Yep, that works well

0jeff • 26th Oct 2009 • exercise • running

So my entire week running last week was great.  I’m pretty sure it’s because of the proper easy run on Monday.  My legs just felt like the had a lot more “go” in them all week long.

I’d never call a hill workout easy, but last week it felt manageable.  I was definitely gassed towards the end, but never felt like I was going to die like every single week before this one.  The Thursday tempo run was good too.  I wasn’t particularly faster or anything but again, my legs felt much better afterward than they normally have.

The real kicker was our 10 miler on Saturday.  I stuck to my plan of making sure I finished with negative splits.  With the exception of an unexpected hill in the middle (new route last weekend) it went really well.  Over the last 5k, I had plenty of gas in the tank for a strong finish.  Most people say, “I want to be below ‘X’ pace on this run”.  I take a different approach in that I don’t want to be faster than ‘X’ on a given run.  This keeps me from jackrabbit starts.  It also keeps me from getting too ahead of myself when I feel strong on a run.

Because of this reverse emphasis on pace, I don’t put too much stock into my overall pace.  If I take care of business by following my plan and executing the weekly runs the right way, the overall pace per mile will take care of itself.  The 10 miler on Saturday was the first run I’ve had where it finally came together.  I’ve been averaging between 9:50 and 10:15 per mile for all of the long runs up to this point.  This weekend, I ran a 9:33 over the longest run of the season.  I’m pretty happy with that!

This week is our last week of hills before track workouts start.  Hopefully I can get more benefit out of them this year than I did last year.