Notes
Temp 63 Wind 5 mph. Wind died out and temp up to 68 by end of run.
Long Run. Wanted to sleep and eat more before heading out, but weather channel is changing the forecast every hour. No interest in racing the rain today, so here we go. Week to increase volume...not good timing. #2 son's college graduation this weekend. Friday & Saturday featured 3-4 hours cramped in the car each day, a night cramped in a hotel room, Saturday morning run cramped on vintage 90s model True treadmill, then over 4 hours cramped into hard auditorium seat for ceremony. Hard to guess why this may be tight or that may be sore. Oh well, just life stuff, the good kind that you wouldn't miss for the world.
Switching it up. Straight to the track for drills and striders. 2 x skipping / 1 x high knees / 1 x carioca / 1 x bounding. Jogging / strider / jogging intervals. Went progressive on striders starting at half speed and working up to three-quarters effort. All under 6:00 and peaking in mid 5s. Moved on to City Park. Pee and water break five miles in. Numbers (pace and average heart rate) better than previous weeks. Go figure.
Continue on to Terrace Hills / Cold Creek developments. Finish off first seven miles of run right at 60-minute mark. Go immediately into Tempo Effort for next three. Have selected most adverse and brutal terrain I can get my feet on. Couple of these hills need ladders. Plan today was to deplete glycogen stores, then focus on running about 20 minutes at even tempo effort over straight up and down hills. Told myself not to stress the time. Results were: 7:32 @ 167 Ave. HR / 7:31 @ 168 Ave. HR / 7:42 @ 171 Ave HR. Couldn't contain the drift in final mile. Positives - (1) Have done sessions of HARD mile repeats out here. Best times have been in 7:10-7:15 range. (2) These hills are steep; the way a Garmin measures, probably did closer to 3.10-3.15 miles. Walked until HR back to 120, then finished it off with a 3.21 mile jog home at LR pace. Included short water break.
Week 4 in the books. Next up Week 5 - Pupil Turns into Dumbass Week. Racing one week earlier than program absolutely, positively, black and white says not to. Can't resist biggest area race of the year. 400-500 runners, all adults with HS kids still in season. Plan is not to do anything stupid before, during, or after race to get hurt. Will show up, take off, and run at whatever pace comes to me. Not doing the go out hard and try for a PR thing. I'll finish where I finish. No need to worry about embarassing myself. Truth is, anymore, there is only a handful of people in this area code who can beat me in a road race of any distance; and none my age or older since early last summer. Would be shocked if there are more than 6-10 that will show up for this one. Check competitiveness (i.e. ego) and start line, run, and be happy with whatever AG award I bring home. Real reward weeks down the road.