OBJECTIVE
dynamic stretching warm up
6 mi.@7:46-8:36 w/6x90 sec. intervals @ 6:11 "sprinkled in"


ACHIEVED
dynamic stretch
6 mi.@ 7:43 mixed in 6x90 sec. bursts
(6:05 6:07 5:54 6:07 6:06 5:58)

5:24 AM 34° 66% 2 mph

I would have never guessed how this run would turn out. I just wasn't feelin' it this morning when I woke up. As I drug myself around getting ready to go, excuses for not running or changing the scheduled workout kept popping into my head. I got myself together, stepped outside to stretch, and the cold morning air gave me a whole series of additional reasons to pack it in. I stretched then started. Nothing out of the ordinary. It was colder than usual. My legs felt okay. I decided my first burst of 90 seconds would come about 1.5 miles into the run. The target pace was 6:11. Off I went. I went hard but wasn't killing myself. Two thirds in, I looked at my watch and was way too fast so I eased it over the last 30 seconds. That was easy. Too easy it seemed. I figured it would catch up with me later. But it didn't I hammered all of my 90 second bursts and they all felt surprisingly comfortable. But more surprising was the continuation of something I picked up during last week's fartlek. I didn't let my in-between burst running get sloppily, slow. I held a pace and forced my body to recover while always running within the overall target pace for the run. I figured this would for sure catch up with me. It didn't either. It all went fine. Interesting .... Just goes to show you never know until you go.

A couple thoughts. I learned a couple years ago that efficient running for generally anyone can be calibrated to ~180 foot strikes per minute. Jonathan Bennett shared this insight with me from his reading. It was around the time he got his footpod. Since then, I've read about this concept. Faster runners just cover more distance with each stride. Therefore, they're ... faster. Anyway, the point is that over the past few weeks rather than watching my watch during fast running, I count my strides. For example, today I ran 90 second bursts. If I'm running efficiently, I should have about ~270 foot strikes during that time. To make it easier to count, I only count my right foot so ~135. I've found this interesting over the past month that I've been doing it. I generally have more the 180 foot strikes per minute while I'm running fast. I don't count foot strikes for easy running but I've got to believe I must be significantly fewer than 180/minute. I don't have a conclusion for any of this as it's still a work in progress. I'm sure there's something for me to glean from these facts but I'm not exactly sure what. I'll keep thinking about it while I keep counting strides.

Finally, I've modified my Saturday plans. Josh is in Paris but returns Saturday afternoon. He wants to get his scheduled 20-miler in Saturday afternoon. He put the word out to see if others in our group would join him. I like getting my run in early so I have the rest of the day for other things. But I thought about how I've done some long runs before and how it's always better to have someone with me for the long haul. If it were me needing to run in the afternoon, I'd be hugely grateful to be joined by someone. Anyway, all of this led me to jump in for Josh's Saturday afternoon run. I'll only be going 10 miles of it. I figured others would join too. But it ended up that everyone else has other scheduling issues which preclude their participation. So I'm looking forward to my Saturday afternoon run. Hopefully Josh is feeling okay after getting off the long flight from Paris!

PRE RUN
weight=166

POST RUN
water, multivitamin, hot chocolate (rarely want anything hot after running but sure hit the spot today!), frosted mini wheats w/1% milk