A story of going from being a non-runner to planning for a marathon in three years...

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Sunday's Stroll


Source



After my post about my lack of running motivation I actually went out for a solo 8 mile run along the Salt Creek bike path. I hadn't been out on the path in awhile. The leaves have definitely turned colors and most of them have fallen. The creepy house on the decent plot of land that backs up to the bike path is for sale. And my run after taking over a week off? Went really well.

I averaged a 9:39 pace for 8 miles with my last mile at 8:49. I recently read about the 3/1 run on Hal Higdon's Advanced 10K training plan and halfway through my run I decided to try it out. What's a 3/1 run? Well, according to Hal:

A "3/1" workout is one in which you run the first three-fourths of the distance at a comfortable pace, then accelerate to near race pace over the last one quarter of the workout. (You should finish refreshed, not fatigued.)


Which meant my splits looked like this:

Mile 1 - 9:46
Mile 2 - 10:08
Mile 3 - 9:45
Mile 4 - 9:40
Mile 5 - 10:14 (includes a stop for traffic)
Mile 6 - 9:24
Mile 7 - 9:20
Mile 8 - 8:49

That probably wasn't the gradual acceleration Hal had in mind, but I thought it went well. At least taking a week+ off didn't hurt my speed much. That's a good sign!

The bad sign was that on Monday my right knee was back to aching. It went away but it was pretty painful for awhile. I suppose that means I should think about actually using the PT referral my doctor gave me. I've been trying to up my weights at the gym and my glutes are definitely feeling it but I'm guessing it's not enough.

Anyway, after running on Sunday I haven't run since. On Monday night Jason got us last minute tickets to see Paul and Storm with Peter Sagal and on Tuesday evening we were invited to have drinks with one of Jason's coworkers at a Hawaiian themed bar. So, yeah, darn social life interfering with my running. Just kidding. I'm hoping to get in a run on Thursday at lunch but if I don't I guess I'll just have to see how I do at the Lincolnwood Turkey Trot 10K on Sunday.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Erin, I love the honesty in your writing and I think some down-time is good for the soul and boosts you to get ready to go again. Great job in the solo 8 mile run - those can be the toughest. Ciao! Geri

Johann said...

Great to hear you had a good run. Take care of that knee.

Mica said...

I did some 3:1-type runs (though the ratio might have been 2:1) for the half program. They're very satisfying, though I also have a hard time with the "gradual" acceleration.

kilax said...

Awesome splits! :)

I want to try some of those 3:1 runs. Maybe for my next training cycle?

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.