huge gains
Holy moly, the miles I’ve been running are really starting to pay off:
- My hard run paces are getting faster. Earliest to latest, my last three hard runs were run at 8:14, 8:09 and 8:00 minutes per mile. What’s really cool about the last pace is that a) It’s a 3:30 marathon training pace, and b) I ran it with an average 163 heart rate - midway into my “hard” heart rate training zone.
- Working heart rate is decreasing. I was astounded to run my second last “easy” run at an average heart rate of 139 beats per minute. My admission is that I set out to see how low a heart rate I could do that run in but, to me, that’s still incredible since two months ago, I struggled to keep my heart rate under 155 running the slowest pace I could run at.
- I’m still trimming down. One week ago, I weighed in at 169 pounds. I believe I’ve lost about 7 pounds in the last couple of months and I haven’t been under 170 in two years.
- I’ve gained muscle mass in my hamstrings. Those puppies are really growing!
I’ve been 60 miles/week for a few weeks now and I feel pretty darn good. Compare that to a couple of years ago training at 45 or so miles a week and feeling tired and beat up. I think kudos are due to Coach Andrew, Arthur Lydiard and my much improved running form.
Today’s Run
Distance: 7.64 miles
Time: 1:01:15
Pace: 8:00 min/mile
Avg Heart Rate: 163
Comment by Andrew
Friday December 29, 2006 @
Those miles do pay big dividends. It is the one training component - beyond speed, tempo, hills, etc. - that will grants the greatest improvement. I know it’s called ‘base’ building and sometimes that implies a sense of unimportance. Nothing further from the truth. Without the base, nothing can stand. Speed, tempo, hills, strength, form, etc. will not deliver without something to stand on.
Base building is hard. And it’s nice to see improvements but as you know, it takes a little while. But unlike speed sessions, this improvement won’t go away. Get injured, it stays with you. Take a holiday, it stays with you. High mileage runners even look good in their caskets.
It doesn’t surprise me that the HR is coming down and the speed is going up. It’s only physics. New capacity is being created in terms of oxygen consumption, transportation, and utilization. (Lungs, heart, legs).
While high mileage is the key, your schedule allows for recovery and works all your leg fibers. For a good discussion on leg fibers see . Running hard then easy at aerobic efforts creates enough balance to keep you relatively injury free.
Keep up the great work.