Whoo Hoo! I can't believe we're in week 4 already. Things are going well, I've no injuries to report, knock on wood. I am adapting well to Hal Higdon's Advance Marathon training plan. Today is cross-training Monday. I was just a little bit worried that once I get on the bike, I might start to feel how tired my legs really are from yesterday's long run and the 5K on Saturday. Sometimes I don't fully realize how tired I really am until I've started my exercise. It turned out better than I thought. The legs are adapting well to the stresses I'm putting them into.
It was a nice day to run outside, but I resisted the temptation--well sort of. I got on the bike to cycle for 31 minutes--the one minute was because I didn't want to stop at a fraction. I wanted an even 9 miles on the bike so I had to go over the 30 minutes. I completed my usual spin routine and upon finishing, stretched out the quads and hammies and headed out for one mile of shake-out run. At first, the legs didn't feel like they were mine. But after a half mile into the run, they started feeling like they are mine again and I can control them. At the turnaround my pace was 9:05. I was surprised because it didn't seem like I was going that fast. (I'm a comfortable 4:30 marathoner, an equivalent a 10:18 minute/mile. So anything faster than 10:18 is fast for me.) When I finished, my overall pace for the one miler was 8:40. I am liking this routine of running for one mile right after a hard spin workout.
Tomorrow's workout is the mid-week long run for 6 miles, what Hal Higdon calls the "sort-a-long" run. Right now the mid-week run is still fairly short. The true test will come later, when it ramps up to 9-10 miles. I'll see then if I will be able to hang on to the rigors of the plan. I am enjoying this journey so far.
Happy running and thanks for reading.
No comments:
Post a Comment