How am I feeling today?

The sun is and is expected to be a great day weather-wise and, I am feeling pretty good as well. D2 sent me this photo from her home – A tree frog sleeping in her flower early this morning. Not too often that you see that.

This morning, I get to do a faster workout to get the old wheels spinning a little faster than usual but still not up to race pace. However, if I am patient and don’t do too many stoopid things, I will be closer in a couple of months. Now is the time to be patient and stick to being smarter than usual, even if it is hard sometimes. Hehehehe.

Planned Workout Description: 

• Intervals – 8×1:00 minute with 1:00 recovery

Per Stryd: “Your last workout of your training plan is 8 x 1:00 at 106-116% of your Stryd Auto-Calculated Critical Power. This last workout gives you one more opportunity to feel out your goal power for race day and to boost your confidence to stick to your targets! After your last repeat run an easy cool down.”

Today’s Running Focus

· Run smahter!

What I Did Today: 

Wildwood 4.0 Miler – 8 x 1:00 with 1:00 recovery

Warm-up – 7:00 minutes

Target Range	Time	Avg Power	Pace	Cadence	Heartrate
163-186	6:59	210	8:34	172	129

Run/Recover – 8×1:00 with 1:00 recovery

Target Range	Time	Avg Power	Pace	Cadence	Heartrate
247-270	8:01	266	7:08	180	155
116-163	8:00	208	9:51	166	1577

Cooldown – 7:00

Target Range	Time	Avg Power	Pace	Cadence	Heartrate
151-175	7:01	207	9:55	166	149

Unplanned

Target Range	Time	Avg Power	Pace	Cadence	Heartrate
—	6:37	217	10:15	167	153

Did the workout go as planned?

Yes.

I finished the 8 x 1:00 minute intervals near the top of the planned Power number, and as always, the warm-up, recoveries, and cool-down portions averaged between 208 to 217. It probably doesn’t help that coming back, there are a couple of long bumps.

Although the last three intervals were pretty challenging to keep going until the end of the minute. The last one ended in front of a house and I had my head down to finish. I didn’t see the dog being restrained by the owner and came a little closer than I normally would have to that pitbull. I apologized to owner as I flew by with that little spurt of adrenaline from seeing the dog suddenly as it was lunging at me. I just kept moving quickly away from the dog at the point.

I had thought about doing a little burst on Stevens Hill and then again at the end. By the time I got to Stevens Hill, I simply eased on to finish the run. I was pretty well spent.

Injuries/Niggles: The Achilles felt pretty good the entire run, and nothing else bothered during the run, so that was one of the first runs that felt pretty normal in quite a while.

Weather: Clear sky, 71°F, Feels like 71°F, Humidity 65%, Wind 9mph from SW

Shoes: Carbon X1 – I didn’t think about them once I started running. I was focused on the workout and keeping the beat to the music. I wasn’t worried about my feet at all – which is all I want.

What did I learn today?

The warm-up was a bit too fast and I felt it on the last three intervals and coming back up Stevens Hill to the finish.

I need to stop whining and worrying so much about the Achilles, it is progressing, but maybe if I don’t focus on it quite as much, it will not be as big a concern. It seems that every little thing that I feel in that area is magnified out of proportion. We will see.

I like the way that I run in the Carbon X1s, they feel better than other shoes do to me, but at the same time, I don’t want to start running in them exclusively. Especially as a certified running shoe geek, I like trying new shoes too much to see which ones work better for me.