, similar to the one I did two weeks ago. I aimed to do this one a bit easier, although last night would see a 3.5 mile tempo (vs. 3 miles on 4/1). I split up the tempo run a bit differently than on 4/1… during that workout, I ran mile segments with my heart rate between 160-166, 166-172, and 172-178. Because I thought the last mile was a bit fast, I changed this to segments of 160-165, 163-168, 165-170, and a final half mile at 168-174. I think this ended up being too slow, although much closer to my actual tempo pace than two weeks ago: Mile 1 4/1: 8:23 (avg HR 164) 4/15: 8:35 (avg HR 164) Mile 2 4/1: 7:43 (avg HR 170) 4/15: 8:18 (avg HR 168) Mile 3 4/1: 7:08 (avg HR 174) 4/15: 8:02 (avg HR 170) Final ½ mile 4/15: 7:19 mile pace (avg HR 174) Total of 5.75 miles on the day including warm up and down. My only concern is that I ran the final half mile at the same HR as the third mile two weeks ago, but at a slower pace. While that doesn’t bode well for my goal on Saturday, it doesn’t change my strategy as of right now. I still want to go out in 6:30 for the first mile (although no faster), and hopefully repeat that for the second mile. However, gun to my head, I’d say this Saturday doesn’t look like it will be the day. I’d be very happy with breaking 21:00 again, and elated if I get under 20:30.

The yoga studio offers classes that are 13-weeks long. As I’ve already mentioned, I purchased 13 classes, and intend to take one per week on Sunday mornings (if so inclined, one could buy classes to take two or three per week, or any other variation you can think of). This particular class cycle began the day after Val’s party last weekend. Being that I was up until almost 2am, I definitely punted getting up at 7am for class. Therefore, I had a class banked to “make up,” which I chose to use last night. The class I’m taking is the Level I “Yoga for Beginners” class. I’m not completely sold on my Sunday morning instructor, as (1) so far the class has been limited to stretching and some light poses, and (2) she focuses way too much on the spiritual part for my taste. The Thursday evening instructor was completely different… she was a short gray-haired woman who beat the crap out of me for 90 minutes. There was a little bit of stretching, but a whole bunch of poses that pretty much had me begging for mercy. She also left out a lot of spiritual stuff, and instead spoke of yoga in more physical and cultural terms. Needless to say, I enjoyed this session much more, and will likely begin to attend this class regularly once my June summer class ends. I left class somewhat worried about how the poses would leave me feeling for today and tomorrow. Fortunately, my legs felt fine when I got up to run this morning. I was somewhat stiff when I began stretching, but loosened up quickly. My shoulders are a bit sore, but in a good way. My back actually feels incredibly good. I think that a 12 week training period of max aerobic (i.e., “low HR”) mileage, weekly yoga, and semi-weekly gym sessions are going to be key in getting into half marathon shape. I’m toying with the idea of having one o the gym sessions follow a light maintenance run, and be a completely weight-less routine… for instance, 100 push-ups, 50 pull-ups, dips, and a solid core routine. Of course, the push-ups and pull-ups will be done over several sets, with the goal of decreasing the number of sets to the goal amount. I have two months to tweak this program, though.

Being that you're getting into higher mileage training (and given all the speed/hill work you do), in may not be a bad idea to throw a weekly yoga class in the mix. It's excellent cross training.

That was quite a post-race cool down! I typically never do more than a half mile cool down after a 5k because, well, why? Running a hard race is more than enough excuse to take it easy for a little while --- you've earned it! But, if you truly enjoy running that much for the pure pleasure of it ... I'm debating over how to train this week. Since the next intended 5k is less than two weeks away, I'm wondering whether it would be overkill to do something intense this week like a 5000 pyramid or a 3 X 1600 workout. Rather, maybe I should just catch up on mileage this week, hopefully getting it up over 30 (I really need to get back to running five days a week rather than just four). I would of course do another moderate sprinting workout next week. Thoughts??

I would like to report proudly that my workout today was mostly not on the treadmill. I used the elliptical machine and the cycling machine. I did use the treadmill for a few minutes, but that ended rather abruptly with me falling off of it, attempting to dismount it by riding it back to the wall, while it was going much too fast for that (I now know in retrospect). So, not only was I mostly on other machines, but even when I was on the treadmill, I was quickly no longer on it, but rather on the floor behind it... No serious injuries -- just a bruised finger and slightly bruised pride.

Why not use the Forerunner's workout program to do intervals around your neighborhood? That would certainly save a lot of time and money.

Took Mon & Tues off (except for some exercise machine stuff & ill-fated 3min on treadmill one day). Today ran est. 1:40 around Boston. Boston Common is pretty and has some kind of hilly parts -- with stairs. Saw the Cheers bar sign. Ran Charles River both sides between Harvard bridge & Longfellow bridge. Boston downtown is small enough to run around it pretty easily for not too long a run. Estimate 12.5 mi. Will take tomorrow entirely off as well.