Six Instead of Five

Saturday, Dec 13:

Six miles at the North St Paul Community Club. I’m thinking I’ll see how far I can go on that track at a pace of 9:00 or better. I’ve done several recent five-mile runs at that pace, and here’s a six-miler. Time to try seven or eight. This did seem a little like a race, though. Breathing rate was mostly four footfalls per full breath, but toward the end it went to three, indicating a race pace. When I try seven or eight miles I’ll have to stick closer to 9:00 pace in the beginning - no miles at 8:37 or 8:31 unless I can speed up for one mile at the end.

Ramping up now from 20 miles per week toward 40, at about 10% increase per week. That’ll be 22 miles this week, thank you. Six down and 16 to go.

Splits: 9:05, 8:37, 8:31, 8:45, 8:49, 8:37, total 52:23, pace 8:44.

Wednesday, Dec 10:

Woodbury Runners regular Wednesday evening run. Rich, Pete, Jack, Jim, & myself. Rich hadn't run for a couple of weeks, and I was looking forward to a nice easy run for a change, so I ran with Rich and enjoyed a good conversation with him.

He has an ability that I don't have: When he's been going too fast, he can keep on running but slow down to compensate, whereas I tend to run too fast and then need to walk a bit, all out of breath. We finished the 5.2 miles in about 58 minutes, about the same as two weeks ago despite the layer of soft snow that should have slowed us a little.

Nike Milers this time - they have such an aggressive tread and far less ventilation that any of my other shoes. Great for outdoors in the winter even though they are meant to be lightweight track shoes.

Tuesday, Dec 9:

N St Paul Community Center once again, five miles once again. We always go together to NSPCC, my sweeties and I, usually in the morning and often before breakfast. Today it was in the afternoon, though, a couple of hours after lunch. I wasn't sure how that would work out, because I do better with more time between food and running, so I was a little surprised that it was just fine. No tummy trouble.

These days it seems like my indoor-track "cruising" speed for a modest-length run like five miles is about 8:45 per mile. It's the pace my body wants to run if I don't look at my watch. That's OK with me, actually. It would probably be a little slower in an outdoor running environment, particularly in the winter, but not a lot slower.

This time I was inspired by a recent post about "speed work" in Peter's Blog and decided to push a little toward the end, resulting in an 8:11 last mile. That's fine. Most interesting, my breathing did not increase in speed any more than my leg turnover increased in that mile. Four footfalls per full breath throughout, which says that there was more speed available, because I know I can run run at least a mile breathing faster at a rate of three footfalls per full breath. I wonder if there's any chance that my strength is increasing just a little with the recent reduction in dexamethasone dosage. That would be nice. Time will tell.

It is time to ramp up the mileage again, from 20 miles per week back up to 40. Easy does it.

Splits: 9:05, 8:45, 8:46, 8:47, 8:10, total 43:33, pace 8:43.



Dinner: Bison crock pot with free-range bison and organic carrots, organic broccoli with shredded parmesan cheese, organic red grapes. As good as it looks, and good fer ya too.