TGIF — Thank God it’s FALL! I wasn’t really into this week, mentally, but physically it was fine. I was just not feeling it this week, and I had a couple of weird schedule days that mucked things up.
Salty shoot at Hogan’s Fountain
Monday was fun, it was a beautiful day and I met a fellow Salty Running contributor.
PAUSE. So I haven’t had a chance to announce that on this site yet, but YAY, I got accepted to write for them! My first stories (not posted yet) will be about Genius Grant winner and marathoner and mom Dr. Rebecca Richards-Kortum, Running Life Hacks and Helping Newbie Runners. If you’re not a Salty reader, you should be.
Resume. So one of the other girls happens to live in Louisville, so we met up for a quick photo shoot for another story on the site, then ran a couple of miles together. It was a nice, solid run. My HR monitor was messed up (again) so don’t look at that data.
Tuesday truth.
Speed work on Tuesday was a session I did in late June and totally flopped. I was committed to doing it right this time. It’s a mix of 800s, steady-state, and 400s. Last time I ran the 800s too hard and tanked the tempo. And this time coach had added another mile of tempo! I ended up on the treadmill, unfortunately, because I had to go early and running hard intervals in the dark is not something I excel at. It’s hard to run fast in the early morning, anyway, but I was pretty pleased with the results. I averaged 3:14 for the 800s (85-90% with 200 jog), 6:45 for the tempo and 1:29 for the 400s (200 jog). My 800s were 8 seconds slower than late June … but my tempo miles were 32 seconds faster and my 400s 7 seconds faster. Lesson learned, kids — don’t blow out the pipes in first set of the workout.
Wednesday morning was nice and cool, 8 miles easy, super low HR, with friend RR. I taught a foam roller Pilates class that evening, with about 45 minutes of core work using the roller for an added challenge, then 15 minutes of guided self-massage. I rotate this class in every 6 weeks or so — the clients really enjoy it. And the core work is super-challenging … I was sore this week!
One run, three water bottles. Blender Bottle ProStak FTW.
I ended up back on the treadmill Thursday, partially because it kept raining but also to bribe myself because I didn’t feel like running. 10 miles with 7 “moderate,” around 7 minute pace. I was supposed to have some strides in there but those are basically impossible on the treadmill. After that I taught Pilates Strength.
I got a late start Friday morning but got in 6 really easy. HR was really really low which is good because it was really really slow. I picked up my new Garmin Forerunner 35 at lunch that day! Super exciting.
New watch was officially broken in Saturday. 15 mile “building blocks” run — warm up, 3×4 mile increasing pace each block, cool down. I had asked coach for some guidelines on what those paces should look like because I wasn’t sure how hard it should be. I said “8/7:45/7:30?” and he said 15 seconds faster … and then I went 7:40/7:20/6:55. WHEE! It was 55 degrees, overcast, and misting. Doesn’t get much better.
I had some issues with the FR35 though — HR data didn’t seem quite right and the map has some spots where it looks like it lost the connection. But I know all the markers on that loop so I think it was accurate during the run itself.
Early morning fall running outfit like whoa.
Sunday I got up early for 8 miles with RR and I wore BOTH watches. I also tightened the FR35 and made sure the optical HR sensor was behind my wrist bone. I turned on auto pause on my old FR25, but it didn’t work right and I ended up missing 1200 meters somewhere along the way on that one. BUT even with that user error, they had the exact same average pace and the HR average was only 2 beats per minute different. More testing to follow!
TGRUNFIT 
That’s a pretty good week in my book, nice one!
Thank you!