Blog notes:

The older posts from my old pointless version are here, just click "older posts" at the bottom. Some have useful things in them, you will however have to look really hard to find them. The one post design is much less cluttered and keeps things easily navigable.

Today - the merits of faster than MP running.

I frequently struggle with pacing, especially now running at high volume. No doubt when I was 20, my standard 8 mile run rarely got over 6 min/mile pace for very long. Now, just holding under 7 min/mile for 14-20 miles a pop seems to offer just as good a training stimulus.

When the pace ramps up however, I find that I have some learning to do.

Currently, I'm not in very "fast" shape. Today's workout of what I like to call "Fancy Fours" was, to amicably put it, ball-busting. It went as follows:

-4 miles ~6:30 pace to warm up
-4 miles at LT 5:08/5:02/5:02/5:08 on out and back on Reedy Creek Road. (20:20
-4 miles 6:45-7:00 pace
-4 miles at LT 5:18/5:09/5:19/4:34 (same course-major GPS malfunction en route(20:25)
-4 miles ~6:45-7:15 cool down

The threshold pace felt very much above my actual threshold, meaning that I was not really training that particular system. This is ok for me because currently I'm just training hard and running hard, and it's working me over. In the near future, I hope that pace is a manageable LT pace that I can hold for about 9-10 miles without more than manageable distress.

As for the original intent of the thread, running faster than MP is useful (I feel) for being able to race other distances (obviously) and for the very real chance that in the last mile of the Chicago Marathon I'm going to have to burn the last two miles in less than ten minutes to get under 2:19. I'd like to be as well-rounded a runner as possible, like Shaq shooting free throws. Wait, not like that at all.

Wildlife check: Today - Northern Mockingbird, Field Sparrow, Goldenthroat, Whitetail Deer. I'm very disappointed in the reclusiveness of most snakes at Umstead this spring and summer.