Today I had a workout where after a nice little warm up, I was to run 3 miles with my heart rate staying between 147 and 153. Since my heart rate got there during the warm up, I decided to bump it up ten beats.
It didn't seem to help much.
This was the first workout that I *wanted* to run faster, harder - anything but the exaggerated slow slog I was doing. My pace was somewhere around a shameful 10:45 minute mile. Now, I'm by no means a speed demon, but I can always run a 10 minute mile, even while sick/in pain/recovering from food poisoning. Case in point: I decided that I wanted to run 10 minute miles in the Mini, and my overall pace was 9:59 (makes me wonder if I had picked say, 9:45s, would I have done it?), and I was not pushing it, even in Iroquois Park.
I understand that I need to do this type of training. I shouldn't go out and run every training run fast(er) just because I can - but today just seemed to go on forever. I did, however, wonder why the workout was allotted 60 minutes to warm up and run 3 miles. Are there people out there slower than this turtle?
This whole training for endurance thing is just taking some time to get used to. A few years ago, a 2hr (or once, just slightly under 2 hr) half-marathon was the norm. But, that was before I ever ran a full marathon. (I was also 6 pounds lighter, which I'm sure had something to do with it, too.) Since my runs were somewhere between 4 and 12 miles, I could run faster all the time. Once the runs started lasting what seemed like the whole damn morning, I had to slow down. My stumpy legs just can't keep going like that. I'm 5'3" with most of my height coming from my torso. I was not built for speed over long distances. My mother keeps telling me that I was not meant to be a runner. And she's probably right. At my first tri a few years ago, I looked around and exclaimed to my husband: "I've found my people! They look like me!" He laughed, but conceded that I had a point - while there were a few sticks, the majority of the athletes looked like they would be useful if you needed help moving something. It was just nice to be around people weighed more than one of my legs.
My people, before the Louisville Landsharks Tri 2005.
1 comment:
A heart rate of 153? Good Lord! I'm in your boat: I can get that high tying my shoes up. During running I'm usually stuck somewhere between 180-200 (which might be bad)
Post a Comment