Posted by Derek Lee-Wo on September 28th, 2006 in Training
I woke up this morning and my Achilles tendon felt a bit sore and I also had a slight headache. As a result, I decided I do an easy 3-mile run today.
I started off, and maintained about a pace just slightly slower than 11min/mile. It ended up being a very easy run with an average pace of 11:22min/mile and my average heart rate was 148BPM. 4-7 beats lower than my normal heart rate. When I was done running, I didn’t feel tired and my breathing was just a little faster than if I was out on a walk. In all, it was a very easy run.
This is really quite amazing when I think back just 2 months ago, I couldn’t run 3 miles without taking a little walking break and I was averaging just over 14min/mile. One month ago, I was running 3 miles, but averaging just over 12min/mile. Now I’m averaging just over 10min/mile and an 11min/mile pace is super-easy.
I have a goal of running my first marathon in 3:30 which would be an 8min/mile pace. The possibilities now seem endless and my goal doesn’t see that unrealistic giving that I have another 15 months to improve.
Posted by Derek Lee-Wo on September 25th, 2006 in Training
Sunday’s long run was another 5 miles. Based on my current training plan (which is always subject to revision), I’ll be doing 5 miles for 5 consecutive Sundays as I’m increasing the mileage on the other days. I have 2 more 5 mile long runs.
The run was actually quite easy and I am getting faster without even trying. I was more than 1.5 mins faster per mile than my previous 5 mile runs while at the same time keeping my heart rate the same.
I’ve started doing more elliptical trainer work, doing an hour on the last 2 non-running days. I plan to keep up that level of activity.
Posted by Derek Lee-Wo on September 16th, 2006 in Training
This past week, I had to travel to FL to work out of my head office. Since it’s so humid in FL when compared to TX and because of the constant rain and thunderstorms, I decided to do my running on the treadmill in the hotel’s mini-gym.
Running on the treadmill was some of the hardest/toughest running I’ve had to do in a while. Based on my heart rate, I wasn’t working any harder than normal so I have to think it just “felt” hard because of the boredom. The treadmill was facing a mirrored wall and all I could see for the entire time was myself running. This was fine for about 2 mins as it allowed me to see my running form and make sure I didn’t have any unnecessary movement, but after that, it was pure torture.
I think there are a couple reasons why it’s tougher:
- While running on the road, there is a lot to see and keep you busy
- While running, you can easily adjust your speed to be a little faster or slower, but on a treadmill, you are stuck at a set speed unless you want to be constantly pushing button
- It’s too easy to stop on a treadmill. All it takes is to hop off the treadmill. On the road, when you’re a couple miles from home, you have no choice but to continue running (or walking). You can’t just hop off the road and walk into your house.
The only good thing about the treadmill is that it lets you run when you may not otherwise go running, so that’s a huge benefit.
Posted by Derek Lee-Wo on September 10th, 2006 in Training
Today’s long run was a 5-mile run. Actually, according to my plan, it was suppose to be 4 miles, but I decided to step up my mileage a bit and I ran 5 miles today. I’m still within the max recommended mileage increase of 10% a week so I figure it’s OK.
The run went pretty well up until about 4.25 mils into the run when my legs started to feel like lead. That last 0.75 miles was tough, but I persevered and I made it .
After my urn, I was sure to eat a lot of carbohydrates. Hopefully this should leave me feeling a bit better than last week when I felt very exhausted for the entire day after my 4 mile run.
I think common sense will prevail and I’ll do 5 miles again next weekend and move up to 6 miles the week after.
Posted by Derek Lee-Wo on September 7th, 2006 in Training
Tue: Distance: 3 miles
Thu: Distance: 3 miles
Unlike the C25K plan, it’s difficult to see improvements on a day-to-day basis. After all, I’m basically running the same distance every day with the exception of my single “long” run. With the C25K plan, I would walk less and less and run more and more so there was a very obvious improvement each day.
Bit all is not lost….with technology, I can still “see” my improvements. I’ve been running with my Polar S625X and while I haven’t been trying to keep my heart rate in specific zones, I have been capturing and downloading the data to my computer. Now, when I go back and compars runs a few weeks ago to my recent runs, I can definitely see an improvement.  My heart rate is slightly lower, but even more important to me is that I’m actually running a bit faster. Now that’s improvement….running faster with the same, or slightly lower heart rate is a definite improvement. I can’t wait until I’m running 8 min miles at the same heart rate as I’m doing now.
