Sunday, September 7, 2008

Closing out the Week

Saturday was supposed to be an easy day, but it wasn't as easy as I'd have liked.  Started out at the gym doing some stretching and rolling followed by upper body lifting and ab work.  Then I went through my routine on hip flexors, adductors, and abductors - and I hit these guys pretty hard.

When it was time for my easy 6-miler, I was dragging - just couldn't seem to get my legs up.  I wasn't sure if it was the lack of sleep the past few days, the fact that I ran two doubles this week for the first time - (although I saw no ill effects of that so far) or the more intense workout on the adductors/abductors/hip flexors fatigued them to the point where picking up the legs was a chore.  All I knew was that I was dragging.  Time and HR were OK as I finished up the 6 miles w/ an average pace of 7:24 w/ a HR of 153 in about 85 degrees.  I figured I'd know whether or not the doubles were the issue during tomorrow's 8-miler.

Sunday's the long day for me, but the long run is every other week for right now and this week was the "off week".  So the plan today was to do 8-miles at a comfortable pace.  I was interested to see how it was going to go after Saturdays session.  I got a good night's sleep for a change and I felt refreshed all day leading up to the evening run.  We got a bit of a break from the high temps too and it was only 78 degrees at the start of the run.

My target was to start at about a 7:40 pace for the first 2-3 miles (the first mile is downhill and the next 2.3 are up hill) and then as I come back downhill the pace would naturally pick up to about 6:50 - 7:00, and I expected to average about 7:15-7:20 for the entire run.  First mile was 7:10.  I figured I'd better slow down a bit as this was supposed to be a comfortable run and I really didn't want to be paying for it later, but the 2nd mile clocked in at 7:22 up hill.  At the very least I knew the doubling during the week wasn't the cause of yesterday's issue - must have been the combo of lack of sleep and the fatigue from lifting on those key muscle groups.  The 3rd mile is a fairly steep incline and I clocked 7:22 again; this was going to be a pretty good run.  The next 3 miles clocked in at 7:02, 6:41, 6:56.  (the terrain is far from even)  A quick check of the HR showed I was still comfortably under threshold levels so I upped the pace for mile #7 - 6:29, and then finished up w/ a 6:42 up hill to take me back home.  

All in all a nice run for me.  Average pace of 6:58 w/ an average HR of 158.  (this will hopefully come down a bit as I get into better shape)

Off day for running tomorrow, (will be heading to the gym however) and the forecast says the temps will finally be coming down this week. I'm certainly looking forward to that!

Training:

9/6:  weightlifting (upper-B, core, abs)  rolling, stretching.  
  6-miles @ 7:24 pace, HR-153

9/7:  8-miles @ 6:58 pace, HR-158

2 comments:

Grellan said...

Do you typically do gym work before a run. I tend to leave it till afterwards. Looks like the 6 miler was a temporary blip.

Mike said...

Yeah if I'm going to lift on legs then I typically run first and head to the gym later. I thought I'd be OK Saturday as I didn't lift on quads, hams, or calves. But I guess the heavy work on hip flexors and abductors was enough to affect even an easy run - I won't make that mistake again.