This was just a bad, bad week. It seems I have let the start of the marathon team training get me a little too excited and I have gotten away from sticking to my training plan. The biggest problem is running the easy runs easy. I have commented before how my easy run pace was too slow, but now when running with the team I am trying to stay near the front of the pack and thus running too fast.
Next week I will be more disciplined and will have a little help from my new tech. That is right I finally broke down and bought a GPS watch, the Garmin Forerunner 305. I bought the 305 over the 205 because I am interested in doing some heart rate training. With the 305 you can set alarms for dropping above or below a given pace or heart rate, so hopefully it will help me stay easy on easy runs.
What really sold me on the watch is the ability to program speed and tempo work. This is a very cool feature that lets you go from warm up to interval to jog to cool down, each with different alarm settings, with the touch of a button. Suffice to say I am very excited.
Like I said above I ran too hard on my easy runs this week. My tempo run on Thursday was awful because I was so worn out from the easy runs earlier in the week. The long run on Sunday was pretty good however. I kept my pace down a little bit and finished with some strides, which reminds me of something I have just started working on...the length of my stride.
Last week Ted mentioned that my stride seemed a little short, and I could increase my pace a bit by lengthening it. So I have started working on getting my knees higher after pushoff. It feels a little strange, and I think it might looking funny as well but I think it is working. I am gonna keep working on it and will update progress next week.
Last weeks training (I have stopped using my Nike+ so my pace and times are generic):
Tuesday - 5.62 Mile Easy Run - 43:37 min, 7:45 pace
Wednesday - 6 Mile Easy Run - 48:00 min, 8:00 pace
Thursday - 7 Mile Tempo Run - 53:30 min, 7:38 pace - 3 mile warm up, 3 mile tempo (6:30 pace), 1 mile cool down
Saturday - 4 Mile Easy Run - 32:00 min, 8:00 pace
Sunday - 10 Mile Long Run - 1:20:00 min, 8:00 pace
