OK, I was SUPPOSED to do 6 miles at marathon pace today. That would be a 10:40 pace at best. However, I got out there, and I just felt good this morning. The weather was fine (27F, -3C) and clear, and the moon was a beautiful crescent. The sun rose enough to give the mountains a beautiful pink glow on the white snow as I was going around SugarHouse Park. Yes, the course was hilly - lots of nice elevation changes (from 4400 feet up to 4600 feet, down to 4400 feet, and back up to 4500 feet before coming back down to 4400 feet), but I was rarin' to go and didn't let a few hills stand in my way.
I did the whole thing in 1:00:18 for a 10:03 pace (about 6:14/km). My average heart rate was surprisingly low (149) for such a brisk pace, though it did get up to 161 at several points, according to my Garmin, and most every time I looked at it, my HR was in the 150s.
Oh, one thing, though - I did RUN for about 2 minutes of that hour - in three 40-second spurts. I was running at about an 8:00 pace I think. Still, it was only 2 minutes of the whole time, and I need to do some running with the team, so my PT told me I should add in a little running to my training.
This is really encouraging - despite my injury and the weak training in December and early January, I think I am pretty fit. I would LOVE to be able to do the Canyonlands Half Marathon in 2:11ish (a 10:00/mile pace), and I might be able to. I did feel today that I could have done a good bit more at that pace.
Now I just gotta keep eating right (so far, so good) and keep training hard, and hope that my injury continues healing well.
2 comments:
good for you! Keep up the good work! :-)
Tammy, is there any way I could convince you to forget the running and concentrate on racewalking? I think you have the talent to make the Olympic Trials in 2012 if you will set yourself that goal.
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