Well, I figure I need to post something as I am keeping a blog here.
Here is another piece of evidence that we are moved to do what we do by virtue of being worshipers and that we are all in pursuit of some glory. What we do is an expression of what we want and what we want is a product of what captures our hearts affections.
I was reading on Geoff Roes blog recently, Fumbling Towards Endurance at akrunner.blogspot.com/. The guy kicks ass. He just won H.U.R.T 100 in Hawaii, widely considered in ultrarunning circles to be one of the toughest ultras out there. He set a new course record. He hadn't even focused on this race as a goal. It was a tune-up race for the upcoming season. What I'm trying to say is the guy is freaking hardcore and talented and fit.
When you read his blog, he runs by PRE, perceived rate of exertion, not hr. Several top runners do this such as Dean K., David Goggins, Karl Meltzer, and others. Well, I read his blog and said, I want to do that too. Just run. Forget all this hr monitor crap. I went over to Runningahead.com to the Swamp, a group of experienced runners to talk about it. Result? I went out yesterday and ran without my hr monitor alarms on that would normally signal me to slow down and keep my hr down. I did this for three miles, before I was tired. I then turned em back on and ran the last 2.5 slowly again. The point: I was captured by this guys training style and success and wanted to be like him. Couple that with frustration over the slow pace of low hr training and bammo, I ditch my normal approach and do something different. I became convinced however that if I want to keep running, I have to do most things slowly, and my hr monitor helps me run slow for now, so I'll keep it up.
Now, another thing to note. Those 3 miles of tempo running made my pace faster today. I've noticed this before when I did this. I will run slowly all weeek and throw another 1.5 miler in there next week as a tempo run to see what happens. I felt bouncy and light today, legs felt strong. 20:1 is the ratio of easy mile to tempo from Van Aaken but he doesn't advocate tempo runs till 2 years after base building. I will do it again next week and see what happens. Later everyone, or anyone that is an nobody has left any comments on the blog.
So, I've noticed a trend in my running lately.